The Vegas Golden Knights, claimed forward, Michael Amadio, off waivers this past week from the Toronto Maple Leafs. Although there are some other story-lines that should be mentioned, let’s talk about his first game as a Knight.
The Vegas Golden Knights are in a situation where they are in complete desperation to find some people who can go out there and have some durability. The Knights have lost, what feels like, a player per game so far. After recognizing they could use some experience in their third and fourth lines, the Knights went out and claimed forward, Michael Amadio, off of waivers.
So before we get to far into reflecting on Amadio’s first game with the Knights there is one thing that is worth mentioning. So for those of you that don’t know, this is Amadio’s first game as a Vegas Golden Knight. The team that he was claimed off waivers from was actually the Toronto Maple Leafs.
So now after explaining a little bit about Michael Amadio, let’s get into how he fared in his first game as a Vegas Golden Knight.
Reflecting on Michael Amadio First Game as a Knight
Michael Amadio was a guy that I was actually really excited to see going into the game. Anytime you face a team that releases you, it usually cerate’s some form of hatred or fire. Hoping that he’d use that, I thought he may be able to “pop-off” today… He didn’t.
Regardless of rather or not he had the hat-trick that people were jokingly saying he was going to have, Amadio still had a very good first game in my eyes. While on the ice, his presence was felt similarly to team-mate, William Karlsson. He was very involved on the boards, and did a very good job at playing aggressive on the defensive side of the puck. Playing aggressive while on defense is easy for the most part, but what isn’t easy is doing so without drawing any penalties. That’s exactly what he was able to accomplish though.
Although he did play a strong defensive game, at the end of the day, it just didn’t matter. There was a lack of offense by the Knights yesterday and there was just no stopping Auston Matthews while backed up in their defensive zone. Amadio showed promise which was the only bright side to a very poor showing by the Knights. Hopefully looking forward, Amadio is able to build off this performance.