Vegas Golden Knights: Schmidt’s heroics, other takeaways

Despite losing to the New York Islanders in overtime on Thursday, the Vegas Golden Knights still finished their east coast road trip with an impressive five points from a possible six.

It was an important week for the Vegas Golden Knights who are starting to hot up, and they gave as good as they got against a very good Islanders team.

There were no goals in a first period that was dominated by the Isles, who outshot the Knights 13-8 and Vegas had Malcolm Subban to thank for staying alive in the game.

The Islanders did land the first blow of the night early in the second period, as Cal Clutterbuck walked in on an odd-man rush before wristing a shot past Subban.

Vegas were hanging on in there, though, and they made it a tied game late in the second when Alex Tuch recorded his seventh point in four games after lasering a snipe over the shoulder of Semyon Varlamov.

Brock Nelson did give the Islanders the lead again in the third period, but Jonathan Marchessault tallied his fourth goal in his last two games to take the contest to overtime.

However, the Golden Knights gifted their hosts a power play and the Islanders took full advantage of it thanks to Ryan Pulock, who had plenty of open ice to drive to before wristing the game-winner past Subban.

It was a tough loss for the Golden Knights who managed to hang with the Islanders despite being outplayed for most of the game, but it was a well-earned point.

Let’s go through some takeaways from the loss to the New York Islanders…

2. Key players hotting up

As much as the Vegas Golden Knights are hotting up right now, certain players are starting to go on absolute tears too.

Alex Tuch tallied a goal against the New York Islanders for his seventh point in four games (four goals, three assists), while Jonathan Marchessault got on the board for his fourth goal in just two games.

Those players starting to hot up is good news for the Golden Knights who need secondary scoring, and Tuch can certainly drive that from the third line.

Speaking of which, the newly constructed third line featuring Tuch, Cody Glass as the center and William Carrier really seems to be meshing well, and the Knights should certainly stick with that combination for now.

And Marchessault starting to find his scoring boots is good news for Vegas, given the fact that the forward is a big part of that potent top six forward unit.

Marchessault only had five goals before this road trip, so if he can start going on a tear now then that will only help the Knights’ cause down the stretch.

Championships and playoff spots aren’t won in December but they can be lost, so it is important that certain players are now starting to find their groove for this team.

3. Schmidt’s overtime brilliance

With the game on the line in overtime, both teams will send out their best players to try and get the job done at 3-on-3.

So, it was no surprise that the New York Islanders rolled out elite forward Mat Barzal, who leads the team in points with 25 (12 goals, 13 assists) this season.

Barzal is a skilled forward who can create something out of nothing and he boasts a silky and smooth pair of hands.

So, put out in a three-on-three situation, you know Barzal has all the skills to be able to wreak absolute havoc.

This is where you have to heap praise on Golden Knights defenseman Nate Schmidt who, for a considerable amount of time, tracked Barzal as closely as The Mandalorian protects Baby Yoda in the hit Star Wars show on Disney+.

Really think I wasn’t going to sneak a Baby Yoda reference in by the way?

Anyway, back to business and Schmidt was absolutely relentless in his pursuit of Barzal and making sure that he wasn’t left alone to cause some serious damage.

It was as impressive a shift by an individual I have seen in a while.

4. Islanders look the real deal

Here is a rare thought on the opposition – the New York Islanders look really good.

Although they have cooled off somewhat of late, the Islanders are still one of the best teams in the NHL right now and their strengths were on show against the Vegas Golden Knights.

They boast one of the best goaltending tandems in the league, they can roll four effective lines and they are an incredibly hard team to score on.

The Isles also boast some talented players, namely Mathew Barzal who leads the team in points with 25 (12 goals, 13 assists).

However, you could say that the Islanders’ biggest flaw is their lack of scoring as they lack 20th in Goals For Per Game (2.82), while they only have two players who reached the 20 point plateau.

But, if the Isles can add a scorer or two at the Trade Deadline, and they are projected to have over $27 million in cap space by Feb. 24, then I really think they could go deep in the postseason.

They have two high-end goaltenders, they have a blueline that dominates and just gets the job done and they also play a real in-your face, physical style of hockey.

Being a long-time and hardcore Rangers fan, this pains me to say it but the New York Islanders look the real deal and if they can add some scoring, then I really think they can cause a lot of damage in the playoffs.