The Detroit Red Wings are coming off a 4-3 overtime victory over the Buffalo Sabres, and they will get right back at ‘er on Sunday, using that “extra hour” of time* to prepare for a home engagement against the Vegas Golden Knights (6 PM EST start on Bally Sports Detroit/ATT Sportsnet Rocky Mountain/97.1 FM).
The Red Wings now stand at 5-5-and-2 after 12 games of play, and Vegas enters tonight’s game at 6-and-5, having won 5 of their past 6 games. This will be the first meeting of the season between the teams, who will meet again on November 18th in Sin City.
Vegas rallied from a 2-0 deficit and a 20-to-1 shot deficit to win a 5-2 decision over the Montreal Canadiens on Saturday night, and Laurent Broissoit is scheduled to start opposite Thomas Greiss tonight as Robin Lehner stopped 36 Montreal shots on Saturday.
Absent a morning skate for both teams, most likely, we’ll examine Vegas’s win over the Canadiens, which was a rematch of last Spring’s Stanley Cup Semifinal.
In terms of video highlights, for those of you who are visual learners, here are Sportsnet’s Vegas-Montreal highlights…
And, here are NHL.com’s highlights:
Anyway, the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s Ben Gotz found it ironic that the Golden Knights’ power play woke from its slumber against the Canadiens…
It had to be in Montreal. Of course it did. The Golden Knights’ much-maligned power play had to return to the site of its greatest failure — an 0-for-15 performance in last season’s NHL semifinal against the Canadiens — to experience success again. Then, it was reborn.
The Knights got their first two power-play goals of the season in their return to Montreal’s Bell Centre on Saturday, which was exactly what they needed for a 5-2 win.
“Every time you go another game without scoring on it, you hear about it,” coach Pete DeBoer said. “So that pressure starts to build. I think we’ve got some new combinations with the guys we have out of our lineup. It’s taken a little bit of time but obviously timely tonight and nice that we won’t have to deal with that goose egg anymore.”
Any negative adjective one wanted to throw at the Knights’ power play the last five months was appropriate.
Awful. Putrid. Punchless.
They finished the postseason on an 0-for-18 skid dating back to Game 4 of their second-round series against Colorado. Then they started this year 0-for-19.
It seemed every time the power play took the ice it took energy from the Knights rather than giving it. Until Saturday.
The Las Vegas Sun’s Justin Emerson picks up the narrative from there…
“We knew it was going to be an opportunity to show what we could do after a period that we didn’t like,” defenseman Alex Pietrangelo said. “You’ve got to be proud of the effort of us coming out in the second playing the way that we did.”
The ability to overcome the disaster that was the first period was nothing short of extraordinary. Vegas didn’t record its first shot on goal until 10:58 of the frame, a Pietrangelo offering from 68 feet away.
That held up as the Golden Knights’ only shot on goal of the period, marking a franchise record for fewest in a frame. The Canadiens meanwhile had 20 shots, the largest differential in any period by any team in the league this season. Montreal scored twice, and managed a 99.5% expected-goals rate (by Natural Stat Trick) that doesn’t seem possible.
“Tonight was not just a poor start, it was a horrendous start, so there’s a whole different level of how we started that game,” coach Pete DeBoer said. “Thankfully our goalie was our best player early and we’ve got a lot of character in that room and our guys fixed it.”
Vegas was scoreless on its first 19 tries with the man advantage this season and the only team in the league without a power-play goal. Pietrangelo quickly changed that, blasting home a one-timer to end the streak. Later in the frame Dylan Coghlan roofed one by goalie Jake Allen, as Vegas finished the night 2-for-2 on the power play.
“Sometimes you’ve just got to simplify it and take the shots when they’re there. That’s pretty much all we did tonight,” Pietrangelo said. “We’ve been looking at a lot of different things, lot of different ways that we can score, but sometimes you just need a bounce or two to kind of kick-start it.”
NHL.com’s Sean Farrell continues…
Pietrangelo scored Vegas’ first power-play goal of the season to cut Montreal’s lead to 2-1 on a one-timer from the left point at 5:16. The Golden Knights had failed to score in 19 man-advantage opportunities through their first 10 games.
“I think the last week we’ve been running stuff that we want, and we just haven’t really gotten the bounces,” Pietrangelo said. “We’ve been close and sometimes you’ve just got to simplify it and take the shots when they’re there. That’s pretty much all we did tonight. We’ve been looking at a lot of different things, a lot of different ways that we can score, and sometimes you just need a bounce or two to kind of kick-start.”
Jonathan Marchessault tied it 2-2 when he scored on a backhand from the edge of the crease at 10:24.
Dylan Coghlan scored Vegas’ second power-play goal 12 minutes in with a low shot from the right point on a pass from Pietrangelo for a 3-2 lead.
“When you have a two-goal lead like that, good teams find a way to lock it down,” Suzuki said. “They had a power-play goal that made it 2-1 and it seemed like we just kind of backed off a bit, let them have the momentum.”
In between the Vegas goals, and before them, Robin Lehner was a stalwart in goal, as the AP’s recap notes:
”Obviously we weren’t happy with how we came out,” Lehner said. ”We stepped up in the locker room (in the first intermission). Leaders, the coach, everyone said it’s enough and I think after the 2-on-1 that they had, I think we played excellent for the rest of the game.”
Pietrangelo credited Lehner’s play for being key to the Golden Knights’ comeback.
”He’s been outstanding all year, tonight’s another example of it,” Pietrangelo said. ”So when there’s a storm for us, he lets us get to our game. But I think we’ve got to get to our game early, we can’t rely on him every single first period.”
Nick Suzuki had a goal and an assist, and Tyler Toffoli also scored for Montreal, which fell to 3-10-0 after reaching the Stanley Cup final last season. Jake Allen finished with 13 saves on 16 shots.
”We started the (second period) and we still had some chances,” Canadiens coach Dominique Ducharme said. ”They took advantage of the play that deflected on (Jeff) Petry but this happens. All in all, they took advantage of their chances and I think that we deserved better. With the scoring chances at 23-7, I would take that every night. I think that nine times out of 10, we would get the win.”
I added that bit from Ducharme simply to rub it in a bit, given that the Canadiens have defeated Detroit twice already this season.
Vegas is without Nolan Patrick and Zach Whitecloud, who are on IR, and all of Jack Eichel, Mark Stone, William Karlsson, Max Pacioretty and Jake Bischoff, who are on LTIR for cap and injuries’ sakes, but Vegas is making due with the lineup it has.
Here are the Game Summary, Event Summary and Rosters from Saturday’s game:
Update: The Associated Press posted a late-night game preview:
BOTTOM LINE: Detroit hosts the Vegas Golden Knights after Tyler Bertuzzi scored two goals in the Red Wings’ 4-3 overtime victory against the Sabres.
The Red Wings are 2-1-2 on their home ice. Detroit ranks eighth in the Eastern Conference averaging 5.2 assists per game, led by Moritz Seider with 0.8.
The Golden Knights are 4-2-0 on the road. Vegas averages only 3.0 penalties per game, the fewest in the league. Mark Stone leads the team averaging 0.5.
The teams meet Sunday for the first time this season.
TOP PERFORMERS: Bertuzzi leads the Red Wings with a plus-10 in nine games this season. Lucas Raymond has five goals and seven assists over the last 10 games for Detroit.
Chandler Stephenson leads the Golden Knights with 12 points, scoring five goals and collecting seven assists. Jonathan Marchessault has 6 points over the last 10 games for Vegas.
LAST 10 GAMES: Red Wings: 4-5-1, averaging 2.5 goals, 4.6 assists, 3.5 penalties and 7.3 penalty minutes while giving up 3.1 goals per game with a .902 save percentage.
Golden Knights: 5-5-0, averaging 2.6 goals, 4.1 assists, 2.9 penalties and 7.5 penalty minutes while giving up 2.8 goals per game with a .920 save percentage.
