Where Is The Misfits Vibe?: Boston Bruins Polish Off Golden Knights, 5-2, Thursday Before 18,109
Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
Five years into their existence as a NHL team, the Vegas Golden Knights just don’t have the mojo, the vibe, the juice of the Year One Misfits.
I guess they call it chemistry. But the fact is now teams come to T-Mobile Arena and are now outworking and outhustling a team that relied on grit as much as it did talent in the VGK inaugural season that turned Las Vegas upside-down with a historic run to the Stanley Cup Finals in the 2017-18 campaign.
Now the old Misfits return to this Big Ice House off the Strip and get video valentines, drawing cheers and reminiscing of the times when it was a rare night when an NHL team came into this building and just outworked the Golden Knights.
The Boston Bruins’ fourth line center Tomas Nosek got a pleasant and warm reception from the VGK faithful Thursday for the 6PM ESPN game and it wasn’t much after that when a sloppy Knights sequence led to Bruins forward Craig Smith firing the puck past VGK netminder Robin Lehner.
Officially speaking, it was Smith’s seventh goal of the season at the 13:18 mark of period one.
After one period, the Bruins led Vegas, 1-0.
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This arena was crawling with Bruins fans.
The vibe of having so many team opponent fans in the arena reminded me of Season One when fans from Pittsburgh or Minnesota made their presence known in the Vegas arena.
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With about six minutes to go in the second period, the Knights had 23 shots on goal to Boston’s 20.
But there was a sense that the Bruins were in control of the game.
The arena cranked out the songs played on the loud sound system and the knight character played by Lee Orchard banged his shield to try to rile up the fans and add some emotional juice to the building.
But the 23-year-old rookie Bruins goaltender, Jeremy Swayman, looked poised and played confidently.
He had a 2-0 lead thanks to Smith’s second goal of the game at the 11:03 mark.
With about 2 1/2 minutes to go in the period, VGK center Jack Eichel used his speed to gather the puck and outraced Boston’s defenders on a one-man rush and breakaway on Swayman.
It appeared as if he may have lost control of the puck off his stick or pulled the ol’ Kucherov, but the puck slid slowly underneath Swayman and the Knights had their first goal of the night. It was Eichel’s second goal as a Knight. After the second period, Eichel said in an interview that he lost control of the puck and it went between Swayman’s legs.
Our photographer, Tyge O’Donnell, with a five-photo sequence.
After two periods, Boston led, 2-1.
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The third period did not work out very well for the Golden Knights.
David Pastrnak notched his 30th goal of the season.
And Smith completed the hat trick with 5:21 left in the third period to give the Bruins a 4-1 lead.
Bruins fans — and there were a lot of them in the building — tossed their caps on the ice to celebrate the Smith hattie.
Jonathan Marchessault scored his 22nd of the season to make it, 4-2.
Pastrnak scored an empty-netter.
Final score: Boston 5 Vegas 2.
The Golden Knights looked like an identity-less team with some terrific individual players like Eichel and Alex Pietrangelo.
But they are not the Misfits.
The Knights are now 30-21-4 for 64 points, while Boston improved to 70 points on 33-18-4. The Knights are in fourth place in the Pacific Division and occupy the eighth and final playoff spot in the Western Conference. VGK are off to Anaheim to play the Ducks Friday.
