FSM Essential Preview: Golden Knights vs Coyotes - Game 5

The Vegas Golden Knights will head into Friday’s game against the Arizona Coyotes riding the momentum of their best start in franchise history.  They also are currently leading the league in wins and points percentage.

The Knights did exactly what they needed to do to cement their place as a top tier team early on this season Wednesday night. In their most complete game of the season so far, VGK took the lead shortly after the five-minute mark and seemed to never look back. After having to play from behind the previous two games, they showed poise and the ability to control a game from start to finish. They will look to build upon this performance Friday night in their first game away from T-Mobile Arena this season.

The Golden Knights special teams will be something to watch this upcoming game as they continue to establish their powerplay and keep their penalty kill percentage at or above the 91% mark. 

After starting the season 0-12 with the man advantage, VGK was finally able to get the monkey off their back and score their first power-play goal of the season thanks to Alex Tuch. This will hopefully be the breakthrough they need to gain some extra confidence and take advantage of their opponents’ mistakes on a more consistent basis. On the other hand, their penalty kill has been stingy as they are currently tied for third place in the league when playing shorthanded.

As I mentioned in my preview for game 4, a big part of the Knights establishing their identity is being able to roll 4 lines with confidence and receive some goals from those not in their top-six forward group.

They accomplished this in their second game against the Arizona Coyotes thanks to 3 goals from their defenseman and another goal from Alex Tuch on the third line. This is an especially important part of their game and something that all fans should keep an eye on as the season matures. Being able to deploy all four lines with depth scoring takes a lot of pressure off the first two lines and will allow coach Pete DeBoer to spread out minutes played more evenly throughout the lineup.

In a condensed season, this will pay dividends as it keeps players fresh and healthy and builds confidence in the bottom six. This decreases the wear and tear due to less rest in between games and increases the chances of VGK heading into the home stretch with a healthy roster.

Gila River Arena will be allowing 3,450 fans into their building, but I have a sneaking suspicion there will be a good number of Knights fans there.

Many of whom have been eagerly waiting to cheer their team on in person for the first time since March 2020. This game should be a nice change of pace for the Knights, as they have not had the experience of playing in front of any fans in almost a year.

While it will not be the same experience as a normal season, it will be nice to see the seats somewhat filled with something other than cardboard cutouts like we have seen other teams do this season. I would not be surprised to hear some “Go Knights Go” chants break out as Knights fans have always shown up to cheer their team on in the Coyotes home arena.

VGK and the Arizona Coyotes will continue their season series on Friday night at Gila River Arena. The puck drop is set for 6 p.m. on AT&T SportsNet and FOX Sports Las Vegas 98.9/1340.

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-D.J. Wood– Franchise Sports Media

Follow D.J. on Twitter @DJwoody97

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