Recap: The Golden Knights hosted the New York Rangers and welcomed back former coach Gerard Gallant and forward Ryan Reaves. New York took control early taking the first four out five shots of the game. Both teams were awarded power play opportunities which Vegas’ Jonathan Marchessault took advantage of. The forward flipped in his 17th of the season taking the first lead of the game.
New York evened the score 1-1 in the opening minute of the 2nd period. Vegas responded later in the frame receiving goals from Mark Stone and Mattias Janmark. The Golden Knights took a 3-1 advantage into the second intermission.
Vegas’ offense kept firing and and the puck continued to go in New York’s net. Brett Howden made it a three goal game and Marchessault stretched the score to 5-1 with his second of the game.
The Golden Knights record improves to 23-13-1 defeating the Rangers 5-1. Vegas will next face former goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury and the Chicago Blackhawks on Saturday night. Puck drop is set for 7 PM. (Recap by Jason)
Analysis: A excellent game for the Golden Knights in which they used their speed in transition to dominate the game. They cleaned up their early game neutral zone turnover issues and completely took over the game. The game in New York was a comeback win that Vegas probably shouldn’t have gotten, tonight was much different as they were clearly the better team. (Recap by Ken)
Upcoming stories from the Vegas Golden Knights vs. New York Rangers game at T-Mobile Arena.
- Speed through the neutral zone
Ken’s Three VGK Stars
*** Ryan Reaves
** Mattias Janmark
* Jonathan Marchessault
That was a complete effort from start to finish from VGK. They were a little messy early, but did well in their own zone to not let them bite them.
Then, as the game opened up, they completely took over. Excellent win against a great team. Much better than the one in NY.
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) January 7, 2022
Ryan Reaves has been on the ice for more VGK goals tonight (3) than he scored in his final 85 games as a Golden Knight.
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) January 7, 2022
VGK have completely cleaned up the NZ turnovers in this 2nd period and it's allowed them to play at a much faster speed.
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) January 7, 2022
VGK were outhit 21-3 in the 1st period.
Against all odds (not really but way too many people believe it), they are winning 1-0.
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) January 7, 2022
Pistol Pete
Real nice to see Lehner come back with a 1 GA 18/19 win. Now if we could just establish Thompson as the backup and save around $1.5m in cap. That together with Pacioretty LTIR would
take care of most of Eichel.
LVsc
Big win. One of the best games the VGK have played this season. They dominated a very good team. It could have easily been 10-1.
They played with high pace, and swarming forecheck, and few turnovers and good zone exits.
Janmark has really been playing well in recent games, hope he can keep it up. Stone returning makes a big difference in leadership.
They should whip the lowly Blackhawks, but only if they play the same way as tonight.
Pistol Pete
The presence of Stone does help a lot, his play and what he brings to the group mentally. The thought of Eichel centering him has me salivating. Speaking of Jack, we should see him in a red jersey soon.
Vic
It doesn’t get much better than this. No let down after the Lehner flub. Rangers looked like they didn’t want to be there when it became 2-1. Best fore check and back check in a while. Excellent speed and hustle. Battles won in every zone. 81 knew to shoot rather than pass. Endless odd man rushes. Nolan Patrick finally stopped the Cody Glass impersonation and looked good. Third star was Zach Whitecloud.
Galdom
Agreed. Nolan Patrick looks like he actually had a pulse
Pistol Pete
As good as he was pre-NHL, who would not still set a high ceiling? Yes, there are high picks who go bust, we don’t need a lesson on it.
Blitz
Go watch Patricks *NHL* highlight reel from his first couple of seasons. Dudes got real NHL talent in there some where. Mike McKenna talked about this, a while back, about when he played with Patrick in Philly. Long term head injury seemed to make *it* go away. You still see flashes of it, between the legs blind passes etc. There is something there. Regardless, the ceiling is there, even in the NHL, but will he hit it at some point? I hope so.
Pistol Pete
I’m probably dreaming to think Thompson might get the start Saturday,
Pistol Pete
The rest of January:
With the the back-to-back EDN/CGY end of next week postponed, the schedule becomes an eight game homestand including two tough opponents in TOR and PIT. Almost a week between TOR and PIT allowing some of the games in hand to backfill.
Then a monster road trip—WSH/CAR (back-to-back), FLA and TBL. Doesn’t get any tougher than that!
Pistol Pete
Dadonov/Eichel/Stone is what I would like to see (assumes Patch remains on LTIR).
hdbiker7851
PPete – your fascination with Eichel is beyond words- are you his potential agent or what – you don’t even know when he can start playing. I guess you didn’t hear or see Kelly Mc Tuesday night – they have no idea, they are discussing aloud, about when or where you will see him on the ice in combat. With the cap problem they have don’t be shocked if you don’t see him before play-off time. Think outside the box – measure the risk (high probability) against the potential benefit (assuming there are some) and it makes ZERO sense to have him sooner rather than later. The Knights are two teams – the one you saw Tuesday night (Eichel wouldn’t have helped that) and the one Thursday night (Eichel wasn’t needed or would make little difference). Your prayer needs to be they have more Thursday night performances, so they are in the play-offs and quit working about when and if Eichel makes the scene. Get him good and healthy – they have a huge investment in him now is not the time to screw it up nor will they.
Pistol Pete
Career goals per game:
Pacioretty .38
Eichel .37
Stone .34
Marchy .34
Dadonov .31
Pistol Pete
Imo Eichel has only scratched the surface of his potential. Repeating myself again, but everybody who knows the game is expecting his production will increase moving from a poor team to a good one.
THE hockey GOD
NYR exposed as pretenders , wanna bees, and posers.
Poser – Urban Dictionary
define › term=poser
One who attempts to appear to others as something they are not.
not.
Wannabe – Urban Dictionary
define › term
A wannabe is a person who feels the need to act like someone else
Mark
I know I’m part of the most moronic, idiotic and dumbest hockey fandom that has ever existed, but the Knights looked good.
Jake
Eichel can do things no other Golden Knight has done.
He has been playing his entire career for the Detroit Lions of the NFL. A sniff of Vegas fresh air will work wonders!
Great to see Janmark healthy!
Galdom
The Jack Eichel trade will cause some cap pain in the future. With the play of some of the Silver Knights and Brett Howden looking much better then he did last year, here is what next years team can look like. I have completely eliminated Reilly Smith, Brayden McNabb and Mattais Janmark who are unrestricted free agents and should get nice pay bumps from other teams. I’ve also traded the contract of Evgeni Dadonov as a salary dump. Keep in my mind I like all four of those players but I am trying to be realistic and be cap compliant. Nic Hague has had a nice year, showing growth and potential as a 40 point defenceman and has shown competence in being a top pairing guy with Pietrangelo. The good news is that alleviates the pain of losing McNabb and the bad news is the inevitable pay raise. I have resigned Hague to the identical contract and cap hit that Whitecloud got. (2.725) Nic Roy’s contract is also expiring and will be a restricted free agent. We are lucky that he is not unrestricted and on the open market. However he is on a 47 point pace, had a great playoff last year and can make a great argument for a nice pay raise if he took the team to arbitration. I have given him a pay raise and hope that 2.4 million can be the number. I’ve resigned Kolesar Hutton, and Amadio. They all go from 750,000 to 950,000.
I’d love to keep Reilly Smith but he is going to cash in. There are so many ways they can go about this. I have kept it simplistic and have generally taken the easy way out. With a tightening cap it’s not easy to trade players so I didn’t want to have the video game thinking where I can easily trade anybody I want. Could they trade Brossoit and have Logan Thompson as his replacement and save money there? Sure, but you got to find the team that thinks its a good idea to have a career average backup at 2.325 million. It’s possible. For those of you that think dumping Alec Martinez and replacing him with Hutton is a good idea to save money keep in mind that Alec Martinez is a far better player and the challenges of moving a 34 year old with two years left on that contract.
So here is next years potential team at 82.7 million. You only have to dress 18 skaters so you can get under the 82.5 million cap. To the Kolesar haters, he is better then you think and you need cheap cap hits.
Pacioretty (7) – Eichel (10) – Stone (9.5)
Marchessault (5) – Karlsson (5.9) – Stephenson (2.725)
Carrier (1.4) – Roy (2.4) – Kolesar (0.9)
Leschyshyn (0.95) – Howden (0.95) – Patrick (1.2)
Amadio (0.9)
Hague (2.725) – Pietrangelo (8.8)
Theodore (5.2) – Martinez (5.25)
Whitecloud (2.725) – Hutton (0.9)
Coughlan (0.950)
Lehner (5)
Brossoit (2.325)
TOTAL (82.7)
Galdom
Don’t pay too much attention to the line combinations, I know Stephenson is a center but he can play wing. My rambling post is merely to illustrate how this year is our best shot at the cup considering what the big Eichel contract combined with the expiring contracts of our UFA’s (Smith, Janmark, McNabb) and next years inevitable significant pay raises of Nic Roy, Nic Hague will do to next years roster.
THE hockey GODv
you left out Mel (Adam) Brooks, is he still on the team ? with all his injuries don’t be surprised if 67 retires .
Tim
Great game contributions from everyone. Eichel, Eichel, Eichel enough we have no idea how he’s healing, how long it will take him to get in hockey shape, and who if anyone we have to trade. He was suppose to be in Vegas 3 weeks after his operation and months later I don’t think he’s here yet. I find that a little strange you would think he’d like to get in the locker room get familiar with his new teammates and skate on his own in Vegas not North Carolina. Maybe he’s here if so Ken should inform us since he’s our only connection to the team. You know management wouldn’t say shit if they had a mouthful. One thing for sure you can’t breakup the Misfit Line there just to good together. If Patch is out until the playoffs we don’t have to do squat. You have Eichel, Patch, and Stone on the other line. Third line you have Stephenson, Dadonov, and Janmark. Fourth line you have Roy, Carrier, and many choices who fits the best.
Right now if we keep gathering points we can sandbag Patch or Martinez and not hurt the team.
Pistol Pete
Lehner really should have been able to glove that shot by Kreider—a soft goal.
Daryl
As I said in another thread, I would like to thank Reaves for his assistance in VGK scoring 3 goals. I sure hope his help didn’t cause Doc to have a medical emergency
Daryl
RL gave up a very weak/soft goal and I was really fearing this was going to be a very bad game. BUT, I was wrong. Minus that horrific goal, RL played great! The team itself overall probably played it’s best game of the season. They will have to play like that against the good team, average play will not get it done. NYR are a good team but will probably finish 4th by the end of the season, they definitely aren’t a representative of their rank right now.