Golden Knights prove they are the best team in the NHL with victory over Calgary Flames | Ed Graney | sport

The best ice hockey team won again on Sunday evening. Won by defeating an inferior division opponent. Won because that’s what really good teams do: taking care of business against those they should.

The Golden Knights defeated Calgary 3-0 at T-Mobile Arena for their sixth straight win. In doing so, they continued a December that was as great as one could imagine.

What a month of hockey from the Knights.

They are now 10-1-0 in December, a stretch that ends with a home game against Montreal on Tuesday. This is why the Knights lead the NHL in percentage. You will receive contributions from all areas of the ice.

“We had a lot of away games before December and did a good job,” center Brett Howden said. “We’ve done a good job now to come back here and hang on. We also picked up where we left off recently in San Jose. I just want to keep doing this.”

Defense is important

Hey, this all happens when you get the type of defense the Knights played in this stretch. If your top six defenders are all healthy.

It happens when you get a depth rating. When a player like Howden scores a career-best 15 goals.

When a player like Keegan Kolesar has already achieved the best nine of his career.

It’s what happens when you get the type of goaltending the Knights have during this run. Adin Hill may have had some struggles early this season, but he has a 7-1-1 record with a .926 save percentage and a 2.09 goals-against average in his last nine starts.

Not to be outdone, Ilya Samsonov missed 31 shots on Sunday for his first shutout of the season. He is 4-0 this month and has a goals-against average of 1.25.

It happens when your penalty looks elite more than once. If you have blocked 87.5 percent of the calls against you in the last month.

It happens when the schedule becomes softer for such a good team.

The winning streak included victories over Pacific Division opponents Vancouver, Seattle, Anaheim, San Jose and now Calgary. Secure. You play whoever is in front of you. But there is no doubt that such a run was supported by some on the other side.

More importantly, however, was how good the Knights are defensively.

Sunday’s win was a microcosm of the series. The Knights will score. What’s impressive, however, is how they limit their chances on their own.

Coach Bruce Cassidy said the team’s structure in the defensive zone was excellent. That there isn’t much to offer from the slot. That it’s getting better at fending off rebounds and not allowing second attempts. That there are sticks in the lanes in East-West games. That the rush defense was good on Sunday.

That things are much better than they were in November.

Light off

“We’re a lot closer than we were six weeks ago and that’s one of the reasons we’ve had a great month,” Cassidy said. “We have just cleaned up our defense to the point where we are no longer forcing the goalkeepers to make dangerous saves. Well, (Samsonov) did his job very well tonight, don’t get me wrong. But I thought we would be more leaky in this area at the start of the year.

“Coming out of camp, it’s probably normal to not really be in hockey defense mode, and I think I’ve said that a lot. It’s taking a while to get up to speed there and it feels like we’re awfully close.”

The best ice hockey team is currently playing in the dark. It also only has one away game in its next seven games.

A great time for another split at the top of the division.

A great time to continue collecting points.

Here comes January.

Ed Graney, winner of the Sigma Delta Chi Award for sports column writing, can be reached at [email protected]. He can be heard Monday through Friday from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. on The Press Box, ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM. Follow @edgraney on X.