NHL Pandemic Season: Golden Knights Hit Ice Monday To Start Training Camp At Summerlin HQ

January 3, 2021 Alan Snel Kelly McCrimmon

By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com

The NHL’s new season for the Vegas Golden Knights starts Monday when VGK players and prospects go through the preseason practice drills at City National Arena tomorrow. There are no exhibition games.

VGK General Manager Kelly McCrimmon met the media at 4:30 PM Sunday with a Zoom session. LVSportsBiz.com tried to ask a question but we were not called. It won’t stop us from reporting VGK news, though. Here’s your McCrimmon session:

The training camp will be a lot like the practice sessions in July when the Knights prepped for the postseason games in the Edmonton COVID-19 pandemic bubble.

But now there’s one big difference — the Golden Knights are not heading to any controlled bubble setting. Instead, 11 protocols will be in place designed to limit the chances of Golden Knights players getting infected with the novel coronavirus, which has killed 350,000 Americans.

Mark Stone, perhaps a future VGK captain one day?

On Nov. 23, the Knights said four players tested positive for COVID-19. On Sunday, McCrimmon said everything was fine on the COVID-19 front, and noted that players were not infected with the coronavirus while playing at the Edmonton bubble. The Knights lost to Dallas in the Western Conference Finals.

The Knights’ fourth season starts with no fans at T-Mobile Arena Jan, 14, when VGK hosts the Anaheim Ducks to start the 56-game pandemic season. The VGK will only play teams in their eight-team west division, meaning the Knights will play the other seven teams eight times each. There will be two-game series, kind of like in baseball.