Vegas Golden Knights deny Ovi, Caps another slice of history

Notes & Stats

This was the Vegas Golden Knights Lineup to start the game:

Marchessault-Stastny-Smith
Pacioretty-Karlsson-Stone
Stephenson-Eakin-Glass
Carrier-Nosek-Reaves

McNabb-Schmidt
Holden-Theodore
Merrill-Whitecloud

Fleury

Here were some key stats from the game:

• SOG – WAS: 27 – VGK: 29
• FO% – WAS: 38% – VGK: 63%
• PP – WAS: 1/3 – VGK: 0/2
• PIM – WAS: 4 – VGK: 6
• HITS – WAS: 47 – VGK: 27
• BLKS – WAS: 8 – VGK: 16
• GVA – WAS: 1 – VGK: 8

Here is the Official Scoring Summary from the game:

• Nick Holden (5) – Carrier (11), Nosek (5) – 3:43 / 1st
• Reilly Smith (23) – Marchessault (22), Stastny (16) – 17:17 / 1st
• Max Pacioretty (27) – Karlsson (27) – 14:06 / 2nd
• T.J. Oshie (23) – Orlov (21), Vrana (25) – 8:47 / 3rd
• T.J. Oshie (24) – PPG – Vrana (26), Carlson (55) – 10:40 / 3rd

Let’s go over some notes from the game:

• The Vegas Golden Knights are now 31-22-8 on the year, 17-10-4 at T-Mobile Arena and 3-0-0 on this homestand.
• This was yet another impressive win by the Vegas Golden Knights who have now knocked off the last two Stanley Cup Champions in the space of a week.
• They also denied Alex Ovechkin the chance to create history yet again at T-Mobile Arena, with the forward now having gone five straight games without a goal, leaving him stuck on 698.
• However, Ovechkin will reach the 700 goal plateau sooner rather than later and I’m becoming increasingly confident that he’ll surpass Wayne Gretzky‘s All-Time Goals Record of 894.
• Speaking of Ovechkin, he was obviously frustrated and that was on display when the forward sent former teammate Nate Schmidt flying over the bench and nearly down the tunnel. It was a hell of a hit.
• This was another big game from Marc-Andre Fleury who stopped 25 of 27 shots, improving to 23-14-5 on the year.
• Fleury made some big saves in this game and stood on his head in the third period, while absolutely robbing Garnet Hathaway twice in quick succession.
• Final note on Fleury, he should stick with those spectacular golden pads for the rest of the year given that he went 114 minutes without allowing a goal with those pads on.
• Credit to the Golden Knights because with Washington piling the pressure on and T.J. Oshie coming up clutch with two goals, they stood firm and survived the onslaught.
• The decision by Head Coach Peter DeBoer to put Max Pacioretty, William Karlsson and Mark Stone on the same line has been genius. These are their stats together:
• 60 minutes, 77.8% shot attempt share, 73.8% shot on goal share, 28-5 on High-Danger chances and an 81.6% expected goal share. That is just incredible.
• Rookie forward Cody Glass was sent down to the AHL in the wake of this game, but that is just a cap saving move with the Golden Knights gearing up for the Trade Deadline.
• Nick Holden recorded his 5th goal of the year and it came after a beautiful game of tic-tac-toe between Tomas Nosek and William Carrier.
• Reilly Smith has been on a tear all year and he recorded his 23rd goal of the year, with Jonathan Marchessault registering his 22nd assist on that goal, while Paul Stastny also picked up a helper.
• Another player who is having a hell of a year is Max Pacioretty and the forward recorded his 27th goal of the year, putting him on 56 points for the year and within touching distance of his career-high 67 points.
• William Karlsson picked up his 27th assist of the year, and the forward now has 37 points on the year.
• This was a dominant performance from the Golden Knights, apart from the third period, and not only did they outshoot the Capitals but they also dominated in the faceoff circle, winning 63% of their draws.
• They went 0/2 on the power play which is now ranked 10th (21.5), while they have the 22nd ranked penalty kill (78.2) after going 2-for-3 on the PK.
• This was a physical slugfest and, while the Knights dished out 27 hits, they were outmatched by the Washington Capitals who had 47 hits. The Knights did block 16 shots, though.
• Nick Holden led all Vegas Golden Knights skaters in total ice time with 23:58 minutes, while Brayden McNabb was a close second with 23:02.
• The Official Three Stars of the Game were 1. Max Pacioretty 2. Nick Holden 3. T.J. Oshie

Looking Ahead

The Vegas Golden Knights have two games remaining on this homestand and they face a real litmus test against the surging Tampa Bay Lightning on Thursday, before taking on the Florida Panthers on Saturday.