RJ staff predicts the Golden Knights’ 2018-19 season
Never forget, these predictions were way off in previewing the Knights’ inaugural season. We’re trying again anyway. Here are the RJ sports staff predictions for the Golden Knights’ 2018-19 season:
Ed Graney
Columnist
Record: 44-27-11 (99 points)
Pacific division finish: Third
Where do you go from being the Golden Misfits with massive chips on your collective shoulders to among the league’s hunted favorites? Probably backward. Vegas still owns a playoff roster, but not the elements of either surprise or being undervalued by anyone across the NHL. Unless you ask Drew Doughty, who is certain the Knights couldn’t beat UNLV.
Ron Kantowski
Columnist
Record: 41-31-10 (92 points)
Pacific Division finish: Third
Will the local heroes go from being the best NHL expansion team ever to being the best second-year team ever? You bet. The only first-year squad to have a winning record in their sophomore season since the Original Six era were the 1968-69 St. Louis Blues at 37-25-14 — and that was when half the league was second-year teams. One of the last two second-year teams before the Golden Knights were the 2001-02 Columbus Blue Jackets who finished with 53 points. One of their assistant coaches: Gerard Gallant.
Ben Gotz
Beat reporter
Record: 47-27-8 (102 points)
Pacific Division finish: Second
The Golden Knights are going to miss Nate Schmidt for 20 games and it’ll be hard to recreate the magic of last season, which featured almost zero speed bumps. However the improvements they made to their second line should keep them in the hunt for the division title all season long.
David Schoen
Beat reporter
Record: 45-25-12 (102 points)
Pacific Division finish: Second
Remember what it felt like the morning after your 21st birthday party? Head pounding, mouth dry, broken tortilla chips stuck in your hair. The Golden Knights threw a raging kegger in their inaugural season before losing in the Stanley Cup Final. It takes a while to recover from that. But the Knights will pop a couple of ibuprofen, chug some water and should feel better as the season goes along.
Adam Hill
Beat reporter
Record: 45-30-7 (97 points)
Pacific Division finish: Third
It’s entirely possible the Golden Knights of 2018-19 can be a better overall team and still fall short of the insanely lofty standard set by last year’s historic squad. Everything went right last season. Even an almost comical run of goalie injuries somehow turned out just fine. The Knights will be hit with a toxic combination of Stanley Cup Final hangover and good-old fashioned complacency that will present the franchise with adversity it must figure out a way to overcome. Still, it’s difficult to envision such a talented group missing out on the postseason.
Elaine Wilson
Sports web producer
Record: 43-26-13 (99 points)
Pacific Division finish: Third
The San Jose Sharks and Los Angeles Kings have a good chance for improvement this year after the offseason — *cough Erik Karlsson cough* — and the Golden Knights cannot maintain the same level of play from their historic inaugural season. The team as a whole has improved and will make the playoffs, but will fall short of another Western Conference title.
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