ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
By Alan Snel, LVSportsBiz.com Publisher/Writer
Year 6 for the Vegas Golden Knights is here.
And it’s a lot like Year 1 in that nobody is quite sure where this team will end up.
There’s a new coach, Bruce Cassidy, who is the Knights’ third head bench chief in six years.
It’s also an older team that required salary gymnastics to limbo below the money cap. With injured goalie Robin Lehner not having his salary count against the cap, the VGK are compliant.
There are expensive individual stars like Jack Eichel, Mark Stone and Alex Pietrangelo who are talented but don’t have the fan connections like Fleury, Reaves and Schmidt had during their stints with the team.
After the Knights had a long summer because of not making the postseason, there’s a new “Golden Age” marketing theme that is ushering in Season 6.
For more “Golden”-theme content, check out this VGK video.
The Golden Knights were in their gold uniforms tonight, while the Kings wore white with chrome helmets.
The Kings’ Gabriel Vilardi scored the game’s first goal in the first period at 10:36 to give LA a 1-0 lead after the first 20 minutes.
After one period: LA 1 VGK 0
Marchessault scored the equalizer at 1:41 into the middle stanza.
After two periods: Golden Knights 1 Kings 1
VGK has 32 shots on goals to LA’s 23.
Then, the third period was a wild one.
Eichel and LA’s Adrian Kempe traded goals in the first four minutes for a 2-2 game.
Karlsson gave VGK a 3-2 lead before the Kings’ Arthur Kaliyev tied the game again.
Then Stone ended it. He scored with 26 seconds left in the game and the Knights came away with a 4-3 win.
Next up: The Knights play their home-opener in two days when Chicago comes to Las Vegas Thursday.