Nine Golden Knights had in-season surgeries, Cassidy says

Seeing their bid for consecutive Stanley Cups finish within the first spherical wasn’t the one ache the Vegas Golden Knights felt this postseason.

Nine Vegas gamers had surgical procedures this season, coach Bruce Cassidy shared Sunday after his crew’s 2-1 loss to the Dallas Stars in Game 7 of the Western Conference quarterfinals.

“Nine guys. Your roster is only 23, so nine players,” Cassidy mentioned. “Two of them internal surgeries. You never know how those are going to play out. Some other ones were a little more defined, but I give our guys a lot of credit.”

Even although the Golden Knights had 20 gamers coming back from their 2022-23 title crew, they nonetheless confronted questions heading into the playoffs. Most of these queries had been about what a completely wholesome Golden Knights would seem like as soon as the postseason began. That additionally included questions on how commerce deadline acquisitions — comparable to forwards Tomas Hertl and Anthony Mantha, and defenseman Noah Hanifin — would slot in to a longtime crew.

The Golden Knights opened the sequence by successful each video games on the American Airlines Center in Dallas to take a 2-0 sequence lead earlier than the Stars received three straight video games. Vegas rallied with a 2-0 win in Game 6 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas to pressure a Game 7.

“Up 2-0, it would’ve been nice to find a way to win two of those three games,” Golden Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo mentioned. “They made some adjustments that I don’t think we adjusted well enough right way. That’s on us as players to find a way when we’re up 2-0 to get the job done.”

NHL Injury Viz, a website that tracks video games misplaced to accidents, has knowledge revealing how the Golden Knights had been among the many groups to lose essentially the most participant video games to damage through the 2023-24 season.

In complete, the Golden Knights had 10 gamers who missed greater than 10 video games due to numerous accidents. Some gamers, comparable to defenseman Shea Theodore (35 video games) and left winger Mark Stone (26), had prolonged absences. Others, comparable to goaltender Adin Hill, additionally missed greater than 10 video games however had been out with separate accidents. Hill missed seven video games this season with a lower-body damage and one other 15 video games with an undisclosed damage, based on NHL Injury Viz’s knowledge.

Cassidy added how these accidents additionally got here at a time wherein the Golden Knights had been looking for cohesion with their ahead strains and protection pairings.

Hertl, who was traded on March 8, was an instance of the Golden Knights’ challenges. He was nonetheless a member of the San Jose Sharks when his final common season recreation got here Jan. 27 earlier than he performed within the NHL All-Star Game on Feb. 3. Nine days later, the Sharks introduced Hertl would endure a knee process that may not see him return till April 8. He performed simply six video games together with his new membership earlier than the playoffs.

In complete, Hertl missed what amounted to twenty-eight regular-season video games between the Golden Knights and the Sharks.

“Some of those surgeries are obviously correcting a problem, but it takes as a while to get back up to speed,” Cassidy mentioned. “That can be the unlucky half. They got here and did get wholesome sufficient for the playoffs. That was the constructive, and now you are attempting to get a crew in control in a rush.

“I didn’t do a good enough job of that but that’s a lot of surgeries in one year for guys to overcome, and it defines your game.”

Stone, who underwent a number of again surgical procedures final season, was recovering from a lacerated spleen this season earlier than returning forward of Game 1. The Golden Knights captain mentioned he was pleased with how the crew carried out within the face of what was a difficult set of circumstances.

“We had a hard time staying healthy,” Stone mentioned. “Still found a way to get into the playoffs, and we did give ourselves a chance to win the series with a one-goal loss in Game 7 against the top team in the conference. It’s disappointing. That’s really the only way to say it. It’s disappointing.”