Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
Adela may have postponed her show on the Strip, but Jack Eichel did not.
The gifted hockey player who is only 25 years old made his Las Vegas debut Wednesday evening, creating the biggest buzz in this market’s sports world this side of Derek Carr and the All-Star Games that took over Sin City last week.
There was no angst about shoehorning Eichel’s $10 million-a-year wages into VGK’s $81.5 million salary cap. But it was a steep price to pay for the Knights. The team placed captain Mark Stone, the emotional heart of the Knights, on long-term injured reserve. Stone’s $9.5 million annual salary was dropped from the cap, leaving the Knights to only trim $500,000 from the salary cap.
So Eichel skated onto the T-Mobile Arena ice with a synthetic disc in his neck thanks to surgery performed shortly after he was traded from Buffalo to Vegas for popular Alex Tuch, Peyton Krebs and a draft pick in November.
Eichel has not played in an NHL game for about 11 months.
He took the game’s face-off for Vegas against Colorado at the 7:22 PM puck drop
*
Eichel’s first shift was about 40 seconds as he anchored a line between Max Pacioretty and Evgenii Dadonov.
On a VGK power play, Eichel showed glimpses of why he’s considered one of the league’s premier talents. He showed the effortless quick speed and agile hands on a PP shift.
Eichel played 6:31 during eight shifts in the first period.
After 20 minutes: Colorado and Vegas are scoreless before an announced attendance crowd of 18,209.
*
In period two, the teams continued to play scoreless hockey.
After two periods, Vegas and Colorado were still scoreless as VGK netminder Laurent Brossoit and Avs goalie Darcy Kuemper were flawless.
*
The Knights started sluggishly in period three and it cost them.
A mere 41 seconds into the final frame, Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog blasted a shot past Brossoit and Colorado led, 1-0.
After Alex Pietrangelo went to the box for tripping, Avalanche forward Mikko Rantanen cashed in on a power play goal.
It gave Colorado a 2-0 lead with 4:15 left in the third period.
Pietrangelo leaned over and skated to the tunnel, the final player off the ice for the Golden Knights.
He made one last attempt to score and Kuemper was too good tonight. He was the game’s top star and stonewalled the Knights and Eichel, 2-0.
“There was some stuff to build on,” Eichel said after the game. “It’s a process. I didn’t expect it to be perfect.”
He mentioned he was “pretty happy” about being out on the ice in an NHL game for the first time in 11 months. “There’s no way to emulate game pace,” Eichel observed.
The red-hot Calgary Flames won tonight and lead Vegas by three points in the division. The Knights fell for the second straight game via the shutout after getting pummeled by Calgary, 6-0, last week.
The Knights’ next game is Friday when the LA Kings visit T-Mobile Arena.
Eichel photos after the game at the media press conference: