Two Golden Knights legends play the classics with a big win on Elvis tribute night

Perhaps it was fitting that Elvis Knight was scheduled for Thursday's game, as the Vegas Golden Knights certainly made the Columbus Blue Jackets feel blue in a 5-3 regulation win at home. While what I assume was intentional scheduling didn't land as well as expected with Elvis Merzlikins riding the bench, Vegas won back-to-back games for the first time in a month, and got their first regulation win since December 23.

Perhaps the theme did get taken a bit too literally, as Vegas visited the Hart-break Hotel in the first period. However, besides that seemingly bad injury to Carter Hart, it was the sort of bounce-back performance the team truly needed. Let's delve into the highlights!

Reilly Smith and Mark Stone stay hot

The two veteran VGK forwards had a night to remember Thursday. After struggling for most of the year and being healthy-scratched at times, Reilly Smith now has five goals and seven points in his last nine games, including the 30th multi-goal game of his career tonight. His second goal of the night, coming off a beautiful tic-tac-toe on a delayed penalty, meant he'd scored three of Vegas' last four goals at that point.

Meanwhile, the Vegas Golden Knights captain did it again, coming away with a goal for the sixth consecutive game and adding two assists for yet another multi-point night. Remember when some people said he should be left off Team Canada?

Speaking of the Olympics, Jack Eichel, Mitch Marner, and Tomas Hertl walked away with multi-point nights as well. All in all, a pretty good game for some of Vegas's Olympians.

Goaltending becomes a question... again

The hockey gods giveth, and the hockey gods taketh away. With the recent news that Adin Hill has returned to practice, including traveling on the dad's trip, it only feels natural that Vegas would suffer yet another goaltender injury, because of course that would happen. Early in the first period, Carter Hart got caught up in a netfront scramble, seemingly twisting his left knee after some light contact from CBJ captain Boone Jenner:

Following a somewhat controversial goal just afterwards, Hart was helped off the ice, unable to put any weight on his left leg. Needless to say, not good. While I've been critical of his play and Cassidy's continued insistence on starting him in recent days, this isn't something I wanted to see.

Either way, it now looks to be Akira Schmid's net once again, until Hill's cleared for games again. Schmid was solid enough in relief of Hart, with two goals against on 23 shots and just under 1 goal saved above expected. Best of luck to our Swiss Olympian!

Closing notes on comebacks, in one way or another

For the second straight game, Vegas fell into a 2-0 hole early, and for the second straight game, they climbed out of it. It's great to see the team rediscovering itself, in a sense. I remember believing that this team was never truly out of games during the Cup year, with any comeback possible. On top of that, they didn't need overtime this time, which is a step in the right direction.

And finally, a month after he was originally called up and sent back down, Dylan Coghlan finally suited up for the Golden Knights on Thursday, replacing Jaycob Megna and registering his first VGK game since April of 2022. He officially becomes the second player with multiple tenures in a VGK jersey after Reilly Smith. Welcome back for real, Cogs!