Golden Knights look to ride momentum in 6-game road trip

NEW YORK — Now that the Golden Knights have the hockey world’s attention with their 8-1 start, it becomes a question of sustainability.

Can they keep it going now that they’ve departed the friendly confines of T-Mobile Arena? Can they build on what they’ve already accomplished in their three weeks of existence?

The Knights begin a six-game road trip Monday in Brooklyn against the New York Islanders with a gaudy 8-1 record, including a 6-1 homestand. Only a 6-3 loss to Detroit on Oct. 13, due to a third-period meltdown which saw the Red Wings score four goals, has prevented the Knights from perfection.

The Knights are off to the best start by a first-year team in the 100-year history of the NHL. By comparison, the expansion Washington Capitals won eight games total in their inaugural season in 1974-75. It took the 1967 Los Angeles Kings and Philadelphia Flyers 17 games to reach eight wins in their first seasons.

There’s talk of playoffs from fans, and though October isn’t even over, the team’s start has struck an optimistic chord throughout the locker room.

“Obviously, there’s a long way to go, but everyone’s excited about how things are going,” forward Oscar Lindberg said.

Center Pierre-Edouard Bellemare said: “Everyone’s excited about the start. It’s a boring answer, but you have to keep it simple and focus on the next game coming up.”

Forward Reilly Smith said doing the little things right can give a road team a fighting chance.

“These trips are great, especially when you have some momentum,” Smith said. “We’re winning the battles for the loose pucks, we’re getting everyone coming back to help the D, and our special teams are playing well.”

Smith said the Knights’ balance isn’t easy for opposing teams to counter.

“I think from the start we’ve had so many contributors scoring a goal or making a big play,” he said. “We’re rolling our lines. We’re sustaining good pressure, and guys are scoring timely goals. That’s obviously been a key part to our success.”

Coach Gerard Gallant isn’t a big mix-and-match guy. He’s not worried about having the last change given his team is the visitors. So when Islanders captain John Tavares is on the ice Monday, don’t look for Gallant to try and juggle things in order to match up with Tavares, who has nine goals and 13 points and is coming off a hat trick in the Isles’ 6-2 win over Nashville on Saturday.

“We throw our lines over the boards and we expect them to compete,” Gallant said. “You know who you’re on the ice against and you go out and play them.”

Defenseman Luca Sbisa said winning, like losing can be contagious.

“It was just a snowball effect, I think,” Sbisa said. “We kind of took it one day at a time. We started winning, started playing well. When things started clicking we just went with it.”

“There’s no real secret behind it. A lot of times you go on a three- or four-game winning streak, and start looking at what you’re doing and kind of take a step back.”

Sbisa said the Knights have momentum and it’s up to them to keep it going.

“The points right now are just as important as they are in February or March, so we’ll take them when we can,” he said. “We just have to keep on going, because it’s not going to be like this forever.”

Contact Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow @stevecarprj on Twitter.