The Olympic break ended with Golden Knights fingerprints on both sides of the podium.
Team USA beat Canada 2-1 in overtime Sunday at Milano Cortina 2026. Jack Hughes scored 1:41 into three-on-three overtime, and the Americans claimed their first men’s Olympic gold since 1980.
For Vegas, it meant gold for Jack Eichel and Noah Hanifin. It also meant silver for Mark Stone and Shea Theodore, who came up one goal short with Canada.
Now the switch flips fast. The NHL schedule is not easing anyone back in.
No soft landing back
Vegas comes out of the break with a road-heavy reset, starting Wednesday.
The Golden Knights open the post-break schedule at the Los Angeles Kings on Feb. 25. From there, the trip runs through Washington, Pittsburgh, Buffalo, and Detroit before Vegas finally returns to T-Mobile Arena on Friday, March 6 against the Minnesota Wild.
Tomas Hertl, who also played in the Olympics, put it simply when asked how he feels physically.
“Yeah, a little still tired, obviously,” Hertl said. “It’s more like about head because you’re thinking about it, ‘Oh, I have to change,’ but in three days we fly on the East again. So, it’s kind of obviously tough, but that’s part of it… get some massages and get ready because it will come really fast now.”
That is the theme of the next month and a half.
The Pacific lead, with pressure underneath
Vegas returns to NHL play in first place in the Pacific at 68 points (27-16-14). However, the pack is close enough to punish any sloppy week.
Edmonton sits at 64. Seattle and Anaheim are at 63. Then the Kings are at 60.
So, the division lead is real. Still, the calendar is about to squeeze it.
Why the last two mattered
Vegas did not head into the break feeling good about its overall run. The Golden Knights went 3-5-2 in their last 10.
However, the timing of the finish helped. Vegas won its final two games before the pause, snapping a rough stretch and changing the tone on the way out.
That matters now because the next segment comes fast. Nobody has time to “find it” for two weeks.
First test: Kings on Wednesday
The restart game is a division one, and it starts immediately on the road.
Vegas opens at Los Angeles on Wednesday, Feb. 25. The game is on TNT, plus truTV and HBO Max.
Stone is the obvious Vegas headliner going into it. In his last five games, he posted eight points, including four goals and seven assists.
For the Kings, Adrian Kempe leads the recent production. He has three goals and three assists over his last five.
The goalie picture sets the tone
Vegas has options, and the numbers underline the choice.
Akira Schmid sits at 16-6-6 with a 2.53 GAA and a .895 save percentage. Adin Hill is 4-3-3 with a 3.27 GAA and a .870 save percentage.
Across the rink, the Kings can roll with Darcy Kuemper or Anton Forsberg. Kuemper is at 2.59 GAA and a .900 save percentage. Forsberg is at 2.57 GAA and a .907 save percentage.
So, Wednesday has a simple question underneath it. Can Vegas defend cleanly right away, or will it need its goalie to put out fires?
The stretch run in one line
There are 25 games in the next 49 days.
That includes two left in February, 16 in March, and seven in April. As a result, the margin for slow starts is gone.
Vegas just watched two of its core pieces win Olympic gold, and two more settle for silver. Now comes the harder part.
Bring the energy back across time zones, then keep stacking points anyway.
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Dice City Sports editor Mark Hebert covers the Vegas Golden Knights, Las Vegas Raiders, Athletics, and UNLV baseball and softball. He has 24 years of journalism experience, is also a senior reporter at Exhibit City News, and previously covered the Dallas Stars and Texas Rangers. Follow him on X or connect on LinkedIn.
