FSM Essential Recap: Golden Knights vs Senators - Game 10

FSM Essential Recap: Golden Knights vs Senators – Game 10

Franchise Sports Media

Golden Knights (5-5)  |  Senators (3-6)

On a day when absolutely nobody remembered there was a game, the Vegas Golden Knights continued their Canadian road trip against the Ottawa Senators with a 5-1 win.

First off, Jack Eichel is a Golden Knight! What a world!

Robin Lehner made his most saves in his Golden Knights career with 38. The Golden Knights got out to one of their best starts this season as they got many chances from Alex Pietrangelo and company but could not get a puck behind Filip Gustavsson.

Vegas killed a Senators power play early in the period after Jonathan Marchessault was whistled for a cross-check. Ottawa began to turn the tide in the later stages, but Lehner continued his excellent start to the season. The period came to a close with the Golden Knights out-Corsi-ing the Senators at a 51.1% rate, but Ottawa had more high danger chances in the scoreless period.

Early in the second period, Lehner made a mind-blowing save as he dove to snag a puck off the goal line.

The Golden Knights opened the floodgates after Lehner’s momentum-shifting save. William Carrier opened the scoring with a flubbed wrist shot that snuck by Gustavsson after Chandler Stephenson darted through the middle of the ice, and Evgeni Dadonov fed Carrier the loose puck.

Shortly after, Brett Howden got on the board for the first time in 20 games as he deflected a well-placed Shea Theodore pass behind Gustavsson. Marchessault quickly added a back-hander into an open net after Nic Roy poked a rebound from a Nicolas Hague shot to a wide-open Marchessault.

The Senators got one back after a deflection from Brady Tkachuk. Vegas got a power-play opportunity with less than a minute left in the period, but the Knights headed to the locker room with a 3-1 lead after an excellent period. The Golden Knights carry-over power-play opportunity ended in the third period with the Senators getting the lion-share of chances on it.

The Golden Knights quickly grasped control of the game and eventually got on the board. Alex Pietrangelo finally broke through for his first on the season with a wrist shot through traffic. The Senators pulled Gustavsson for the extra skater with around four minutes remaining in the period. Vegas iced the game with an empty netter from Marchessault and will be in Montreal on Saturday.

Eichel, who just turned 25 years old on Oct. 28, was the No. 2 overall pick in the 2015 NHL Draft by Buffalo, going one pick ahead of Connor McDavid. Eichel has 355 points in 375 NHL games and, when healthy, is one of the top centers in the world.

“We are getting a player that I think is one of the top players in the league, one of the top centers in the league,” said Golden Knights general manager Kelly McCrimmon. “He’s in the prime of his career as a player who’s just turned 25 years old. It addresses a need in our organization.”

McCrimmon confirmed that Eichel will have the surgery and is set to have it soon. What happens after that is entirely unknown.

“It’s really challenging to give you a time frame because it’s never been done in the sport,” he said. “I’m told that Jack has been able to be quite active in terms of training while he’s injured, even being on the ice. It’s the contact that he would not be cleared to endure. I keep thinking four to five months, three to four months.”

“I think you can’t look short-term when you have an opportunity to get a difference-maker. This guy is 25 years old,” said coach Pete DeBoer. “Those guys are never available. The opportunity to get a guy like this is very rare.”

 

The Golden Knights head to Montreal Saturday. The puck drops at 4:00 pm and can be seen on AT&T SportsNet.