Before the puck drops between the Vegas Golden Knights and the St. Louis Blues, the Knights announced a staff change for the game. Due to some COVID concerns, the team’s typical coaching staff will not be behind the bench tonight. Instead, they will opt to use their general manager, Kelly McCrimmon, as the head coach and their AHL coaching staff for the game tonight.
Kelly McCrimmon to Coach Knights against St. Louis
Update from the Golden Knights 👇#VegasBorn pic.twitter.com/CCiotChPqD
— 🏆 – Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) January 26, 2021
With so much uncertainty around the virus, this move seems to be an extremely temporary one. The typical coaching staff could return as early as the next game, but nothing seems to be official for a time table for them at this time. Kelly McCrimmon previously was a head coach in the WHL for the Brandon Wheat Kings. During the 2016 season, he led the team to a WHL championship, so his coaching ability is pretty high quality.
The team’s new AHL affiliate, the Henderson Silver Knights, are in their inaugural season. They are set to play their first game on the night of February 6 against the Ontario Reign, the AHL affiliate of the Los Angeles Kings. The AHL season, similar to the NHL, was modified recently to account for the pandemic. Much like the NHL, teams will be playing a division only schedule for a 40 game regular season.
What This Means for the Team
As previously mentioned, this seems to be a short term situation for the Knights. The league is still figuring out what needs to happen for the coaching staff in terms of COVID protocol, which makes the timeline an unknown variable in all of this. The Knights will be playing their next two games against the Blues tonight and Friday the 28th at home in Las Vegas, Nevada. They go into the two-game series with the best record in the league with five wins and one loss.
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