The Vegas Golden Knights (1-0-0) return to action against the visiting St. Louis Blues (2-0-0) Friday night at T-Mobile Arena.
Vegas went 2-0-1 in last year’s season series against St. Louis and is 15-9-2 in the all-time matchup.
The Blues are skating in the second half of a back-to-back after mounting a three-goal third period to force overtime last night against San Jose. Brayden Schenn scored his first of the year 45 seconds into extra time to give St. Louis the come-from-behind victory, improving the club’s record to 2-0-0.
It was St. Louis’ second comeback win of the year after the Blues overcame a 2-0 deficit against Seattle on Wednesday. After giving up two goals in the first 2:20 of the middle frame, the Blues responded with three straight in the span of 1:55 later in the period. The final two goals came just 20 seconds apart in the 3-2 win.
Vegas is coming off an 8-4 win against the Colorado Avalanche featuring impressive four-point performances by Jack Eichel and Ivan Barbashev. Mark Stone and Shea Theodore recorded three points, and Victor Olofsson scored twice in his Vegas debut.
“It feels good,” Olofsson said. “I see myself as an offensive player, and it’s always nice to score a goal early in the season. That kind of gets you going a little bit, so you feel a little bit more comfortable out there.”
The team’s offensive explosion was partly due to poor goaltending in the Colorado crease, but Vegas demonstrated early chemistry after a series of offseason departures reshaped the roster. The top line was particularly potent; Eichel, Barbashev and Stone combined for 11 points and were electric all night.
Stone cited “key timely goals to push the momentum back in our way” as a key component of the win. Vegas responded within a few minutes of all four Colorado goals. Specifically, the Golden Knights scored 27 seconds, 1:34, 2:14 and 1:30 after the Avalanche tallies.
The Golden Knights’ power play was also effective, going 2-for-3 in the contest.
“I thought we had good patience,” head coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We still attacked but didn’t force things that weren’t there. … All in all, it was a big part of the win.”
But the Golden Knights finished the game with eight goals on 21 shots, good for a shooting percentage of 38.1 percent, the highest in franchise history. This level of offense is not sustainable for many reasons, especially since netminder Alexandar Georgiev’s rough night had a lot to do with it, though it was a strong start to the season and should be a confidence booster for the team.
Another positive takeaway was Vegas’ play at 6-on-5, which was an ongoing struggle for the Golden Knights last season.
“We did a lot better job of finding the pressure points where they were,” Stone said. “Didn’t just let them float around on the outside, get the time to set up their plays. We did a good job forcing them to make mistakes and getting good clears.”
Even so, Vegas gave up four goals as well as a clear-cut breakaway on which Nathan MacKinnon hit the post. The Golden Knights will need to play a tighter defensive game, and Adin Hill or Ilya Samsonov will need to be a little sharper.
Coming into the season, the Golden Knights wanted to focus on the defensive side of things, in part due to the makeup of the roster. Vegas lost key offensive contributors in Jonathan Marchessault and Chandler Stephenson; plus, the Golden Knights have one of the best and deepest blue lines in the league.
“I just felt [defense] would be our strength, and I still do,” Cassidy said. “Guys are more experienced there, the goaltending. We have some younger forwards we’re still sorting through. … I don’t think we were bad defensively [against Colorado]. … It wasn’t an all day in our own end type of thing.”
The Blues have plenty of talent, albeit not necessarily players of the same caliber as MacKinnon, Mikko Rantanen and Cale Makar.
That being said, Jordan Kyrou had two goals against Seattle, and Robert Thomas is a young star with a knack for finding the scoresheet and making his presence felt. Kyrou led the way for St. Louis last season with 31 goals, while Thomas recorded a team-high 86 points (26 goals and 60 assists), 19 more than the second-place Kyrou (67).
Jordan Binnington is likely to get the nod for the Blues tonight; he has an all-time record of 8-3-5 with a 2.98 goals-against average and .919 save percentage against Vegas.
The Golden Knights and Blues usually make things interesting, so this could be another high-scoring affair.
But only one team will walk away with its undefeated record intact.
Projected lineups
Golden Knights
Ivan Barbashev — Jack Eichel — Mark Stone
Pavel Dorofeyev — Tomas Hertl — Alexander Holtz
Victor Olofsson — Nicolas Roy — Brendan Brisson
Tanner Pearson — Brett Howden — Keegan Kolesar
Shea Theodore — Alex Pietrangelo
Noah Hanifin — Nicolas Hague
Brayden McNabb — Zach Whitecloud
Ilya Samsonov
Adin Hill
Injured: William Karlsson
Blues
Dylan Holloway — Robert Thomas — Jake Neighbours
Alexandre Texier — Pavel Buchnevich — Jordan Kyrou
Mathieu Joseph — Brayden Schenn — Kasperi Kapanen
Alexey Toropchenko — Radek Faksa — Nathan Walker
Nick Leddy — Colton Parayko
Philip Broberg — Justin Faulk
Ryan Suter — Matthew Kessel
Jordan Binnington
Joel Hofer
Injured: Torey Krug, Oskar Sundqvist, Brandon Saad
How to watch
Game 2: Golden Knights vs. Blues
When: 7 p.m. PT
Where: T-Mobile Arena — Las Vegas, NV
TV: Scripps
Radio: Fox Sports 98.9 FM
Statistics courtesy of Hockey-Reference