After a rough 1-4-1 road trip, the Golden Knights trudged back to Las Vegas, hungry for some home cooking. Fortunately, the Jets were more than happy to oblige, as Vegas trounced Winnipeg 5-2.
Winning hockey here: Good read by Perron to switch off Little to Laine, leave Little to Engelland. Little tries to hit Laine in slot, but guess who's there? #VegasBorn pic.twitter.com/JBBxX9zXTo
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) November 11, 2017
In the grand scheme of things, it's a small play, but it's what winning teams do, and it's something that the Golden Knights have done with some regularity in their surprising 10-5-1 start.
Pluses
You name it, especially in the second period.
There's Jonathan Marchessault beating Toby Enstrom to a loose puck, Reilly Smith bulldozing Mark Scheifele to keep the play alive, then William Karlsson taking advantage of a napping Jets five-man unit.
This, by the way, would be example of #VegasBorn "relentless" play that Guy Boucher mentioned https://t.co/FIDermM34i
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) November 11, 2017
There's 57 fending off 57, as David Perron shakes 6'8" Tyler Myers, which leads to a James Neal strike (with an assist from Dmitry Kulikov):
Moment of silence for the masterful work by David Perron on the James Neal goal. Not even fair. pic.twitter.com/Dq09c3NCYj
— Ryan Quigley (@RP_Quigs) November 11, 2017
This was a key late second period goal, as Winnipeg had cut the Vegas lead to 3-2 just three minutes earlier.
There's three straight passes completed from Deryk Engelland to Luca Sbisa to Reilly Smith to Karlsson on the PK, which springs the Swede for a SH dagger.
An honorable mention is Maxime Lagace's continually-improving play, especially this stunner on Scheifele:
The Golden Knights' fourth-string goalie just did THIS against one of the top goal scorers in the NHL. pic.twitter.com/M2MHfGNSrz
— Ryan Quigley (@RP_Quigs) November 11, 2017
Lagace stopped 27 of 29 shots, but none bigger than that save when the game was still 2-1.
"He’s getting better every game and he’s getting more confident every game," noted Gerard Gallant. "He made that save in the second period. That was probably the turning point of the game."
Minuses
We're reaching here, but once again, the Golden Knights showcased an absolutely wretched 5-on-3 power play.
Neal gets outnumbered on a 5v3, #GoJetsGo clears. This shouldn't happen two men up pic.twitter.com/kwWECU1KYQ
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) November 11, 2017
In 54 seconds, they didn't register a single shot on goal.
If you recall, last Monday, Vegas tanked a 1:12 two-man advantage against the Maple Leafs, managing to get outshot in the process.
To the naked eye, there might be some concern about getting throughly outplayed in the final frame. Winnipeg outattempted them at 5v5 17-6, outshot 13-5, and outchanced at evens 4-2.
But considering Score Effects and the Vegas 5-2 lead entering the third, a better judge of the expansion side's dominance are "Score Close" even strength scoring chances.
If you're not familiar with this term, here's a definition:
In order to filter out Score Effects (explained below), statisticians focus on 5 on 5 performance when the score is close. Score Close is defined as a score that is tied (including 0-0) or within 1 goal in the first or second period. In the third period, the score is only considered close when the game is tied. (Second City Hockey)
Anyway, by my count, the Golden Knights held a wide 7-3 ES Close scoring chances berth. This is far more telling than their slimmer 9-8 Overall ES chances edge.
Vegas crosses the border once again next Tuesday against Edmonton.
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