COVID impacts Golden Knights’ season again

COVID-19 is affecting the Golden Knights’ season again.

The team’s media availability was canceled because of COVID-19 protocols after its 5-4 win over the Anaheim Ducks on Tuesday night at T-Mobile Arena. The Ducks made right wing Troy Terry available before calling off the rest of their news conference.

The Knights canceled Wednesday’s practice and media availability. They are scheduled to play the Ducks at home again Thursday, at San Jose on Saturday and against Colorado at T-Mobile on Sunday and Feb. 16.

The Knights have had three games postponed and didn’t practice from Jan. 27 to Feb. 2 because of the virus. The extent to which they might be affected this time was not immediately clear.

Forward Tomas Nosek and defenseman Shea Theodore did not play in the third period Tuesday, though Theodore was shaken up in the first period after a collision with Anaheim left wing Nicolas Deslauriers. Theodore didn’t play the final 5:26 of the first but had 8:09 of ice time in the second.

The Knights and Ducks entered the game with zero players on the NHL’s COVID-19-related absences list. Anaheim has not had anyone listed since Jan. 16.

Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo was removed from the list Tuesday and participated in the optional morning skate. He first appeared Jan. 28, hours after the Knights’ game against the St. Louis Blues that night was postponed.

The Knights played the Blues on Jan. 26 without their NHL coaching staff after a member tested positive for COVID-19. The coaches were cleared to return to practice by Feb. 6.

The league has had numerous issues in recent weeks as it attempts to play the season in the middle of the pandemic. Dallas and Carolina have had games postponed, and Buffalo, Colorado, Minnesota and New Jersey currently aren’t playing.

The Wild have 12 players on the NHL’s COVID-19-related absences list and the Devils 19.

The league on Feb. 4 added measures designed to curb the spread of the virus in the wake of its rash of postponements. The NHL asked players and coaches to limit the amount of time they spend at the rink, required teams to remove the glass behind the benches to increase air flow and ordered increased physical distancing in locker rooms. The league also started looking into requiring portable air cleaners to be placed behind benches.

Here are three takeaways from the win:

1. Stone hits 400

Knights captain Mark Stone recorded the 400th point of his career with an assist on center Chandler Stephenson’s first-period goal.

Stone is the sixth member of the 2010 draft class to reach that mark, behind Dallas’ Tyler Seguin, Buffalo’s Taylor Hall and Jeff Skinner, Nashville’s Ryan Johansen and St. Louis’ Vladimir Tarasenko.

All but Stone were drafted in the first round. He went in the sixth round, 178th overall.

2. Stephenson strikes twice

Stephenson beat Anaheim goaltender Ryan Miller five-hole in the first period to give him three goals in his past two games. It’s the first time in the 26-year-old’s career that he has scored goals in back-to-back games.

Stephenson has seven points in 10 games this season and 29 in 51 games with the Knights. He had 33 points in his first 168 games with the Washington Capitals.

3. Reaves dusts off the mitts

Right wing Ryan Reaves fought for the first time since Feb. 15 in the first period against Deslauriers in retaliation for the hit on Theodore.