Recap: The official 2024-25 Golden Knights season kicked off with an Opening Night matchup vs. the Colorado Avalanche. Colorado came out firing, but Vegas goaltender Adin Hill kept the game scoreless. Midway through the 1st period the Avalanche took the opening lead which the Golden Knights erased :27 seconds later. Newcomer Victor Olofsson scored in his first-ever game with Vegas to even the score 1-1. Top six winger Ivan Barbashev gave his team their first lead of the season and Mark Stone doubled Vegas’ edge :25 seconds later.
Colorado quickly cut Vegas’ lead, but the Golden Knights came back a minute later. Veteran defenseman Zach Whitecloud recorded his first goal of the 2024-25 season to regain Vegas’ two-goal edge. The Avalanche got within one score again, but Olofson picked up his second goal of the game on the power play. After 40 minutes in, the Golden Knights held a 5-3 margin.
The Avalanche scored first for the third straight period to cut VGK’s lead to one. However, Stone scored the team’s second power play goal of the game to make it a 6-4 advantage. Barbashev scored his second goal moments later and Brett Howden sealed the game for Vegas scoring on an empty net.
The Golden Knights began their season with a 8-4 victory over the Avalanche from T-Mobile Arena. Vegas will next hit the ice on Friday night against St. Louis. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:07 PM. (Recap by Jason)
Analysis: A wild hockey game to start the season saw pucks flying into the back of the net from all over the place for both teams. For Vegas, they made the most of their opportunities scoring 6 goals on 1.36 expected goals. Jack Eichel was a men among boys out there. Absolutely dominant in every way. VGK have won six consecutive season openers and seven of the eight in team history. (Analysis by Ken)
Upcoming stories from the Vegas Golden Knights vs. Colorado Avalanche at T-Mobile Arena.
- If that’s the top line, that’s what’s needed from them
Ken’s Three VGK Stars
*** Ivan Barbashev
** Mark Stone
* Jack Eichel
3 takeaways from the game, presented by @dotvegasinc
1) Jack Eichel was on another planet tonight. Unbelievable performance that's hopefully a sign of things to come for a massive season.
2) Power play looked really solid. Liked the attack mentality of the 2nd one more than the… pic.twitter.com/1afBxAISyJ— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) October 10, 2024
VGK have won their 6th consecutive Opening Night and 7 of the first 8 in franchise history.
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) October 10, 2024
The Golden Knights finish Opening Night with a 36% shooting percentage. #Sustainable
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) October 10, 2024
The Eichel line with yet another one! Eichel and Stone have been on the ice for SIX goals tonight.
Barbashev with a backhander to the top shelf. It's 7-4 VGK.
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) October 10, 2024
knights fan in minny
only the first game but there was positive’s 8 goals holy crap sweet barby backhander that had some zip on it 7 of 10 at home to start should help
DL
2 PTS
Tripp
Marchy, Marchy, Marchy!
Love the guy, was worried about replacing his production. 1 game in no prob! Worried about Hill, looks slow and I think being anointed the #1 instead of having LT over his shoulder has made him lazy. Don’t know much about Sam but Hill need some pressure to perform. Good win 81 to go. Wild Bill will only make us better. Must say, a little disappointed in Hertl, wasn’t really noticeable but it’s one game let see what happens.
Vic
Marchy who? Anyway, Pavs almost caused a disaster with that O zone penalty wiping out the goal and leading to a goal the other way. But the team overcame that 2 goal error. Felt like the VGK could have scored 10-15 goals with those two goalies being beat up high (7 goals on 20 shots taking out the EN goal). The AVs PP is scary and other worldly, but the good guys PP was very nice.
Emmanuel
Theyre going to score, its the F checking on the wings that may be their undoing.
JB
Good start! Hill a little shakey. Jack line pretty damn good!
TS
Surprise!–the guys CAN score, after all!! Pretty impressive, everyone contributed last night, great opening night statement!
Alex
Hill is really bad – soft rebounds, out of position…
ThG
our goalie was better than their goalie !! (barely)
Oro good O, soft on D at times.
Holtz ok on D.
AVS D was very poor.
Hertyl needs better line mates, obviously (where’s the pavel poster with usual ten pavel posts ?)
Fourth line played very well most of game.
Good win.
NAM
Tongue twister: how many pavel posters post when pavel posters post post?
ThG
probably pistol pete and pedro the perpetual posters of preposterous presumptions of popping P’s . while probably eating pea soup.
ThG
that is our goalie was slightly better than their goalies, was worried about Barbie coming into season, he had a great game last nite. Needs to show up every night and be consistent.
Richie-Rich
GAME 1 ANALYSIS
The NHL pundits have the VGK in the 2nd tier of teams coming into this season, calling their chances for a Stanley Cup as a “long shot”. The top tier teams are Edmonton, Florida, New Jersey, Dallas, Rangers, and Colorado.
The keys to this huge 8 goal victory>
Jack Eichel was my 1st Star with his 4 assists and excellent play in all aspects of hockey, 5 on 5, 4 on 4, the PK and PP.
Ivan Barbashev was my 2nd star with 4 points (2G, 2A).
Mark Stone gets the 3rd star with 3 points.
Oloffson was a huge surprise
Both Whitecloud and McNabb was especially good on D
Hill made some outstanding saves in that 3rd period
Concerns –
Pavel Dorofeyev was not good in this game offensively or defensively. I think he will be fine. I still have not heard what is ailing Wild Bill.
Brisson doesn’t look to be quite ready for the NHL yet.
Hill was spotty in the 1st and 2nd period but credit Colorado for their offensive prowess. If Hill didn’t step up in that 3rd period this very well could have been a 9-8 Colorado win.
Interesting
Bednar pulled his goalie at the 5:20 mark almost as a statement to his team. I think that Colorado underestimated the Golden Knights in this game.
Eight goals? If the VGK can sustain this level of offensive output that would be great. We need a full season out of Mark Stone.
NAM
For as great as the first line was, and it was great, where the hell was the other lines and the defense/goaltending? Gonna take this as a win against a wounded, but still capable team, but put an asterisk next to it that denotes fix the issues quick. Hertl’s line was non existent. Outside a goal and a really nice rush attempt Roy’s line was non-existent. 4th line was great the 1st period and then decent the rest of the game, but I would mark them as doing their job. They were able to burn up time in the offensive zone while getting some chances. Hill was not great. All and all 2 points and 81 more games to improve, but it was a pretty damn entertaining game.
knights fan in minny
1 game calm down hill was okay 3 of the 4 goals by mikko great shots nobody would have stopped
Hdbiker7851
As l pointed out after the Shark game and their 3 goals in just over a couple of minutes – Vegas needs to score a ton of goals with Hill in the net at this time. With the six on five pretty much the last 5 minutes until the EN late in that time Vegas had their hands full not being able to get out of their end. Concerning Mikko if l am not mistaken they were all scored from the same spot so perhaps that should have been a wake-up call. Great start to season.
Jose
Stop crying about a preseason game bitch
Larry
It’s only 1 game… a very uneven game…I was concerned if we would have ANY transition goals this season… any 3 on 2’s… Eichel notwithstanding of course …but some really amazing pinpoint passing was very encouraging …negatively some forwards were invisible… I was thinking they had been benched and double shifting was going on but apparently that was not the case.
So nice of TNT to NOT show any of the opening night festivities …instead showing the studio guys who parenthetically are entertaining… but come on it’s opening night in VEGAS…at the very least let’s hear Golden Pipes!!
Lastly…how could I not mention the oilers being thrashed…if they believe skinner is the answer in goal they will find they are sadly mistaken….and lastly lastly…. mark it down…Marchy will have 22 goals this year.
knights fan in minny
i never thought much of skinner
vgk21
Good opening win. the goals are starting to come from Olofson, and the Jack, Barby, Stone line looks great.
fantastic goal by Barby…his stickhandle move and his Crosby-like backhand snipe were amazing.
Hill clearly needs a reset to his game and his confidence, as he has not looked like himself since the beginning of camp.
not a good knight for Doro, or Hague, or Hertl
Wild Bill is greatly missed in defensive situations.
NAM
Not to get too negative, but I think Hill looks exactly like himself. He is a great goalie when the guys in front of him play cup winning defense, otherwise he has never been a goalie that steals away games when the team defense is sub par. The defense isn’t going to be the cup-year defense this year so I expect Hill to get shelled often. I don’t know much about the new goalie, but I expect the starts will end up going his way if he is any good in these situations.
Tim
If you look at the schedule 7 of the first 10 at home and not top teams. Not to get excited but if the Knights don’t disappoint they could have a great start to the season. First game some stepped forward and some didn’t let’s give it a few weeks before we come to any conclusions. Dorofeyev, Hertl, Brisson, and Hague didn’t have a good game but it’s early. The worry seems to be Hill gives up 5 against Sharks and last night 4 against the Avalanche my confidence level is pretty low right now.
knights fan in minny
calm down 1 game your confidence level better get better for the tribe no name tigers look good
JB
Probably give Sam the start in net Friday. Is Wild Bill out for one week, one month, all season? Hey Ken can you dig for some info on him. Thanks
RIchie-Rich
Game 2 Pre-Game Analysis
The Blues will be in Vegas on Friday in a back-to-back road game after facing the Sharks tonight (Thursday, 10 October). The Blues beat the Kraken 3-2 on Tuesday and are 1-0 as of this posting.
Shut down Jordan Kyrou and solve Jordan Binnington if he is in goal on the back to back.
Still waiting to hear something from either the VGK or Ken as to what the deal is on #71.
RIchie-Rich
This is dedicated to all of you Nancy’s. Don’t be Nancy!
Troy
Great start. Looks like PK and overall D could be a bit tighter, but good win against a good team.
Jim
haha, after game 1, Ivan McBarbashev and Jack McEichel are leading the league in scoring…….
and Paul Cotter one pt behind them.