Golden Knights Shake Up Line Combos Against Flyers and Defeat Philly, 5-4, Before 18,415 Thursday (And Career D-man Jon Merrill Scored A Goal As A Forward)
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
LVSportsBiz.com photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant mixed up his line-up of forwards and the VGK crowd roared with approval when career defenseman Jon Merrill playing on the fourth line scored in the first period as the Knights jumped out to a 4-2 lead against the Philadelphia Flyers after one period and held on for a hard-fought 5-4 win. The VGK reported attendance at 18,415.
The Knights had to kill off a six-on-three at one point with less than two minutes left in the game to retain the one-goal edge.
It was a serious shake-up up line partners. Merrill played on the fourth line with Nicolas Roy and Ryan Reaves. Normal fourth-liner William Carrier was moved to the third line along Paul Stastny and Cody Glass. And normal third-line winger Alex Tuch was shifted to the first line along William Karlsson and Reilly Smith as Jonathan Marchessault did not play.
Check out this line sheet.
Merrill had fun — like he usually does.
Here are Gallant’s comments after the game.
VGK forward Max Pacioretty scored two goals in period one, too. And defenseman Shea Theodore added one, too, for the 4-2 lead after the first period.
The game got started when UFC legend Chuck Liddell cranked the siren to get things going at the Big Ice House by the Strip. The Knights had 18 shots on goal in the first period.
After two periods, the Flyers were outshooting the Knights, 25-23. Philly ended up outshooting the Knights, 38-33.
VGK goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury stopped this penalty shot in period one.
Fans — including Las Vegas Bryce Harper of the Philadelphia Phillies — had a great time as the Knights led 5-3 after two periods. Cody Glass scored the fifth goal and it turned out to be the game-winner.
What do you think about the new game intro for the Golden Knights?
In Year 1, Golden Knights President Kerry Bubolz used to tell audiences about those Philly fans. Man, they were the rudest fans, Bubolz used to tell listeners at speaking engagements that season. After the Philadelphia Eagles won the Super Bowl in early February 2018, the Flyers visited the Big Ice House by Strip and beat the Knights.
In Year 3, the Flyers have already defeated the VGK in Philadelphia. And on Thursday, the day after the New Year, the Philly orange jersey invasion started early on the plaza.
LVSportsBiz.com chatted with two Flyers fans, who were as friendly as can be. They were Matt and Nick, pictured above with Nick on the right, and they praised T-Mobile Arena for being one of the nicest NHL venues in the country. They duo attended Flyers-Knights game here in Las Vegas the first two VGK seasons so this is their third trip to the Strip to see the Golden Knights.
They have 200 level seats in the upper bowl and both said the sight lines are terrific from the second level.
Nick was wearing a Flyers’ number 9 jersey and I showed my age by telling him that’s a Bob Kelly jersey from the Flyers’ Broad Street bullies days.
We began talking about the goalie from that two-time Stanley Cup-winning team, Bernie Parent, and how a sign guy at the old Spectrum in Philly used to display the “Only Jesus saves more than Bernie Parent” sign after Parent made great saves.
Nick mentioned the sign guy is still there at Flyers games and he brings a lawyer-sized folder holder with an array of signs that are indexed by player and situation.
Matt and Nick were fine fans and don’t expect any shenanigans from those two Flyers fans tonight.
“Flyers fans travel well,” Nick said.
By the way, the arena looked gorgeous late in the afternoon.
That’s the Matt the Flagman Entourage on the plaza before tonight’s VGK-Flyers game. Matt has become a VGK fixture with his flag-waving ways. He was kicked off the plaza on opening day when a fan complained about being hit by the flag, but he has worked things out with arena security and it’s been incident-free ever since.
Matt Helfst works as a chess site webmaster so he’able to mold his schedule from playing knights on the chess board to rooting for the Knights with his flag pole and two VGK flags.
He’s out on the plaza no matter the weather, including a game last February in 2019 when he coped with flying snow on the plaza.
His dream is to get permission to wave his Golden Knights flags inside the Big Ice House by the Strip.
Follow LVSportsBiz.com on Twitter and Instagram. Like LVSportsBiz.com on Facebook.
