3 Takeaways from the Golden Knights' 5-2 metaphorical beatdown of Toronto

It’s not every day that a fight four seconds in sums up a game. But that’s what happened as Tomas Hertl scored 4:29 after Zach Whitecloud took down Matthew Knies, leading to a 5-2 Golden Knights win over the Toronto Maple Leafs. It’s their sixth win out of their last seven, and gives Vegas their largest lead in the Pacific Division since December. Here are my three takeaways on another lovely win (the 23rd in total this season) at the Fortress.

Another great first period, another great win for Vegas

I briefly mentioned Hertl’s goal early in the first period. But it was followed by a couple more goals in 3:45 by Brett Howden and Jack Eichel on the power play. That last one ending Joseph Woll’s night on a sour note that summed up Toronto tonight, outside of Mitch Marner’s goal in the third.

In the last seven games, Vegas has outscored their opponents in the first period, 9-4. The last time this team had this type of quality in the opening period? Once again, back in December.

Hill wins his fourth in a row after busy first period

A big reason why the Golden Knights looked as strong and dominant while posting only eight shots was Adin Hill. He was fantastic in the first period, stopping all 16 Maple Leafs shots. It was also almost exactly the amount of shots (15) he’d face the rest of the game. The weak note was maybe the Marner goal off the Ivan Barbashev turnover, but the game was all over but the shouting at that point.

With his fourth straight win, he’s now given up as many goals in those four games as he did in his last loss a month ago against the New York Rangers. It seems pretty obvious now that Hill’s gonna get the majority of starts for Vegas the rest of this month.

Noah Hanifin picking up the scoring slack on the blueline with Theodore out

Noah Hanifin had a goal and an assist Wednesday night, picking up his third straight multipoint game, his biggest such streak this season. He has two goals and five assists with a +4 since coming out of the 4 Nations and Shea Theodore’s injury in said tournament.

We don’t know yet when Theodore will come back to the lineup. But more performances like this from Hanifin will lessen the need in the short-term to answer that question. It’ll also help [knock on wood] further pad that big lead in the Pacific Division heading into the season’s final weeks.

Next on the Marquee:

The Pittsburgh Penguins come to the Fortress Friday night at 7 P.M. for the penultimate game on the homestand. It’ll be the first of two games in four days against the Penguins. They’re on a pretty ugly looking string right now, losing six of their last seven, where they were outscored 33-20 and cemented their place as the second worst team in the East.

But they picked up Tommy Novak and Luke Schenn earlier Wednesday from Nashville, so there’s that intriguing nugget to chew on. That comes along with whatever fascinating news bombs might be coming over these next couple days. Till then…