The Golden Knights rookies return from San Jose with a shootout win, a shutout loss, and a few injuries after a couple of hard-fought games against the Mammoth and Avalanche. Special teams played a large part in both games as VGK allowed all three goals on the penalty kill to Utah and then scored a few on the power play, including a late one to tie the game against Colorado.
These games are about much more than results, though. The key storyline as the Golden Knights rookies return to Vegas will be the health of Trevor Connelly and Ben Hemmerling, but here are a few other takeaways as well.
Connelly and Hemmerling injured
In the first game, Trevor Connelly was boarded viciously and illegally by Utah 4th round pick Gabe Smith. Connelly was down on the ice for a while before walking off under his own power. He returned to the bench in the 3rd period but did not take a shift in the game.
Being a long layoff, we didn’t want to jeopardize anything with him, so we pulled the reins on him a little. It was good to see him back. He got good clearance from our staff so we wanted to take it easy for Game 1. -Joel Ward, Silver Knights head coach
Connelly did not dress in the second game.
Hemmerling was injured in the 1st period of Sunday’s game against Colorado after taking a big open-ice hit from Gustav Stjernberg (a 23-year-old defenseman who played 11 games in the AHL last season after finishing up his career at Bowling Green). Matheau Cataford immediately stepped up to fight the big defenseman. Hemmerling did not return to the game. Ward did not speak about the injury postgame.
Trent Swick’s arrival