Recap: The Golden Knights opened the preseason in San Jose in front of a raucous crowd (lol). San Jose opened the scoring quickly potting the first of the game just 24 seconds in. The Sharks ran out to a 3-0 lead before the Golden Knights got on the board for the first time. Pavel Dorofeyev made an excellent pass to Ivan Barbashev who continued his goal scoring ways.
The score got worse in the 2nd as the Sharks took a 5-1 lead before Vegas finally tallied again with a Brett Howden goal.
The teams basically skated in circles in the 3rd period. There were a bunch of penalties.
The Golden Knights drop their first preseason game 5-2 and fall to 0-1-0. VGK are right back at it tomorrow night in Colorado with what’s expected to be a completely different roster. The game is scheduled for 6 PM. (Recap by Jason)
Analysis: Imagine playing Stanley Cup Final Game 5, and then the next game you play is a preseason game in San Jose in front of 150 people. Would you care? Didn’t think so. (Recap by Ken)
Upcoming stories from the Vegas Golden Knights vs. San Jose Sharks preseason game at SAP Center.
- Pittsburgh already talking about coming Vegas.
Ken’s Three VGK Stars
*** Daniil Chayka
** Ivan Barbashev
* Pavel Dorofeyev
Yeah! I love preseason Bruce.
Goalie pull with 4 minutes left on the power play. Glorious.
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) September 25, 2023
That pass from Pavel. pic.twitter.com/gyquUATYAE
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) September 25, 2023
Here’s VGK’s lineup for the preseason opener (per @GoldenKnights)
Cotter-Howden-Comtois
Barbashev-Froese-Dorofeyev
Benson-Quinney-Brisson
Geertsen-Demek-CracknellMcNabb-Theodore
Bischoff-Mayo
Chayka-SedoffPatera
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) September 25, 2023
Richie-Rich
So, I paid for a subscription to Knighttime+, $70/yr. The feed just died after the 2nd period. Anyone else?
– I was hoping to see more out of my jersey #43 Paul Cotter. Disappointing.
– Dorofeyev looked fantastic. He’s got the lead to make the team if he can show consistency.
– Both Theodore and McNabb looked to be in mid-season form.
Comtois didn’t seem to impress. I was hoping to see him stand out more.
Richie-Rich
Emmanuel
Whats Knighttime+?
THE hockey GOD
@Emm
a new VGK home games only “local” streaming service. Channel 34 is FREE over the air in the Vegas valley.
Richie-Rich
knighttimeplus.com – VGK site that you subscribe to in order to stream all VGK games. Last night it cut off after the 2nd period. I am not happy with it. Will reevaluate it tonight. $70/yr.
If it continues to have problems I will put in an upscale UHF indoor antenna system.
Bobby
I didn’t see the preseason ‘free trial’ option, it said payment would be taken out today, so I held off.
Pistol Pete
Dorofeyev will make the team. Gifted player to my eye. Would not surprise me if Cassidy plays him most if not all the preseason games (I’m guessing but recall Cassidy being bullish on him when he came in last season…believe he considers him a future top six). Cotter gets an A for committment and dedication plus he’s hard hitting and drives the net. To my eye he does not quite have the skill or future skill of Dorofeyev. Dorofeyev’s stick is special and while he’s not an exceptionally fast sprinter he’s a good skater and moves exceptionally well in the framework of a play.
Pistol Pete
Remember too when Dorofeyev came in for that 15 games to end the season he got 9 pts (7 G/2 A) in the first 10 games before going on a five game drought. Cassidy played him mostly with Smith and Karlsson on RW (he shoots left) and 2-3 games on the Eichel line where he must have played LW with Marchy on RW. Cassidy elevated him above Cotter pretty much the whole time. Cassidy remarked in a post game: “he shoots” and “handled his defensive assignments”. The man knows he has to play NHL-physical and win puck battles. He’s listed at 6’ 1” 194 so he’s not exactly small, in fact he’s listed 30 lb. heavier than when drafted.
Shai Hulud
Exactly the same. Not only that, the game wasn’t viewable in full screen on my Roku. No logo in the top left with score for the first 10m of the game. Very weak.
Richie-Rich
It worked great on my Apple M1 laptop. I did a screen mirror to my big screen and it worked just fine, except they did not transmit the 3rd period.
Hdbiker7851h
Just so Jailbird is not disappointed l think we probably both agree not a great performance on guys who want to make the team. Yes only meaning nothing game but that was also the case for the sharks – not a great beginning
Oooph
I saw more people at the “kick me in the nuts for 5 bucks” guy on Fremont than at that game…
Ken Boehlke
I think I would have rather been there too.
Bobby
Were covid attendance restrictions back in place in San Jose? Something tells me the 1st preseason game here in Vegas might have more than 150 people.
Ts
There musta been, what, 200 fans there? Even the Shark fans have no interest in their team. HO HUM…
DayFingOne
And I got an antenna to watch over the air only the Vegas 34 signal is weak af and occasionally loses some reception or cuts out entirely for moments at a time. It has been like this for weeks already while watching all the replays of the Final and the same with this first live preseason game. Anybody else experiencing the same, better, or worse???
Richie-Rich
The KNIGHTTIME+ was great except they did not transmit the 3rd period on it.
Pete T
Buttered, slightly burnt on the toast, please.
-70
THE hockey GOD
general consensus is that no. 16 and no.49 had good chemistry, rest of
the
people “on the edge” on making the roster did not show up. Seems like Coaches put together a team
mostly of ex AHLers and soon to minor leaguers. I was hoping to see more
of the younger prospects, than these “has beens” or “never will be’s”. Except for no. 19 who obviously needs more time on Silver Knights. I would have put together an opening team made up of more of the prospects. Maybe coach wants to cull the roster down sooner than later. Hopefully next couple of games we’ll see younger players. Conditioning was not an issue in this game, skill level obviously was.
Sez me
Pistol Pete
“Prospects” continue to take a back seat in the VGK scheme of things. This roster of forwards consists of veterans with the exception of Dorofeyev and Cotter. Personally I see Dorofeyev as a legitimate top six when he’s fully developed which would be the first for a VGK draft pick. The D’s are a different matter. Not only were Whitecloud and Hague developed as prospects, Henderson has a number of prospective NHL defenseman in the pipeline whereas Brisson in the only forward in the pool who is anywhere near NHL-ready.
Comtois I believe will be signed as the 14th forward and it will be he, Dorofeyev and Cotter to compete for the slot on Karlsson’s line. I like Dorofeyev over Cotter with Comtois as a wildcard (though who knows he could end up starting against Seattle: Comtois-Karlsson-Amadio or it could be Dorofeyev or Cotter instead). Something to consider is that Dorofeyev did better as RW on the Karlsson line than he did as LW on the Eichel line. As wonderful as Amadio has been he’ll be under pressure as the season gets going because anything can happen later, for example Comtois-Karlsson-Dorofeyev or Cotter-Karlsson-Dorofeyev.
This promises to be a very interesting remainder of the preseason schedule as the Dorofeyev, Cotter, Comtois derby plays out. It’s worth noting Comtois is by far the most NHL-tested of the three with 210 games. He is also sporting a respectable career .41 pts/games, identical to Roy. He looked really promising in his first season (COVID-shortened) getting 33 pts in 55 games (.60 pts/game). For whatever reason his results declined the next two seasons.
RIchie-Rich
Could be that Comtois’ production suffered being on the ice with Ducks. I like his size and he’s only 24 years of age. He could benefit from being in a much better system as could the VGK.
I was hoping to see more out of Cotter, but you are right in your analysis. Wow, PP and Richie-RIch agreeing in pre-season? WTF? How could this be?
Wins/Losses don’t matter much in the preseason.
Pistol Pete
Anaheim obviously sucked for Comtois.
Pistol Pete
Anaheim may have been foolish to not resign Comtois as a good depth forward (at a minimum). Some/many of these NHL organizations seem to think it’s all about young guys coming up and lighting the scoreboard and to do it all by themselves with no coaching. It’s more about depth and forwards who contribute all over the ice vs. individual scoring only. Not sure Comtois will fit on a Cassidy team but if he does it will point to how poor the Ducks’ organization is.
Tim
Some guys just have a knack to be around the puck Dorofeyev is one of those guys. When they call your name over and over during a game you know your doing something right. This kid from his first rookie camp after being drafted was said to have special skills now with weight gain and experience it looks like he’s ready to take the next step. I’m sure Max Comtois makes the team they wouldn’t of brought him in if they didn’t think he’d make the team. It’s funny the other 31 teams didn’t put a bid in on him, Is he trouble in the locker room hopefully not.Paul Cotter odd man out if Max performs.
THE hockey GOD
cotter played ten times better than MC last nite, and that isn’t saying much since he didn’t do much against the veteran sharks when he was positioned against them. But isn’t only one game so far. I don’t see MC as a problem in “locker room”, like MAF was. The worst.
Pistol Pete
I think Ken mentioned in his article on Comtois that he had multiple offers for PTO’s. Not surprising he chose us being we are the champs and about the most popular place for players to play including for a coach who is accomplished at teaching the players to win (can you say “Jack Eichel”?). Yeah you can get unceremoniously traded away but that can happen anywhere and when this management does it it’s always necessary and they move on recovering. Nice when you historically support this VegasBorn FO and they go out and get a Cup in their first six years. One of the sweetest “told you so’s” I ever had lol.
Richie-Rich
PP – okay okay…
Last time you can rub it in…..
Uncle already.
Jailbird
Honestly I didn’t see much last night, but what do ya expect after three practices and a miss-mash of lines. Maybe tonight will be more telling.
Richie-Rich
I guess they have to give Quinney and Bischoff a shot, but I am not sure why. These two obviously are not going to make the big club. There are a couple of other players I would rather see get a shot.
Jailbird
We certainly are not going to play our big boys in 7 preseason games. So, lots of other players need to play. And, this is also tryouts for who makes the silver knights. A number of guys who know they won’t make the big club this year, are trying to earn spots for the AHL club. Many of these “Knights” exhibition games are in name only. Nothing to do with who we will see on the ice, in total, on October 10th.