Veteran defenseman Alex Pietrangelo is tied for third on the Golden Knights with 12 points through 11 games. His offensive surge has helped Vegas to the top of the Pacific Division standings.

In Part 1 of our exclusive interview with Alex Pietrangelo, the 17-year veteran spoke about family and how "Dad Strength" continues to fuel his career. In Part 2, Pietrangelo says "Puck Luck" has led to an offensive surge.

PUCK LUCK

Alex Pietrangelo ranks eighth among NHL defensemen with 616 points through Wednesday's games.

During a recent offensive surge that saw him pick up eight assists in three games, Pietrangelo called it luck, giving credit to the guys on the receiving end of his precision passes.

"Sometimes things just go your way," he said. "You go through stretches where you get a lot of opportunities and you score, and then you don't score, and then you give guys opportunities and whatever. The puck rolls on all these weird bounces. For now, everything's working."

For 17 seasons, everything has been working.

To go along with his impressive ranking for points since entering the league, Pietrangelo's 106 even-strength goals are tied for fifth among all defensemen since 2008. Also among blueliners in the same span, he ranks 11th with 471 assists and his plus-122 was tied for 15th in the same span heading into Wednesday's game in Los Angeles.

"He called it luck," forward Keegan Kolesar said. "I can look at him say, 'No, you're just that good.'"

Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy respects the journey Pietrangelo's taken over 17 years — 12 of them in St. Louis, including several as captain of the Blues.

Cassidy called his elder defenseman a student of the game while describing his presence as an extension of the coaching staff.

"He's been around a lot, seen a lot of different situations," Cassidy said. "He's very vocal, and he's a guy that you, as a coach, you got to check in with, because there's things that happen on the bench and he's very protective of his group, too. So we got to talk through some of them after."

Cassidy said Pietrangelo's assists can be attributed to timing his aggressiveness better early on this season. Being on time with his pinches, being on time when he decides to join the rush, keeping pucks alive, being in the right situations at the right times, and having the patience to make a play so his teammates can read off him to cover for him, or not.

Cassidy also said Pietrangelo has been making good decisions with the puck, finding open teammates to make good plays, and buying into a look-first, shoot-second mentality in the offensive zone.

"The experience part of it I think is the ups and downs in a game," Pietrangelo said. "I'm not making perfect plays every shift. Sh-t, I wish I could. But you're gonna make mistakes. Okay, so how do you respond from that? I think that helps me in my game. I think my hockey mind is kind of what's made me a good player for as long as I have been. I think that's the one thing that I've been fortunate with. I was taught the game well at a young age, starting with my dad, obviously, and then had some good coaches along the way.

"You get a lot of coaches, just part of the business, unfortunately. And I think every coach can make you better. You may not agree with everything they say, but how do you take pieces from every single coach, you kind of piece that together and try and become (the) player that you are. And I think with the way the game is today, maybe not quite as physical as it used to be, I think that definitely helps my game. I'm not obviously the most physical player out there, but I think my brain kind of helps me see the game in a way that maybe a lot of people can't."

Having a united locker room doesn't hurt, either, as Pietrangelo said this year's team is as close as any other he's been a part of, each player willing to put everything on the line for one another for 82 games, and all with a belief they can hoist a second Stanley Cup in three years.

"Even the year that we didn't make the playoffs, it's not the outside world that we're proving it to, it's to each other," he said. "We still think in this room we're gonna have a chance to win, and we prove it to each other. We owe it to each other to put that effort forward. We've talked about this locker room, how much we get along with each other, and how much we care about each other. Well, that translates onto the ice. The goal is to put your best foot forward every single day.

"I think the cool thing about our group is, like you probably heard before, we love to have fun. But we can look in the mirror, right? We can look in the mirror and be like, 'We need to be better.' But that shouldn't deter (us) from enjoying our job and going out there and putting our best foot forward."