No news on Martinez; Miromanov recalled; Janmark returns

No news was not necessarily good news for the Vegas Golden Knights Thursday when it came to injured defenseman Alec Martinez.

Coach Peter DeBoer said Martinez was still being evaluated by the team’s medical staff and there was no update regarding his condition. Martinez was injured in the third period Wednesday in Vegas’ 3-1 loss to the St. Louis Blues after being tripped and landing awkwardly. He went to the locker room and did not return.

“He was getting tests this morning,” DeBoer said of what is believed to be a lower-body injury suffered by Martinez. “We’ll hopefully know more in the next day or two.”

Miromanov recalled: In anticipation of Martinez not being available to play Friday against the Edmonton Oilers, the Golden Knights recalled defenseman Daniil Miromanov from their Henderson AHL affiliate.

“We liked what we saw of him playing in Henderson,” DeBoer said of Miromanov, who had two goals and two assists in two games for the Silver Knights.

Miromanov would likely serve as the seventh defenseman with Dylan Coghlan taking Martinez’s place against the Oilers. Still, he was glad to be back with the NHL team.

“I was pretty confident in my game,” Miromanov said. “I’ve just been working hard (in Henderson) trying to improve and watching video with the coaches.”

Janmark returns: Forward Mattias Janmark is out of the NHL’s COVID-19 protocol and practiced with the team Thursday.  DeBoer said he was hopeful Janmark will be available to play Friday.

“It was nice to get him back out on the ice after he had been out 10, 11 days,” DeBoer said, “We’ll see how he feels. He’s an option for tomorrow and we can sure use him.”

Return of the gold helmets: This may or may not be a sign of things to come Friday but the Golden Knights wore their shiny chrome gold helmets at practice Thursday.

The team was 1-2 while wearing the shiny buckets after being introduced last season. After an 0-2 start in gold lids, fans started a petition to demand the team retire the helmets.

Maybe it’s a psychological move to turn the team’s early-season woes around. But when you have a losing record wearing a certain item, why would you think putting it back on will suddenly bring success?

We’ll know if the gold helmets are back tomorrow when the Knights host the Oilers.