3 Takeaways from the Golden Knights' exhausting 7-5 win over the Chicago Blackhawks

On the night the team celebrated their 300th home game, it seems fitting that it came out as action-packed and drama-filled as it did. There were wild momentum swings, a goalie change, wild spikes in nerves (especially after the second), goaltending and defense on both sides that were as hard to spot as the plot of a bad Michael Bay movie.

Ultimately, a happy ending: a 7-5 Golden Knights’ win over the Blackhawks. Here are my 3 takeaways from a “DA BEAR”—utiful night (for the most part) at the Fortress.

“Hey Mr. DJ, Put a Record on…”

Outside of that 300 home game milestone, there were a lot of Vegas records that fell tonight. Jack Eichel passed David Perron for the all-time single season assists record with 51 assists. Tomas Hertl set the single season power play goal record with his 11th power play goal. All in the course of a five-goal first period from five different Golden Knights, which tied a team record for goals in any period.

There was also Tanner Pearson playing in his 700th NHL game, which most nights is a great accomplishment in its own right. But it gets overshadowed by all of that, and the debut of an (if everything holds up) brilliant line for this team going forward.

HBK Line engineer some beautiful (metaphorical) Chin Music

There was a little surprise as, thanks to the magic of the line blender, Brandon Saad was bumped up to the top line for the first time since coming to Vegas, joining Jack Eichel and Mark Stone. What was left with Brett Howden, Ivan Barbashev, and Keegan Kolesar together for the first time this season on the third line. The result? A consistently smooth and well operating line that was the best one all night by combining for four goals, five assists, and a +8.

With the trade deadline looming ever larger on the horizon, it’s hard to get too attached to this line combo. But if they’re all on the team together by the opening faceoff Friday night against Pittsburgh, especially if putting Stone and Saad up to the top line is the plan, you have to feel pretty good for the makeup of that line.

“And now for something completely diffeARGH…”

Now for the painful bit of the night. Ilya Samsonov started his first back-to-back since October 19-22. At first, it didn’t seem to hamper him. He was mostly solid in the first period, only letting in a rebound from Ryan Foligno after a nice pad save seconds before. Then the second period started, and…

After that goal, Samsonov almost had as many saves the rest of the way (10) as he had in that first 20 (seven). All you can hope for is that these kinds of games won’t linger on for Vegas come May or June, if he ends up in net somehow. On the plus side, there are plenty of teams in the Western Conference (outside of Winnipeg) you can plug in those same worries.

Next on the Marquee:

It's Game 2 of the five-game homestand against the New Jersey Devils at 4 P.M. on Oscar's Sunday. So you can jump between the game and the telecast if you’re a fan, or just wait until the end and the big four categories. It works either way.

As for the game, the last time we played New Jersey was three weeks ago which signaled the welcome death of the funkish misery that was January. The goaltending matchup should/hopefully will be favorable to the Golden Knights, given they’ll be coming from Utah on a back-to-back. Till Sunday night…