Comparing The Golden Knight’s Two Longest Winning Streaks In Franchise History

It ended Saturday night, that is, the Vegas Golden Knight’s nine-game winning streak, the second-longest streak in franchise history. The Golden Knights netted 18 points in the run and, for the first time in franchise history, had a perfect five-game road trip. They are currently tied for first in the NHL standings with the Boston Bruins.

But even this impressive streak was not able to beat the longest one in team history. With the team being such a young franchise, we don’t have to look back far to find the record, a ten-gamer in the 2020-21 season.

The 2021 streak has the most recent one beat in terms of overall number of games. But I’m here to state that the most recent streak the Golden Knights came off is the far more impressive one.

The Basics

The Golden Knight’s most recent nine-game winning streak started on Monday, Oct. 24, and ended on Saturday, Nov. 12, for a total of 20 days. They beat the Maple Leafs, Sharks, Ducks, Jets, Capitals, Senators, Canadiens, Maple Leafs, and Sabres.

Three games were played at home and six were played on the road. Three games went past regulation with all then ending in overtime. Jack Eichel scored the overtime-winner against the Jets, Shea Theodore against the Capitals, and Reilly Smith against the Maple Leafs.

The Golden Knight’s record ten-game winning streak started on Monday, April 5, 2021, and ended on Wednesday, April 28, 2021, for a total of 23 days. They beat Coyotes twice, Kings twice, Ducks twice, Sharks twice, the Ducks once more, and then the Avalanche.

Five games were played at home and five more were played on the road. One game against the Sharks went past regulation and ended in a shootout.

The NHL record for most consecutive wins in the regular season was set by the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1992-93 and spanned 17 games.

2021 Storyline

Let’s address the elephant in the room, and that is that the ten-game streak happened during the COVID-affected 2020-21 NHL season. Travel and road trips were still present, but packed arenas were not. Eight out of the ten games on the streak had fans in attendance, but no more than 4,000 people.

To negate the spread of COVID, the NHL sectioned off teams into four divisions. To negate the spread of COVID-19, teams would only play within their division. The Golden Knights were placed in the West Division alongside the Avalanche, Wild, Blues, Coyotes, Ducks, and Kings.

This meant several mini-series against teams in the same city to cut down on travel. The West Division was arguably the weakest division in the NHL, with the Ducks, Kings, Sharks, and Coyotes all struggling.

Nine of the Golden Knight’s wins on this streak were against these “weaker” opponents. Not only this, but they would play these teams in small two-game series, which added to the win total quickly.

This is still an impressive feat, given the mental and physical effects that COVID had on us all. But the Golden Knights, who went on to play in the Conference Finals that year, were clearly the better team and thus simply beat the inferior West competition.

“That was the year where we had no fans, so it’s obviously very different. I think especially being a good team on the road, going into some tough buildings with rowdy crowds (is different). I think Buffalo (this season) was a tough one for us. But you know, I thought we rallied around each other and did well on that trip and kind of allowed us to be in a position where we are now,” said defenseman Shea Theodore.

2021 Top Performers

Captain Mark Stone scored seven goals and eight assists for 15 points during this winning streak. Max Pacioretty had 10 assists and six goals during the span, and Jonathan Marchessault had 10 points as well.

Marc-Andre Fleury and Robin Lehner split the goaltending duties with five wins each.

2022 Storyline

After missing the playoffs in 2021-22, the Golden Knights were out to prove themselves in 2022-23. They have been off to a monumental start with several indiviual players looking for bounce back seasons.

Jack Eichel, Mark Stone, Alec Martinez, and Reilly Smith all looked to come back from injury-ridden seasons. Eichel, Stone, William Karlsson, and Phil Kessel looked to prove that they were still solid NHL players. And Logan Thompson and Adin Hill looked to prove themselves as a solid goalie tandem.

The VGK kicked off their winning streak with two milestone games for Kessel, who tied and then broke the NHL’s Ironman record. After another win against the Ducks, the team won back-to-back games in overtime with Eichel setting up both plays.

They then cruised through a five-game road trip that also featured another overtime game and ended with Eichel’s second return to Buffalo, where he scored a hat trick in a single period.

“I guess once you start winning those games, you feel good about your game. Everybody’s happy, everybody’s in a good mood, and everybody’s doing their best. So we don’t have to take our feet off the gas. So we got to do and it has been going well for us right now,” said VGK forward Nicolas Roy.

2022 Top Performers

Jumpin’ Jack Eichel had six goals and six assists in this nine-game span. Mark Stone had seven and Chandler Stephenson ten. Logan Thompson got the win in six games and Adin Hill did so thrice.

Consensus

I don’t think there is much of an argument here to say that the Golden Knight’s most recent one was the more impressive one. They accomplished this against tougher and more diverse opponents. Their perfect five-game road trip forced them out of the southwestern United States and into some tough builing to play in. This season’s team is getting contributions from everyone up and down the lineup.

The focus for the VGK now turns towards building up another streak.

“We could lose a game and follow our system to a tee. You never know what you can run into. If you get into penalty troubles, run into a hot goaltender, or we keep not burying on our chances. So for us, if we were to lose a game, I think we got away from our game or structure. But even that said, if we do lose a game and we follow our structure, you just got to look at it the next day,” said forward Keegan Kolesar.

They are back in action Tuesday night against the San Jose Sharks at 7 p.m. at T-Mobile Arena.