Golden Knights enter 2nd season with unfinished business

Two banners will be raised to the rafters Thursday at T-Mobile Arena to honor the Golden Knights’ Pacific Division and Western Conference titles.

It’s that third banner, the one that went up in Washington on Wednesday, that’s missing.

“I think that’s just added motivation for the guys who were here last year and for us new guys to see what they did last year and not be satisfied,” center Paul Stastny said. “Just being around this locker room, you know everyone had a good ride last year, but they didn’t finish it off and that’s all they wanted to do.”

After their historic inaugural season ended in disappointment against the Capitals in the Stanley Cup Final, expectations are higher for the new-and-improved Knights.

Their second season starts at 7 p.m. Thursday when the Philadelphia Flyers visit T-Mobile Arena.

“Teams are going to respect us,” coach Gerard Gallant said. “Obviously, we’ve got a good team on paper, and we’ve got to make sure we work hard and make sure it’s a good team on the ice again.”

This home opener will be in stark contrast to last season’s somber event, which came nine days after the Oct. 1 mass shooting on the Strip that killed 58 people.

The Knights will walk a gold carpet through Toshiba Plaza into the arena starting at 3:30 p.m. In addition to the banners, the full team will be introduced.

And who knows what else the pregame ceremony will entail. Maybe the Flyers’ polarizing new mascot, Gritty, will duel the Knight at center ice?

“It’s going to be the same craziness,” center Pierre-Edouard Bellemare said. “I don’t expect anything less.”

The Knights are seeking to become the first team since Pittsburgh in 2009 to win the Stanley Cup after losing in the final the previous season.

But they are no longer underdogs and won’t be overlooked after setting an NHL record for an expansion team with 109 points.

“I don’t listen to too much things about us, what people think about us,” said goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, who was a member of that Penguins team in 2009 that avenged its loss to Detroit in the final.

“It’s all about our group, our mentality, just being ready every night. Playing the way we can, with speed. Aggressive. And good things will happen.”

The Knights are without injured forwards Cody Eakin (lower body) and Alex Tuch (lower body) and enter the season with 12 healthy forwards.

Erik Haula will play right wing on the second line with Stastny and left wing Max Pacioretty. Winger Tomas Nosek joins center Oscar Lindberg and winger Ryan Carpenter on the third line.

“We’re missing three good hockey players, but again, we went through that last year,” Gallant said, referring to suspended defenseman Nate Schmidt along with Eakin and Tuch. “I like our lineup. I look on the board right now, we’ve got four pretty good lines, six pretty good (defensemen) going out there (Thursday) night. It’s the way it is in the NHL. Every team misses players. We fill in and we play the best we can without them.”

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Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.