Vegas Hockey Knight
Fansided

Vegas Golden Knights strike early to take down Rangers and achieve a first

By Andrew Steele-Davis

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - DECEMBER 02: The Vegas Golden Knights celebrate a power-play goal by Alex Tuch #89 at 3:50 of the first period against Henrik Lundqvist #30 of the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on December 02, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NEW YORK - DECEMBER 02: The Vegas Golden Knights celebrate a power-play goal by Alex Tuch #89 at 3:50 of the first period against Henrik Lundqvist #30 of the New York Rangers at Madison Square Garden on December 02, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Bruce Bennett/Getty Images) /
facebooktwitterreddit
Prev
2 of 3
Next
NEW YORK, NY – DECEMBER 02: Brayden McNabb #3 and Malcolm Subban #30 of the Vegas Golden Knights celebrate after defeating the New York Rangers 4-1 at Madison Square Garden on December 2, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY – DECEMBER 02: Brayden McNabb #3 and Malcolm Subban #30 of the Vegas Golden Knights celebrate after defeating the New York Rangers 4-1 at Madison Square Garden on December 2, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images) /

Notes & stats from the game

This was the Vegas Golden Knights lineup against the New York Rangers:

Marchessault-Karlsson-Smith
Pacioretty-Stastny-Stone
Carrier-Glass-Tuch
Nosek-Roy-Reaves

McNabb-Schmidt
Hague-Theodore
Merrill-Engelland

Subban

These were the scratches for the Vegas Golden Knights:

Here are some key stats from the game:

  • SOG – VGK: 32 – NYR: 30
  • FO% – VGK: 56% – NYR: 44%
  • PP – VGK: 2/2 – NYR: 0/6
  • PIM – VGK: 12 – NYR: 6
  • HITS – VGK: 23 – NYR: 17
  • BLKS – VGK: 21 – NYR: 11
  • GVA – VGK: 6 – NYR: 23

And here is the Official Scoring Summary from the game:

  • Alex Tuch (3) – Marchessault (13), McNabb (4) – 1:34 / 1st
  • Alex Tuch (4) – PPG –  Schmidt (9), Karlsson (16) – 3:50 / 1st
  • Reilly Smith (12) – Unassisted – 4:44 / 2nd
  • Max Pacioretty (10) – PPG – Glass (6), Stone (13) – 6:20 / 2nd
  • Brendan Lemieux (4) – Trouba (11), Zibanejad (9) – 15:15 / 2nd
NEW YORK, NY – DECEMBER 02: Mika Zibanejad #93 of the New York Rangers and Nicolas Hague #14 of the Vegas Golden Knights jump for the puck at Madison Square Garden on December 2, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images)
NEW YORK, NY – DECEMBER 02: Mika Zibanejad #93 of the New York Rangers and Nicolas Hague #14 of the Vegas Golden Knights jump for the puck at Madison Square Garden on December 2, 2019 in New York City. (Photo by Jared Silber/NHLI via Getty Images) /

Let’s go over some notes from the game…

  • The Vegas Golden Knights are now 14-11-4 on the year after beating the New York Rangers at MSG.
  • And the Knights have finally won three games in a row for the first time this season, while they are now 7-6-1 on the road.
  • It was a big win for the Golden Knights to start this three-game road trip, and they are closing the gap on the top two in the Pacific Division.
  • It was a dominant effort from the Vegas Golden Knights who produced arguably their most complete showing of the year, dominating the New York Rangers in every single area.
  • And plenty of credit must go to Malcolm Subban who, in his fourth consecutive start, stopped 29 of the 30 shots he faced including nine shots on the power play.
  • Subban is now 3-4-2 this year with a 2.84 Goals Against Average and a .908 Save Percentage.
  • Another star of the show was Alex Tuch who recorded two goals in the opening five minutes of the first period, matching the total amount of goals he had scored in his previous 11 games.
  • Tuch has really started to breakout in the last two games and the forward is showing signs that he’s reaching the peak of his powers following an injury-ravaged start to the year.
  • Reilly Smith recorded his 12th goal of the year with a beautiful breakaway move, and it was also a special night for the forward who went up against older brother Brendan, who plays for the Rangers.
  • Max Pacioretty also got on the board, tallying his 10th goal and 26th point of the year, with the forward leading the Golden Knights in points.
  • And let’s stick with Pacioretty’s goal, because the primary assist from Cody Glass was absolutely sensational. It was a no-look pass from Glass who has done that before this season, and you may as well start calling the rookie the Patrick Mahomes of the NHL.
  • The Knights went a perfect 2-for-2 on the power play after previously going 1-for-28 on the man advantage before Alex Tuch converted on the PP in the first period.
  • Jonathan Marchessault recorded his 13th assist of the year after executing a perfect breakout pass to set up Tuch’s first goal of the night.
  • Brayden McNabb had the secondary helper on that goal with his fourth assist of the season, while Nate Schmidt recorded his ninth assist of the year.
  • William Karlsson now has 24 points on the year after picking up his 16th assist of the year, while Mark Stone registered his 13th assist to take him to 24 points on the year.
  • The Golden Knights now have nine players who have recorded 10 or more points so far this season.
  • Vegas Head Coach Gerard Gallant threw out a third line featuring Cody Glass as the center with William Carrier and Alex Tuch as his wings, and it is a line that meshed perfectly. It is worth at least another look for sure.
  • Speaking of new line combinations, it was reported during the game that the Knights had traded for center Chandler Stephenson from the Washington Capitals, a move that was later confirmed. We’ll have more on that trade and what it means later today.
  • Forward Nicolas Roy was reassigned to the Chicago Wolves in the AHL in the wake of the game following the acquisition of Stephenson.
  • Cody Eakin missed the game with an upper-body injury and is week-to-week, while goalie Marc-Andre Fleury is expected to join up with the team at some point this week.
  • Vegas went a perfect 6-for-6 on the penalty kill, allowing just nine shots, and their PK is now ranked fourth in the NHL (85.6).
  • The Knights outshot the Rangers 32-30, they were better in the faceoff circle (56%-44%) and they also outhit the Blueshirts 23-17.
  • Vegas blocked more shots (21-11) and they had less giveaways with six compared to New York’s 23.
  • Vegas and the Rangers will do battle again as quickly as Sunday when New York make the trip to T-Mobile Arena.
  • The Vegas Golden Knights now have an all-time record of 4-1-0 against the New York Rangers, outscoring the Blueshirts 18-13.
  • Brayden McNabb led all Vegas Golden Knights skaters in total ice time with 23:29, including 6:52 minutes of shorthanded time.
Home/Analysis