The Vegas Golden Knights' preseason is officially over, and they concluded it in as good a manner as they could have.
A 5-1 victory over the Arizona Coyotes in Boise, Idaho on Saturday capped off what was a successful 4-2-1 preseason record for the club.
Golden Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo was one of the five contributors to score a goal in the win.
Vegas started the preseason slow, but ultimately finished with three-straight victories, a process that Pietrangelo said took time as the team learned a new system.
"There were parts of every game that maybe weren't going the way we wanted to," Pietrangelo said Saturday's win, via the Golden Knights' website. "Anytime you put in a completely new system, new coach, that's going to happen. He's going to run the bench different, he's going to have new systems. But I think as we went on, -- went to Utah and then came [to Idaho] -- I felt like we had a better percentage of the game that was playing the way we wanted to."
Pietrangelo said he and his fellow defenseman are still out on the ice before and after practice trying to perfect the new system.
"It's not a huge difference, but it's enough that we have to keep talking about it and keep working on it," he said. "It's more communication than anything."
Pietrangelo and his teammates can now look forward to playing games that will officially count in the standings, as the team begins regular season play on Tuesday.
"It's a long camp," Pietrangelo said. "I mean, seven games and most of us were here a month and a half before the season even started skating together. So it feels like we've kind of been at this for a little while and now it's nice to kind of get the real thing going."
Pietrangelo said he most excited to having "the group back together."
"We talked about it last year, right?" he said. "Guys are in and out, guys were missing stretches. It's nice to have that group, that energy back and have our depth through our lineup the way we want it to be."
Vegas takes on the Los Angeles Kings at 7 p.m. PST on Tuesday at Crypto.com Arena.
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