By J. Tyge O’Donnell of LVSportsBiz.com
Well, it was wait-and-see to see if the Vegas Golden Knights and Anaheim Ducks would actually play an NHL game at the Big Ice House by the Strip Thursday after VGK forward Tomas Nosek tested positive for COVID-19 two days ago.
The Knights, wearing gold helmets and drawing lots of fan responses on social media, and the Ducks did play with Anaheim coming away with a 1-0 win. Anaheim goalie John Gibson was rock solid in the shutout, while Marc-Andre Fleury was outstanding in his effort.
The Golden Knights players donned red Chinese New Year jersey for their warmups. The Knights are using the Chinese New Year to sell licensed VGK gear like T-shirt, sweatshirts and caps at their team stores at T-Mobile Arena and City National Arena, the VGK training center in Downtown Summerlin. Player names were in Manderin on the back of their jerseys.
Fan reaction:
The Knights played the Ducks for the fourth time in their first 11 games of this unique 56-game schedule. VGK had defeated Anaheim the prior three games. The Knights are now 8-2-1
Fleury drew his second consecutive start tonight and Oscar Dansk was the backup as VGK goaltender Robin Lehner was expected to start because it was his time to play in the rotation. But he arrived at T-Mobile Arena and then went home. Lehner is day-to-day with an upper body issue.
VGK defenseman Alex Pietrangelo returned to the lineup tonight, while Nosek did not play.
Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore, off to a nice start, did not play.
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The Knights players were also back to wearing their steel gray jerseys after dressing in gold metallic and reverse retro red the last two games. The new wrinkle was the VGKers were skating in gold helmets.
Fan reactions to gold helmets:
It’s scoreless after one period.
And no score after two periods, too.
But Anaheim broke through in the third period for the game’s lone goal.
Final: Anaheim 1 Golden Knights 0