However, here they are on the stretch drive in April, and they are both frantically trying to make it to the playoffs. Last fall, only the Kanuks were expected to be in this difficult position. But until the Golden Knights, suffering from injuries all season, won their last five games, the long-standing Stanley Cup contenders’s position in the standings was almost as dangerous as that of the Canoes. Vancouver must win Wednesday in Las Vegas to keep their play-off hunt ready, while the Knights try to maintain the momentum they hope will allow them to beat the Dallas Stars and Nashville Predators or any combination of teams that include Edmonton Oilers, St. Louis Blues and Los Angeles Kings, at the finish line of the regular season. The fundamental difference between the Canucks and the Golden Knights – apart from an eight-point lead that looks like an abyss after Sunday’s 3-2 win over Vegas in Vancouver – is that one team wants to win, the other is waiting for it. “At this point, we are living in the moment,” Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon told Sportsnet. “Our challenge is to be above the limit when it comes to the playoffs. You just want your staff to be as healthy as possible so that your coach has the best chance of training and the team has the best chance of winning. “We are doing what we can.” It was all season. This was easily the most demanding campaign for a Knights team that started in 2017-18 as a wonder in the Nevada desert, winning 51 games and making the Stanley Cup final an expansion franchise. Compared to an annual 82-game schedule over the past four years, Vegas has averaged 106 points per season. This represents a winning clip that the Kanuks have only achieved twice in 52 years. The Golden Knights have lost 422 player-games due to injury this season. Their top three strikers, Jack Eichel, Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty, have lost 124 games to each other. Stone and Pacioretty remain out, although McCrimmon hopes they both return soon. No. 3 defender Alec Martinez lost 56 games and has just returned from a hamstring injury that kept him out for four months. Home goalkeeper Robin Lehner’s victory on Sunday was his first game since an injury on March 8 and just his fourth start in almost two months. “When it starts for the first time, you try to survive and stay in the pile (in the playoffs), something we did,” McCrimon said of the wave of injuries that began in October when Stone and Pacioretti first fell in Game. 2. “Unfortunately, we are still in the pile. I never expected injuries to last so long and be complex, one after another. On Sunday we had eight children outside. In Seattle (Friday), we had nine children outside. Take so many children out of your lineup and you will lose your depth “. However, Vegas is 39-28-4 and has an upward trend. The Kanuks are 32-28-10 and have won just three times in their last 13 games, losing three more in overtime. The Knights have a lot of players who have done nothing but win, and this culture counts for something now. It is the culture that the Kanuks are still trying to build. “There are a lot of kids right now learning what it takes to win,” Vancouver veteran defender Luke Sen, who won the Stanley Cup last two seasons with Tampa Bay Lightning, said on Tuesday. “Being part of a winning team and knowing what the playoffs are like, how difficult it is, to change and leave, nothing is easy. Sometimes you win this little extra battle, bring the elf deep or take the elf out of your belt. They are all small projects that add up. Realistically, the last … two months, for us it is like a hockey playoff. I think kids are still trying to understand what it is like to play playoff hockey on a regular basis and how much each little game means. “You have to be focused at all times and being mentally ready is a huge part of it. When you have children who have not had this experience, you do not just tap your fingers and it happens. You have to go through the experience and I hope we continue to understand it sooner rather than later. “ Golden Knights coach Pete DeBoer said after Sunday’s victory that the culture of the winners of his organization helps in difficult times. “You know, there is no panic,” he said. “We know the situation we are in, we know we are in control of our destiny. “We just have to win games and the kids do that.” The Knights’ resilience was impressive – even though there are many people outside of Las Vegas cheering against them. It was impossible not to like the Cinderellas as an extension, especially as the Golden Knights galvanized and helped heal their city after the horrific mass shooting at a Las Vegas concert five days before the group’s opening fall. But all the victories they have made, and the money-making moves McCrimmon made by adding Eichel and top defender Alex Pietrangelo, among others, while exchanging the popular original Knights Marc-Andre Fleury, Nate Schmidt and Alex Tuch made Vegas a kind of New York Yankees West in hockey. “We are not ashamed to try to win,” McCrimmon said. “I have said many times, it is easy to do nothing, right? It is easy to do nothing and just hope that things are going well. Good is the enemy of the great. I will not say that it is easy to have a good team. But when you have a good team, it’s easy to be happy with it. “The thing for me is that you have to manage where you are. And if we did not feel or prove that we were close, there is probably no reason to go out and get Jack Eichel. But I do not want to lead a team like that. “We are trying to win.” CapFriendly.com shows the Golden Knights with projected success this season at $ 92.29 million, almost $ 11 million above the salary cap. Even with the NHL’s embarrassing rejection of Evgenii Dadanov’s exchange / exchange salary last month in Anaheim, Vegas remained compatible with the ceiling because many of its biggest and highest paid players spent time in the long term injured. McCrimmon and his staff will have to maneuver if Stone, whose $ 9.5 million charge is on LTIR, returns before the end of regular season. Pacioretty, whose strike is worth $ 7 million, remains in regular injury reserve and can play at any time. If the Knights take these players back and reach the playoffs, no one will enjoy facing them in the first round, even if Vegas is seventh or eighth. “When we ‘finished the offseason, we really felt that our roster lineup was very close to exactly what we wanted,’” McCrimmon said. “We liked our front band, our D is solid rock. (Reserve goalkeeper Laurent) Brossoit, who came in under Lehner, we thought was a really important addition for us. As for the makeup of our roster, we were really satisfied. And then we added Eichel, which definitely made us a better team again. If we can get in, I think we know what to expect in the playoffs. “We will be tough.” Schenn said: “All they tried to do was win. They literally do what it takes and bring in whoever it takes to try to win. “There is no doubt that they are still an elite team.” The Cannons traveled to Las Vegas on Tuesday without winger Brock Bozer, who suffered collateral damage on Sunday when teammate Elias Peterson hit Ben Hutton along the boards. Vancouver may also be without starring Quinn Hughes, who missed training on Tuesday due to illness that did not have COVID-19. “At this stage, the only thing that matters is wins and losses,” Vancouver coach Bruce Boudreau said when asked about the culture difference between the teams. “You create culture by winning and, I mean, I think we have gained a lot more than we have lost since I’ve been here; and we fight hard most nights. We have the opportunity to reject them, then excellent. “I know they want to sit there and defeat us and make us disappear as soon as possible.”
