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Powered by two four-point nights from forwards Ivan Barbashev and Jack Eichel, Vegas has a 1-0 feeling to start the new year.
This year’s rendition of the VGK squad beat the Colorado Avalanche, 8-4, Wednesday, Oct. 9 from the T-Mobile Arena in a matchup that featured the Stanley Cup Champions from 2022 and 2023.
The Knights have now won six straight season-opening games and sport a 7-1-0 overall record in such scenarios. Head coach Bruce Cassidy sports a perfect record in three tries.
”I’d like to think we’re prepared,” Cassidy said. “The first 10-15 games, our record has been good. Usually that’s a product that you’ve had a good camp, you’ve covered a lot of things and guys are up to speed with that.”
With the win, Cassidy needs three more victories to reach 100 as a Golden Knight.
Tuesday’s opener marked the start of a three-game home stand for the VGK with the St. Louis Blues next on the calendar. That game is scheduled for Friday, Oct. 11 at 7 p.m. from the T-Mobile Arena
“Good start,” Captain Mark Stone said. “Obviously, there’s going to be things that you want to improve on, you never like giving up four goals.”
Barbashev gave the team its first lead with a goal with less than one and a half left in the game’s opening period. Vegas would never relinquish that lead after securing it.
He’d pick up two assists before scoring his second goal in the third period in what would become a runaway win for the Golden Knights.
”It felt good,” he said. “I still think we’ve got a lot of things to prove to be honest in the next couple of days because I think our start wasn’t good enough.”
During his four-point night, Barbashev teamed up with Eichel on both of his assists. The latter would add a third assists in the second period, marking the eighth three-assist game of his 10-year career.
Eichel recorded four total assists on the night in just over 20 minutes on the ice.
“Typical Jack,” Barbashev said. “There’s not much I can say about him, he’s in mid-season form which is good for us.”
In addition to the two four-point nights for both Barbashev and Eichel, two other Golden Knights netted multiple goals.
Stone lit the lamp two times and now has scored season-opening goals in four of the last five years for Vegas.
Right-wing Victor Olofsson scored two goals including his first as a Golden Knight in his official debut.
”I see myself as an offensive player,” Olofsson said. “It’s always nice to score a goal early in the season. It gets you going a little bit and feel a little bit more comfortable out there.”
The potent Vegas offense forced a goalie change after five goals in 16 shots on goal through the first two periods. Eventually the team would pump out eight goals on 21 shots.
Center Brett Howden was responsible for three of the first four shots on goal. He’d finally score late in the third period for his 40th career goal.
“I loved the last [goal],” Cassidy said. “Because I knew the game was over then so that’s good.”
Colorado fired five shots on goal before Vegas could tally its first. VGK goalie Adin HIll’s biggest adversary was Avalanche right-wing Mikko Rantanen who recorded a hat-trick.
Hill would post 28 total saves in the outing as he improved his opening night record to 3-0-0. Vegas blocked 16 shots to assist Hill in the winning effort.
“I thought there were a lot of good goals,” Cassidy said. “[Eleven] goals and I don’t know that you can fault the goalie on very many of them. Just some nice plays out there.”
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