Fans in attendance at the Vegas Golden Knights Road Trip's stop in Lake Tahoe, Nevada were treated by special appearances from Golden Knights defensemen Shea Theodore and Brayden McNabb.
Golden Knights play-by-play announcer Dave Goucher and Golden Knights insider Gary Lawless caught up with the two defensemen on the "Sheriff, Lawless and Some Guy Named Dave" podcast at Monday's event at the South Lake Tahoe Ice Arena.
The pair of original Golden Knights missed the postseason this past spring for the first time in their careers with the franchise. For the first time in a while, Theodore had to change up his early summer plans.
"I think when our season ended, you kind of look at the schedule and it's a long time off," Theodore said. "I had some opportunities to go to the World Championships with Team Canada, I kind of turned that down; I wanted to be able to get in the gym a little bit, rehab some stuff ... I haven't really had a long summer since I've been in the league really, so it's good to take some time, but at the same time, put some good work in."
Despite failing to make the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, McNabb said the standards are still high for this Golden Knights team.
"We expect it, everyone expects it, and that's how it should be," McNabb said. "You don't want to be expected just to make playoffs, so that's kind of what we've built and what we want to do and I think we have a real good opportunity coming this year to get back on track."
Theodore was in agreement with his partner on the blue line.
"I think anytime you don't make it with especially the roster that we had -- the expectations that our group had -- it's disappointing, but I think that definitely fuels our group going into this year with [knowing] the expectation's that we have to return to the team that we know and we know how to play the game, so it's going to be fun, and I'm excited to see this year," Theodore said.
The team will look to return to the postseason under new head coach Bruce Cassidy, someone who is also familiar with going deep into the playoffs.
"We've [he and Cassidy] talked on the phone," McNabb said. "I think his record kind of speaks for himself. So obviously he's a great coach and you know he's going to come in and you know he's going to have his systems and what not, so there could be a little bit of a learning process, but we got all of camp to do that and a full year, so I think everyone's excited."
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