ANAHEIM -- The Vegas Golden Knights aren't the first expansion team to lead the division in November.
On November 13, 1992, the 9-8-2 Tampa Bay Lightning were lording over the Norris Division. Since 1970, Tampa Bay and Vegas are the only true expansion teams to have sole possession of first place in November.
Of course, those Lightning petered out, finishing with 53 points -- coincidentally, 53 points out of first place.
The Knights, who outshot the Ducks 49-19 in route to a commanding 4-2 road victory, don't look like they'll go away so easily.
Winning Play
Down 2-0 late into the middle frame, Vegas was in trouble. But then, William Carrier drew an interference call on Sami Vatanen. The power play put the Golden Knights right back in it:
Off the Jonathan Marchessault faceoff win, Shea Theodore floats the puck over Logan Shaw's stick, onto David Perron's blade. Perron sizes up up his options:
Marchessault hangs out around the circle for a one-timer. James Neal heads for the high slot. Erik Haula slinks toward the corner as something of a safety valve.
"I think I was going to the net a little bit more. For the high tip," noted Neal. "[Wagner's] got to take away the high tip. When that happens, it opens other stuff up."
He's also setting a subtle, legal pick, which hampers Wagner's ability to cut off the cross-ice pass.
"It's a great play by Perron," Neal said. Of course, that's true, but they're also great plays by the whole line. Let's not forget Marchessault positioning himself higher to receive the puck in the open lane. Any lower, and Wagner might have sticked away the pass.
Right off the faceoff, it looked like all this might be a set play, but Marchessault wouldn't go so far to say that. Regardless, it was textbook in so many ways.
Pluses
This was also textbook:
At the same time as Neal tips a Nate Schmidt pass into the zone, Haula is going full bore to chase it down. Timing the dump-in with speed for recovery is essential to successful dump-and-chase hockey.
And while Haula doesn't recover himself, he beats Derek Grant down the wing and pressures Josh Manson into coughing it up to Neal.
This would directly result in Colin Miller's tying goal.
"[Our] 2-0 lead wasn't really a true tale of the game," acknowledged Andrew Cogliano. "We shouldn't kid ourselves. We weren't even close."
According to Natural Stat Trick, Vegas held a 69-28 5v5 Corsi, 38-18 Scoring Chances, and 15-6 High-danger edge. By my count, the visitors outchanced their hosts 27-11 at evens.
Any way you slice it, the Knights, particularly the Marchessault-William Karlsson-Reilly Smith line, feasted on the Ducks. Karlsson paced the team with a 29-4 5v5 Corsi. 29 to 4.
Marchessault also set a career high with eight shots on goal.
Minuses
For a while, it looked like Grant's power play deflection, which gave the home side a 2-0 lead, would be critical. The goal came off an easy Anaheim zone entry after a Pierre-Edouard Bellemare turnover. This was unusual from the team's most-used penalty killer.
Key moment on PK: Bellemare on attack, had chance to put it in deep, but looks for offense to streaking Smith. Lindholm stands up, Vermette intercepts in middle of ice, Grant gets an easy entry
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