Golden Knights start drive for repeat after raising Cup banner

LAS VEGAS -- Mark Stone realized something about playing hockey in June when he went through it four months ago.

"It's addicting," the Vegas Golden Knights captain said.

Stone and the Golden Knights took their first baby step toward more June hockey and a chance for a second straight Stanley Cup run with a season-opening 4-1 win against the Seattle Kraken at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday.

They overcame the emotion of watching their championship banner rise out of a giant slot machine and played like the team that rolled through the Stanley Cup Playoffs last season, going 16-6 to reach the top.

Top-line forwards Jack Eichel, Jonathan Marchessault and Ivan Barbashev each scored. So did Chandler Stephenson. Adin Hill made 32 saves, including 10 on the penalty kill, which was 4-for-4. Vegas killed off the five-minute major assessed to forward Brett Howden at 6:02 of the third period. Howden was called for a match penalty for an illegal check to the head of Seattle forward Brandon Tanev with Vegas leading 3-1.

If the game the Golden Knights played against the Kraken is a sign of things to come this season June hockey in Las Vegas could happen again.

"It felt pretty good for the first game of the year," Eichel said. "You just want to be on your details early. That stuff comes. Power play and some little plays you want to just continue to get better at those. … I thought overall it was a good night for our team. We got a win, but now it's a season. You go every other day it feels like. I'm looking forward to it. It should be great."

That's the mindset the Golden Knights must have now and going forward. It seems like they were able to adopt it soon after the puck dropped Tuesday, after Hill made some key saves early and once Stephenson gave them a 1-0 lead at 7:16 of the first period.

It wasn't easy to get to that point, though.

There's been a lot going on with the Golden Knights the past few days.

They received their championship rings at a gala celebration Sunday. They brought the Stanley Cup to the Las Vegas Raiders NFL game Monday. They walked the gold carpet and watched their banner go up before the game Tuesday.

It all could have distracted and exhausted them. But instead they managed to treat opening night for what it was; as much about a final celebration of what they accomplished last season in winning their first Stanley Cup as it was a turning of the page back to the grind, to the 82-game climb that, if successful, just gets you, as Stone said, "a sniff" of a chance to do it again.

"Now it's normal," Eichel said. "Last year is a memory and we're back into it."

They're in San Jose on Thursday, and back home Saturday to play the Anaheim Ducks and Tuesday to face-off against the Dallas Stars in a rematch of the Western Conference Final, which the Golden Knights won in six games. Then it's on to Winnipeg and Chicago, and on and on and on it'll go.

The Stanley Cup will not be following them around, but the championship aura will be, which is why they should and do expect to get the best shot from every team they face, at least early in the season. They're the measuring stick.

"Now things become real," coach Bruce Cassidy said. "Guys will probably be walking around (Wednesday) with bumps and bruises. It's hockey. It's on again."

That's the way it's supposed to be. You win, you celebrate, you get a ring, raise a banner, and then you try to do it all over again.

It's all addicting. The Golden Knights are feeling it. They played Game 1 like they want it. They have 81 more to go before they can go get it.

"I guess the pressure of winning it is not as much since we have won, but it's a different kind of feel because it was so fun and so worth it to go through all those four rounds and battle," forward William Karlsson said. "It was worth it, so I don't think it's hard for us to be motivated to try to do it again."