Vegas Golden Knights: Three takeaways from shootout success
The Vegas Golden Knights will head out on the road with two consecutive wins after beating the Arizona Coyotes 2-1 in a shootout on Friday night.
It was an impressive win over one of the best teams in the Pacific Division for the Vegas Golden Knights, who will now head out to the East Coast for a three-game road trip.
And it was needed to given that the Golden Knights had gone 4-6-3 in November prior to Friday, and it was around this time last year that they embarked on a run and carved out winning records in December and January.
They have showed signs that they could be on the cusp of hitting the peak of their powers in the last two games, and they really impressed against the Coyotes.
The Knights dominated puck possession at times and got on the board in the second period thanks to Alex Tuch‘s goal on the power play.
Arizona did strike back, however, and they made it a tied game when Jakob Chychrun walked in down the left side and fired a laser past Malcolm Subban.
Both goalies stood on their heads in the third period and in overtime, taking the game to a shootout where Jonathan Marchessault was the only player to score in the first two rounds.
Subban had made two big saves and, even though he couldn’t stop a shot from Christian Dvorak, the work was already done and that was confirmed when Alex Tuch pulled off a filthy move to convert the winning goal in the shootout.
Let’s go through our biggest takeaways from the Vegas Golden Knights’ 2-1 shootout success over the Arizona Coyotes…
1. Tuch’s big night
It is fair to assume that Alex Tuch probably let out a big sigh of relief in the wake of the Vegas Golden Knights’ shootout success over the Arizona Coyotes.
Because, up to this point, it has been a frustrating year for Tuch who has only played 11 games due to two lower body injuries.
It takes a while to get back up to speed and there is the added caveat of the fact that Tuch’s minutes have dipped due to the fact that he’s now on the third line.
However, Friday night may well act as a turning point for Tuch who came up big for his team and reminded us all of just how elite a player he can be.
That shootout move tho...
— 🏆 - Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) November 30, 2019
🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 pic.twitter.com/At6yF3IXA2
He got to the front of the net in the second period to redirect Nic Hague’s shot from the point past Darcy Kuemper, before becoming the hero in the shootout after pulling off a filthy move and then beating Kuemper.
It was a significant moment for Tuch who has yet to get going this year, and hopefully his big night against the Coyotes can act as a springboard when it comes to the forward going on and hitting the peak of his powers.
2. Subban stepping up
Malcolm Subban made his third consecutive start for the Vegas Golden Knights with Marc-Andre Fleury away from the team due to personal reasons.
And Subban is certainly stepping up to the plate in the absence of Vegas’ starting goalie and future Hall of Famer.
After playing a key role in the Golden Knights beating the Nashville Predators, Subban elevated his game once again on Friday as he allowed just one goal on 36 shots.
He made some big stops at critical periods in the game and then there was the shootout, where he saved his best stuff for last.
The backup goalie stoned both Nick Schmaltz and Conor Garland in the shootout and, although he was beat by Christian Dvorak, Subban is still a perfect 5-0 in the shootout in his career having stopped 18 of the 19 shots he’s faced.
Impressive stuff indeed.
Now, don’t get me wrong, there are still question marks over Subban and rightly so, but the fact that he’s coming up big when the team really needs him deserves some credit.
3. Turning the corner
Let’s not get too carried away yet but could the Vegas Golden Knights be turning a corner?
There are signs at the moment that they could be on the cusp of reaching the peak of their powers and finally morphing into the team we thought they were.
Like they did against the Nashville Predators, the Golden Knights dominated large parts of the game against the Arizona Coyotes and generated a lot of pucks on net, only to come up against a hot goalie in Darcy Kuemper.
But they were getting traffic to the net and were playing hard in all three zones, which has been missing as of late.
And, when the chips were down, they rolled their sleeves up and did what they had to do to beat a very good team in the shootout.
They’ve beaten their last two opponents in overtime and in the shootout now, and that shows that this team will never give up and they are prepared to fight for every single inch.
That’s extremely encouraging going forward.
Tuch the hero as Coyotes are taken down. dark. Next
They are right there in the Pacific Division now and this coming week could be huge for the Golden Knights, who face the New York Rangers, the New Jersey Devils and the New York Islanders in a three-game swing on the road on the East Coast.
If the Golden Knights can return home with two wins out of three potentially, then that will put them in an outstanding position to really assert their dominance on the rest of the Pacific Division heading into Christmas and the All-Star break.