Vegas Golden Knights: Smith steps up to bring down the Blue Jackets
Reilly Smith continued his golden touch in-front of goal with two tucks as the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Columbus Blue Jackets on Tuesday night.
In what was the perfect start to a four-game road trip, the Vegas Golden Knights did what they had to do to grind out a win and their efforts were helped by big nights from Smith and veteran goalie Marc-Andre Fleury.
After dropping a game to the Winnipeg Jets in Overtime on Saturday night, the Golden Knights were looking to hit the reset button as they hit the road for a lengthy trip.
They were gifted an opportunity to get off to the perfect start, too, after going on the power play with Blue Jackets forward Josh Anderson given two minutes for hooking.
However, the Knights couldn’t get anything going in what was a rare misplay by what is normally a red hot power play.
Fleury, playing in his first game since returning from a bout of flu, was busy doing usual Marc-Andre Fleury things as he pulled off a couple of fine stops, including a sublime save on a Sonny Milano shot.
And Fleury’s continued brilliance laid the platform for the Knights to land the first blow of the night with just 44 seconds left in the first period.
Reilly Smith has now scored a goal against every NHL team!!!!
— 🏆 - Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) November 6, 2019
(except VGK of course 😉) pic.twitter.com/e5SFxRHUzG
William Karlsson – playing in his former barn – dished the puck to Reilly Smith who drove hard to the front of the net before throwing the puck on goal via a defenseman.
It was yet another perfect example of how lethal Vegas’ top line can be with Karlsson, Smith and Jonathan Marchessault playing at the peak of their powers so far this year.
Columbus did make it a tied game at 5:37 in the second thanks to Boone Jenner, who ripped a shot over the glove of Fleury who had made two consecutive stops in the lead up to the goal.
But it wasn’t long before the Vegas Golden Knights edged back in-front and it was that man Reilly Smith again.
With the Blue Jackets on the power play, Nick Holden broke up a play in the offensive zone before giving the puck to Karlsson who fed Smith and the forward applied the finishing touch for his second tally of the night.
-1 guy
— 🏆 - Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) November 6, 2019
+1 goal pic.twitter.com/KJ67SrlmaX
Fleury came up big when he needed to while Columbus goalie Joonas Korpisalo made a big save of his own on a William Karlsson one-timer to keep it a one-goal game.
Nic Hague produced a superb play to break up a dangerous two-on-one in the third period, while Jon Merrill also saved a certain goal after swiping the puck away which had squeezed through the pads of Fleury.
And those kind of plays proved the difference as the Golden Knights held on for the win to get this four-game swing on the road underway in style.
Let’s go over some notes and stats from the game…
Notes & Stats From The Game
This was the Vegas Golden Knights Lineup against the Columbus Blue Jackets…
Marchessault-Karlsson-Smith
Pacioretty-Stastny-Stone
Nosek-Eakin-Glass
Carrier-Roy-Reaves
McNabb-Schmidt
Merrill-Holden
Hague-Theodore
Fleury
And these were the scratches for the Golden Knights:
Here are some key stats from the game:
- SOG – VGK: 25 – CBJ: 30
- FO% – VGK: 43% – CBJ: 57%
- PP – VGK: 0/3 – CBJ: 0/4
- PIM – VGK: 8 – CBJ: 6
- HITS – VGK: 10 – CBJ: 19
- BLKS – VGK: 9 – CBJ: 13
- GVA – VGK: 2 – CBJ: 7
Here is the Official Scoring Summary from the game:
- Reilly Smith (8) – Karlsson (11), Marchessault (7) – 19:15 / 1st
- Boone Jenner (4) – Kukan (2), Foligno (5) – 5:37 / 2nd
- Reilly Smith (9) – SHG – Karlsson (12), Holden (2) – 7:36 / 2nd
Let’s go over some notes from the game:
- The Vegas Golden Knights are now 9-5-2 on the year after winning the first game of a four-game road trip.
- The Columbus Blue Jackets, on the other hand, have now lost five straight and are 5-7-3 on the regular season.
- Marc-Andre Fleury was back in net after recovering from flu and he was his usual brilliant self, stopping 29 of 30 shots with the highlight being a sublime save on Sonny Milano in the first period.
- Fleury now has a 2.40 Goals Against Average and a .924 Save Percentage through 14 starts this year.
- Reilly Smith has been lethal in front of goal this year and his two goals against the Blue Jackets means he now has nine goals and 13 points this season.
- Smith also has three shorthanded points after tallying a shorthanded goal against Columbus.
- William Karlsson truly thrived in his own barn and he finished the night against his former team with two assists for two points.
- He is second on the team in points (16) with four goals and 12 assists, and his 12 assists leads the Vegas Golden Knights.
- Jonathan Marchessault tallied an assist on Reilly Smith’s first goal, and the forward now has 10 points (three goals, seven assists) on the year.
- The top line of William Karlsson, Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith are playing at the peak of their powers right now, and the deadly trio have combined for 39 points through 16 games.
- Nick Holden also recorded a secondary helper on Reilly Smith’s shorthanded goal, and the defenseman has two goals and two assists for four points on the year.
- After Reilly Smith’s effort in the second period, the Vegas Golden Knights lead the NHL in shorthanded goals with five.
- The Knights also killed off all four of the Blue Jackets’ power play attempts and Vegas now has the No. 2 ranked penalty kill in the NHL (89.8).
- Vegas were not as effective on the power play as they have been this year, going 0-for-3 and their man advantage is currently ranked seventh in the National Hockey League (23.6).
- Deryk Engelland hasn’t been good this year to put it bluntly, and he was a healthy scratch for the Golden Knights.
- And, while Engelland is a lynchpin on the penalty kill, Vegas went a perfect 4-for-4 on the PK with the likes of Nate Schmidt, Nic Hague, Nick Holden and Jon Merrill all stepping in and doing a fantastic job.
- What does this mean for Engelland? He’ll be back in the lineup for sure at some point but the long-term picture doesn’t look great. We’ll have a story on this later in the week.
- Vegas were outshot 30-25, including 10-7 in the third period, and they had to really bear down and grind out what was an important win to start the road trip.
- The Knights were outdone in the faceoff circle again – 57%-43% – while they were also bettered on the shotboard – 10-19.
- A positive, however, was Vegas’ lack of Giveaways with just two on the night which is certainly a radical improvement compared to recent games.
- Nate Schmidt led all Vegas Golden Knights skaters in ice time with a massive 24:18, including a hefty 5:55 minutes of shorthanded time.
- The Official Three Stars of the Night were: 1. Reilly Smith 2. William Karlsson 3. Joonas Korpisalo.
Next. Work to do but so far so good. dark
Looking Ahead
The four-game road trip continues in Toronto on Thursday night against the 8-5-3 Maple Leafs, who boast a plethora of potent offensive weapons, including Auston Matthews who leads the team in points with 18 (12 goals, six assists).