Seattle Kraken @ Vegas Golden Knights
Vegas Golden Knights Notes
Success in Season Openers
The Vegas Golden Knights enter Tuesday’s game with a 3-1-0 record in season openers, including wins in each of the last two openers. Captain Mark Stone has two goals and two assists in his two previous season openers with the team. Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith both also have two career goals in season openers with the Golden Knights. The Golden Knights are 3-1-0 in home openers all-time; this marks the fourth straight year that Vegas has opened the season at home.
Looking Back At Inaugural Success
Vegas enters its fifth season four years and six days after the franchise made its debut Oct. 6, 2017, with a 2-1 win at Dallas. Vegas is the only expansion team in the last 28 years to earn a season-opening victory in its inaugural campaign. The Golden Knights started their inaugural season 8-2-0 in their first 10 games.
Franchise Success in Four Years
The Vegas Golden Knights have enjoyed tremendous success in the time since joining the NHL during the 2017-18 season, posting the fourth-best regular-season record in the NHL in that time (173-94-24, .636). Vegas has reached the Stanley Cup conference finals three times in those four years, joining the Tampa Bay Lightning as the only teams in the league to do so.
VGK Under Pete DeBoer
The Golden Knights collected their 20th victory under Pete DeBoer with it’s last-minute 1-0 victory over the Arizona Coyotes (Jan. 24, 2021) and collected their 50th victory under DeBoer with a 5-2 victory over the Colorado Avalanche (April 28, 2021). Since becoming the bench boss in Vegas on January 15, 2020, the Golden Knights have a 55-19-4 (.731 points percentage) record under DeBoer. The points percentage during that time ranks second in the NHL behind Colorado (.738).
X-Marks The Spot (x4)
The Vegas Golden Knights became the fourth franchise in NHL history to make the playoffs in each of its first four seasons, following the Edmonton Oilers (13; 1980–1992), New York Rangers (9; 1927–1935) &St. Louis Blues (6; 1968–1973). Each club did so under different rules &circumstances, with only Vegas &Edmonton achieving the feat after the 1967-68 expansion season.
Overtime Was Winning Time For VGK In 2020-21
The Golden Knights finished the 2020-21 regular-season with a 9-0 record in games that ended during the three-on-three overtime session. They were the only team in the NHL to not lose a game during the five minute extra session. Max Pacioretty led the league with four overtime winners and Jonathan Marchessault chipped in with two OT winners
Rockin’ Robin
Since joining the Vegas Golden Knights last season, goaltender Robin Lehner has a 16-4-2 record in the regular-season to go with a 2.20 goals-against average and a .917 save percentage. At T-Mobile Arena, he is 10-1-2 with a 2.11 goals-against average and a .921 save percentage. Lehner collected his second shutout as a Golden Knight against Anaheim (April 16, 2021) and it was his 16th career shutout.
Shea Hey Kid
Amongst all defensemen, Shea Theodore finished tied for seventh with 42 points (8G, 34A). His 34 assists rank second on the Golden Knights and were tied for sixth among the league’s blueliners. The Aldergrove, BC native leads the NHL’s defensemen who have posted 40 or more points in plus/minus with +28, which also led Vegas.
Stone Era
Vegas forward Mark Stone recorded multiple points in five consecutive games (April 12-19), which is a career-best, & tied William Karlsson for the longest multi-point streak in VGK history. Karlsson recorded multiple points in five straight games Nov. 16-25, 2017. Stone finished with 61 points (21G, 40A) in 55 games during the 2020-21 season. His 61 points rank tied for 11th in the NHL, while his 40 assists tied for 10th in the league. He led the league with 58 takeaways & has recorded 659 total career takeaways, which is the most in the league since the beginning of the 2012 season. He also finished the season with a 21.4 shooting percentage, which ranged second in the league. Stone was named the NHL’s first star of the week (March 8) after leading the NHL with eight assists & 10 points in four contests to power the Golden Knights (16-4-1, 33 points) to a perfect week, extending their winning streak to six games (Feb. 22-March 6). He collected a franchise record & career-best five assists (all primary) against Minnesota (March 1), becoming the second player over the last 25 years with five primary assists in a game, following Artemi Panarin on Dec. 8, 2017 (w/ CBJ). Only five different players in NHL history have had a higher single-game total. He was named the NHL’s ‘Third Star’ of the week ending April 18 after ranking second in the NHL with 3-5—8 in four games to lift the Golden Knights (31-11-2, 64 points) to a perfect week.
Mad Max!
Vegas forward Max Pacioretty scored his 300th career goal against Los Angeles (April 12, 2021), becoming the 21st American to reach the 300 goal mark in a career. He also posted his 600th career point (an assist) against San Jose (April 21, 2021). Pacioretty scored 24 goals during the 2020-21 season, which finished tied for 13th in the league. Four of those goals came in overtime, which leads the NHL, and was one OT goal shy from tying the NHL record for most overtime goals in a season. Earlier in the season, he posted his seventh career hat trick after potting three goals against St. Louis (Jan. 26, 201). He leads all active U.S. born players in career hat tricks and ranks tied for ninth all-time points among American born players. His first 10 goals of the season came on home ice and he became the fourth player in as many seasons to score each of his first nine-plus tallies of a season at home, joining Nick Foligno (9 w/ CBJ in 2019-20), Jesperi Kotkaniemi (11 w/ MTL in 2018-19) &Nick Bonino (12 w/ NSH in 2017-18). Pacioretty posted three assists against Los Angeles (Feb. 5). It was just the second time in his career he finished a regular-season game with three or more assists The only other time was with Montreal in 2014. Pacioretty became the second Golden Knight to score in three straight games to open a season after
helping lead Vegas to a 4-2 win over Arizona (Jan. 18, 201), joining James Neal, who did it in the first four games of the franchise’s history..
