This is not the Golden Knights hockey from last year. Not sure how it has been lost since the majority of the players are returning.
It's way too early for a season analysis, but I will address this point specifically. Anyone expecting this team to march to the Finals again is going to be severely disappointed. There is just no way to sustain that high level of play after a short NHL summer off & a bunch of new faces.
The defense last year was held together by the forwards being extremely diligent in both ends of the rink. They haven't been good enough this year plus the D is a lot worse. The Caps drew up the blueprint in the SCF on exposing our flaws. Other teams had all off season to copy that plan. I said it in June, after game 1 Trotz completely outclassed Gallant. Turk made zero tweaks to the game plan. It killed us in that series, & now we have a really, really weak D playing the same system, but they aren't good enough to execute it.
Following up on what Mordred said above...Engellend played over his head for most of last season, but was exposed badly in the Finals. He's realistically a 5/6D at this stage of his career. Miller is a 2nd pair D, not a 1st pair. We obviously miss Nate, but him alone coming back in 15 games, doesn't cure all our warts.
Holden & Merrill are an AHL pairing, period. I was banging the table in the offseason for McPhee to add 2 quality defensemen to this team. This is what it looks like when 3 of your 6D are below average or belong in the AHL.