Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
LAS VEGAS, Nevada — It must have been The Reilly Effect.
There he was in his familiar number 19 golden sweater after “Misfit” was sounded around Las Vegas, from the Strip to Summerlin, from Hoover Dam to Mount Charleston.
The original Golden Misfit was back with the Vegas Golden Knights. There were an announced 18,219 fans in the arena, including many who welcomed back Reilly Smith and others who came to watch the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Smith played on the fourth line with Nic Roy and Cole Schwindt, though coach Bruce Cassidy started him with Jack Eichel and Mark Stone to christen the game against the Pittsburgh Penguins. Smith won a Stanley Cup with the VGK in 2023 before moving on to Pittsburgh and then the New York Rangers.
Even though Smith did not score any goals tonight, there was a festive buzz in the air inside T-Mobile Arena, where the Golden Knights methodically churned out a 4-0 win over the listless Penguins.
Ilya Samsonov played well in goal for Vegas, stopping all 22 shots from Penguins players.
The Knights opened the goal scoring with a tally from Tanner Pearson (his 11th) in the first.
Ivan Barbashev notched his 19th in the second.
And Brandon Saad fired an upper-corner seed for his 10th in the third before Stone made some nifty deke moves to slide the puck past Pittsburgh goalie Alex Nedeljkovic for his 17th of the season.
It was the Knights’ fourth straight win and the VGK have a glittering home record of 24-6-3.
Vegas is now 38-18-6 for 82 points atop the Pacific Division with a six-point lead on Edmonton.
See you Sunday at 5 PM when the VGK play the LA Kings.