What Stanley Cup hangover? Golden Knights off to best start for a defending champ in 25 years

LAS VEGAS — Inside many casinos, nestled between the swanky bars and rows of flashing slot machines, stand small establishments designed to quickly cure a hangover — little glass beakers filled with bubbling blue liquid, plastic tubes pumping oxygen for customers, and drip IVs hydrating partygoers to accelerate their recuperation and prepare them for another round.

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In a city that has mastered both creating and avoiding hangovers, the Vegas Golden Knights are off to a great start in trying to avoid one of the most difficult: the Stanley Cup hangover.

Tuesday night at T-Mobile Arena, the Golden Knights won their fourth straight game to begin the season, 3-2 in a shootout over the Dallas Stars. They’re the first defending Cup champion to accomplish that feat in 25 years.

Vegas has thrived, with the widest goal differential in the league to this point, despite playing without its top defensive pair in Alex Pietrangelo and Alec Martinez, who are both out with upper-body injuries. It’s only four games, but it bodes well for the Golden Knights moving forward. The last defending champ to start the following season with four straight wins was the 1997-98 Detroit Red Wings, who went on to win back-to-back championships.

Vegas next heads to Winnipeg on Thursday, looking for a fifth straight win to start the year. The last defending champ to do that was Wayne Gretzky’s Edmonton Oilers in 1986.

Most champs have struggled out of the gates after a summer of celebration. But Vegas’ strong start this season isn’t due to hydration therapy — it’s the fact the Golden Knights have returned nearly their entire Cup-winning roster.

“I think it speaks volumes about the group of guys we have here,” goaltender Adin Hill said following Tuesday’s win. “We didn’t take the start of the season lightly after coming off the win. We came to camp and got back to business. Everyone showed up in good shape and it’s showing.”

Historically, wins have been hard to come by for defending champs early in the season. Last year, the Colorado Avalanche stumbled with five losses in the first nine games. Of the last 19 Cup winners, 12 started the following season with an opening-night loss.

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Vegas opened the year with three dominant wins over Seattle, San Jose and Anaheim by a combined score of 12-3. It never trailed at any point, and showed many of the qualities that led to its championship in June: The tight defensive structure that leaves teams incapable of getting the puck to the dangerous areas of the ice, the speed and skill in transition to punish mistakes, and the solid goaltending to backstop it all.

The first three wins weren’t over stiff competition. Seattle has opened the season 0-3-1, and both Anaheim and San Jose project to finish near the bottom of the standings. Still, Vegas controlled those games and cruised to victories.

Tuesday night’s win over Dallas felt different. It was a Western Conference finals rematch in which both sides threw their bodies around; a physical affair that coach Bruce Cassidy compared to the intensity of the playoffs.

“At this time of year, usually guys aren’t at that level yet, but there’s just some animosity left over from last May, and it looks like we’re going to build some more,” Cassidy said. “It was a more intense game in terms of physicality.”

Craig Smith opened the scoring for Dallas in the second period to hand Vegas its first deficit of the season. Joe Pavelski gave the Stars another lead early in the third period, but Vegas battled back to tie it late with a deflection by William Karlsson. Cassidy was impressed with the patience shown by his team, sticking to its scheme deep into the third period. Dallas was stout, limiting Vegas’ chances, but the Golden Knights didn’t force the action and chipped away until finally breaking through.

In the end, Conn Smythe Trophy winner Jonathan Marchessault scored the game winner in the shootout to extend Vegas’ unbeaten streak to four.

In the 25 years since, only two defending champs have won even three games to begin the season: the 1999-2000 Dallas Stars, who went on to lose in the Cup Final that year, and the 2020-21 Tampa Bay Lightning, who also won back-to-back championships.

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It’s worth noting some of the older teams didn’t have the ability to win in a shootout as Vegas did on Tuesday, but even when accounting for ties, this is still the best start in a quarter decade. There’s way too much hockey left to begin pondering the possibilities of a second Cup, but the Golden Knights’ red-hot start certainly shows they’re a contender once again. That’s no surprise considering they brought back nearly the entire roster, with the exception of winger Reilly Smith who was dealt to Pittsburgh to clear the necessary salary-cap space to re-sign Hill and Ivan Barbashev.

The Golden Knights became the first team in a decade to ice an opening-night roster made up entirely of players whose names are engraved on the Stanley Cup from the previous season. For all the salary-cap gymnastics GM Kelly McCrimmon has pulled off over the last few seasons, the team was positioned to bring back its core — something that has rarely been possible during the cap era.

With that comes the obvious talent. Jack Eichel is flying around the ice after his first taste of playoff hockey, dictating play in all three zones better than he has at any point in his career. Star forwards Marchessault, Karlsson, Mark Stone and Chandler Stephenson are all off to excellent starts.

The stellar defensive core that anchored the title run has been banged up — three regulars have been missing time with injury — but Shea Theodore and Nicolas Hague have led the way and the overall structure has remained strong. In net, Hill’s .951 save percentage ranks first among goalies with three starts.

When asked what stands out about the hot start, Hill replied without hesitation.

“The way we’re connected as a team,” he said. “I think we have four fights in four games. It’s not like we’re looking for fights or anything, we’re just that tight of a group. You see a guy get hit or something and we’re all ready to step up.”

The short offseason filled with Cup celebrations has historically been blamed for slow starts, but many Vegas players feel the abbreviated summer may be working to their benefit.

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“You don’t have much time off, you just kind of roll into camp, knock a little bit of the rust off, and it doesn’t really feel like you left,” said Stephenson, who leads the team with five points.

“You obviously have less time off from gameplay when you play until the middle of June,” Eichel added. “I thought everyone did a good job of coming back here in good shape. We’re just trying to pick up where we left off.”

(Top photo: Stephen R. Sylvanie / USA Today)

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