3 Golden Knights Takeaways From Their Nevada Day Victory

It was about as perfect of a game you could have Friday afternoon as the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Anaheim Ducks to celebrate Nevada Day at T-Mobile Arena.

Here are Vegas Hockey Now’s takeaways from the Golden Knight’s win.

Misfits Magic

Fittingly on Nevada Day, some of the original Golden Knights had strong games. Most prominately was the Misfit line of Reilly Smith, Jonathan Marchessault, and William Karlsson. All were on the scoresheet.

Smith and Karlsson teamed up to score the Golden Knights first goal of the season in the second period, a big goal that crushed the momentum out of the Ducks and paved the way for a VGK victory.

“We’ve been killing a lot since the beginning and we look for ways to go the other way. Some powerplays tend to relax a little bit, so if you have a chance to strike the other way you try to seize that opportunity,” said Karlsson on playing the penalty kill.

Smith went as far as to say that 90% of the time they are out there, they are looking to score.

“We’re always looking for bouncing pucks. Usually, it’s there’s only one defenseman out there. So if you can take advantage of it. Especially when power plays get out there for a long time you kind of catch some some tired legs,” said Smith.

Thompson Fiesty

Logan Thompson made 29 of 29 saves Friday afternoon for his third career shutout and second of the season. But perhaps more noticable was his behavior in between whistles as he got into it frequently with Ducks players such as Frank Vatrano and Trevor Zegras.

“I usually don’t trash talk. Today it was just, I don’t know what was going on. But I got engaged to it. I don’t like to to get into that type of stuff. But like I said it was just one of those moments in the game,” said Thompson.

Reilly Smith says between Thompson, Marc-Andre Fleury, and Robin Lehner, he is used to having goalies get into scrums.

“I feel like we’ve always kind of had goalies like that. So he’s picking up where the other guys left off,” said Smith.

Logan Thompson just shoved a Duck into next week 👀 @GoldenKnights pic.twitter.com/2c3sqKSzIm

— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) October 28, 2022

Shoot it Stephey!

Matching a career-high streak, Chandler Stephenson now has points in five-straight games. The other dat after practice linemate of Stephenon, Mark Stone stated that Stephenson has been great, but that he needs to shoot more.

“He’s the fastest guy I’ve ever played with. Great skill. One thing is maybe he doesn’t shoot as much as he probably should,” said Stone.

Against the Ducks on the powerplay, Stephenson saw no other option than to put the puck on net and it worked, as he scored his fourth goal of the season.

Thoughts on the Ducks

A lot of the Golden Knight’s win can also be attributed to the Ducks being a struggling hockey team. They have just one win on the season and have a roster consisting of just super young players, or veterans. There really doesn’t seem to be an in-between. Most players are in those two categories.

I think the Ducks have a lot of nice young peices like Zegras, Troy Terry, and Mason McTavish. What I keep saying to anyone who will listen is how perfect a team they would be for Connor Bedard, the likely no. 1 overall pick in the 2023 NHL Draft.

Another young player and former Erie Otters defenseman Jamie Drysdale left Friday’s game after this hit.

Drysdale takes this hit & goes to the locker room. pic.twitter.com/S9bJoB3ZP0

— 🦆🏒 1-6-1 (@DucksNPucks) October 28, 2022