LAS VEGAS — The Vegas Golden Knights finish the regular-season home schedule of their inaugural season on Saturday night against the San Jose Sharks with a number of Fan Appreciation Week promotions.
Among other things Ryan Smith Jersey , after the game, players will hand-deliver their game-worn jerseys to select fans. And those could prove to be quite valuable if Vegas (49-22-7, 105) can garner at least one point against the Sharks.
The Golden Knights, who have already earned a berth in the Stanley Cup playoffs, can clinch the Pacific Division title with one more point in their final four games. And what better place to do it than at T-Mobile Arena before finishing the regular season with a three-game western Canadian road trip to Vancouver, Edmonton and Calgary?
“We’re trying to get as many points as we can,” Vegas coach Gerard Gallant said. “Somebody told me we’re one point away from clinching our division. That’s what the goal is. Let’s keep battling hard and playing hard and win as many games as we can.”
It will be a quick turnaround for Vegas, which needed overtime on Friday night before defeating the St. Louis Blues, 4-3, as Jonathan Marchessault scored a pair of goals, including the game-winner 22 seconds into the extra period.
The win helped to rinse some of the bad taste out of the mouths of the Golden Knights, who lost to Arizona, 3-2 Antonio Garcia Jersey , at home in a lackluster performance two nights earlier.
“Tonight, I was really happy with our performance, the way we competed and battled,” Gallant said. “I knew St. Louis was going to play that type of hockey game. They’re a team fighting for points, fighting for playoff position so you knew they were coming in hard. I was happy with it because it looked like a playoff game tonight.”
San Jose (44-24-10, 98) also has a lot riding on the contest. The Sharks, coming in off a tough 5-3 loss at Western Conference-leading Nashville on Thursday night, can clinch a playoff berth for the 13th time in 14 years with a victory.
“We’ve been playing playoff hockey I think for the last 10 or 15 games now,” defenseman Brenden Dillon said. “With this streak we have going (9-1-1), we’ve really put an emphasis on every night on not where the teams are in the standings and just being big-time games and showing up.”
“I think we’ve felt all year that we can play with anybody,” San Jose coach Peter DeBoer said. “We still don’t have our whole lineup out there yet but I don’t think there’s any doubt that we can play with anybody else.”
San Jose holds a four-point lead over the Los Angeles Kings for second place in the Pacific Division and has a game in hand.
The Golden Knights and Sharks have played three games this season with two of them going into overtime. Vegas won the first meeting, 5-4, in overtime on a goal by Marchessault on Nov. 24 at T-Mobile Arena and followed that up with a 5-3 win at San Jose on Feb. 8. The Sharks won the last meeting on March 22 at home Tahir Whitehead Jersey , 2-1, on Logan Couture’s goal 39 seconds into OT.
In Brian Gaine’s first draft as the general manager of the Houston Texans, he wanted to add three things to the offensive and defensive side of the ball – speed, athleticism and explosiveness.In doing that with his eight picks, Gaine also added competition to multiple positions on the Texans roster.
”The one thing I want people to understand is that we’re always going to be trying to add competition to the roster regardless of the position whenever it makes sense,” Gaine said. ”Any players we added to the roster this year through the draft we think has a chance to make the team.”
Gaine worked his way through the past two days, not making any draft day trades, and addressed his team’s needs.
Gaine admitted the opportunities to make trades were there and he did come close to making some moves.
”Always tempted,” Gaine said about making a trade. ”I’m always looking for an opportunity to improve the team. At every turn and every opportunity when we were selecting, I’m evaluating the pros and cons of going up to get a player or sitting tight or the opportunity to move back.”
Heading into the draft, the Texans’ deepest needs were on the offensive line, in the secondary and at tight end.
Gaine utilized four of his eight picks to bolster the secondary and the tight end spot.
In the third round, Gaine drafted University of Central Florida tight end Jordan Akins. Then in the sixth round Justin Vogel Jersey , Gaine selected Mississippi State tight end Jordan Thomas.
”It’s important, especially in our offense at tight end because we have different roles and different jobs as it relates to the composition of the group, in terms of the Y and the F and how we use those guys,” Gaines said about adding depth to the tight end position.
”Ideally we want them to be fully dimensional, but we like having versatile tight ends who can do different jobs.”
SECONDARY IS PRIMARY
Gaine bookended his first draft with a pair of picks to help the secondary.
With his first pick in the third round, Gaine took Stanford safety Justin Reid and with his final pick in the seventh round selected San Jose State cornerback Jermaine Kelly.
”We want to have a versatile secondary because of the variations of things we do in sub-package defense,” Gaine said.
ADDING TO O-LINE
Gaine filled the Texans’ need on the offensive line with Mississippi State tackle Martinas Rankin in the third round.
Gaine’s other three picks were spent on wide receiver and outside linebacker.
”With the additions we made in this draft on the offensive side we feel like we added more weapons to surround Deshaun Watson with,” Gaine said. ”We also did add offensive linemen through free agency and the draft.”
With his lone pick of the fourth round, Gaine scooped up Texas Tech wide receiver Keke Coutee with the 103rd overall pick.
Texans offensive and special teams assistant Wes Welker also played his college football at Texas Tech before playing 12 years in the NFL.
”We’ve been in contact a lot throughout this whole process,” Coutee said. ”He worked me out in my private workout, so just being able to work with him and him teaching me the game a little more and how to run routes is really good.”
GETTING DEFENSIVE
After the Coutee pick, two of the Texans’ final four picks were spent on outside linebackers.
Gaine drafted Wake Forest’s Duke Ejiofor with his 177th overall pick and Stanford’s Peter Kalambayi with the 214th overall pick.
Ejiofor finished his Wake Forest career with 128 tackles and 23 sacks. He also had 41 tackles for loss, four forced fumbles Justin Britt Jersey , two fumble recoveries and six pass deflections.
Ejiofor and Kalambayi join a defensive unit that includes J.J. Watt, Jadeveon Clowney and Whitney Mercilus.
”This is a dream come true,” Ejiofor said. ”I’ve watched J.J. Watt, Clowney and Whitney Mercilus. This is crazy, I can’t believe I’m about to join them and learn so much from them.”
Ejiofor is recovering from right shoulder labrum surgery, but said he will be ready for training camp.
STLL NEED
The one area the Texans didn’t add to through the draft was at quarterback.
Houston has three quarterbacks on the roster in Watson, Brandon Weeden and Joe Webb III.
”We feel comfortable with the group we have at the moment,” Gaine said.
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