Vegas Golden Knights: Four takeaways from Arizona victory

2. Max Pacioretty’s stellar night

Max Pacioretty was just one of a handful of established veterans to get some ice time against Arizona, and he was without doubt the pick of the bunch after carving out a hell of a night in front of net. He recorded a hat trick and also tallied an assist on Cody Eakin’s tuck in the second period to complete what was a very good night at the office.

However, preseason is preseason so the hat trick and four point night won’t count for anything at the end of the day, but what was more impressive was Pacioretty’s attitude and mentality to set the tone from the very first drop of the puck.

He came to play and he was a dominant force throughout the whole game and was easily the best player on the ice. He logged 14:11 minutes of ice time, including 2:07 on the power play, and finished the day with a plus/minus rating of +3, while also tallying six shots on goal in total.

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It was impressive to see Pacioretty so locked in so early on in preseason and that should be hugely encouraging for the Golden Knights when it comes to 2019-20 and what to expect from the former Montreal Canadiens Captain, who will be looking to build on his points total of 40 (22 goals, 18 assists) from 2018-19.

What was also good to see was the way Pacioretty carried himself throughout the game, which carries even more importance when you consider that the wing had high-end rookie Cody Glass alongside him on the top line yesterday, not to mention a slew of other prospects in the line up.

Glass in particular is going all out to make the opening night roster so it would have been invaluable for him to study Pacioretty both in the locker room and during the game, and see how his colleague equipped himself and was locked in ready to play and dominate even in a meaningless exhibition game.

That is the true hallmark of a veteran leader and Pacioretty knows how to play the game by now. He’s a model professional and, although his preseason stats won’t count for anything, the fact that he’s locked in already and looking sharp will only help once the regular season gets underway on Oct, 2.