NEW YORK (May 11, 2023) – Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo has been suspended for one game for slashing Edmonton Oilers forward Leon Draisaitl during Game 4 of the teams’ Second Round Series in Edmonton on Wednesday, May 10, the National Hockey League’s Department of Player Safety announced today.
The incident occurred at 18:29 of the third period. Pietrangelo was assessed a major penalty and game misconduct for slashing.
suspension video is below...
Vegas’ Alex Pietrangelo will have a hearing today for Slashing against Edmonton’s Leon Draisaitl.
— NHL Player Safety (@NHLPlayerSafety) May 11, 2023
If you missed the slash last night, watch it here.
from Gerry Moddejonge at the NHL's website,
Stuart Skinner made 25 saves for the Edmonton Oilers in a 4-1 win against the Vegas Golden Knights in Game 4 of the Western Conference Second Round at Rogers Place on Wednesday.
Skinner's performance came two days after he was pulled in the second period of a 5-1 loss in Game 3.
"He bounced back. That's what he does," Oilers captain Connor McDavid said. "I am sure he wanted to play a better game in Game 3, like we all did, and I thought he played really, really well tonight."
The best-of-7 series is tied 2-2. Game 5 will be in Las Vegas on Friday.
"It felt good. It was a huge win by the group and that is the most important thing," Skinner said. "Just the way the guys battled tonight was impressive. You always have to show up the next day and keep on working.
"I am going to keep on growing and learn from my mistakes from tonight as well and just move forward and get better tomorrow."
catch the game highlights below.
If you missed the last 1 1/2 minutes of the Edmonton/Vegas game, here is what you missed.
Woodcroft didn’t want to say much about the Pietrangelo slash, but did go into detail about why he felt it was a fair fight at the end with Nurse and not instigated by him.
— Ryan Rishaug (@TSNRyanRishaug) May 11, 2023
Automatic league review of that instigator with a possible suspension if it stands.
Videos below.
from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,
The Edmonton Oilers have chased these Stanley Cup Playoffs for some time now, losing seven consecutive series-opening games.
But in three of the last four series — not counting this bit of unfinished business against the Vegas Golden Knights — Edmonton has charged back to win and move on in the playoffs. Not good at having a consistent killer instinct, but excellent at finding their game in desperate situations, what exactly does this all say about a supposed Stanley Cup contender?
Today, after a soft, sloppy 5-1 loss in Game 3 — the Oilers were “red rotten,” as former coach Todd McLellan used to say — we wonder what to think of a team that seems to lose its game almost as often as it finds it.
“We've bounced back before,” stated Connor McDavid. “It's a big game for us (Game 4), I understand that. And I expect that sense of urgency to go up. I'd expect our best game for sure.”
“We have experience now, going through situations similar to this,” added Darnell Nurse. “It's a test for us to come out and work the right way in Game 4.
“We’ll break it all down, hold ourselves accountable and give ourselves a standard that we need to play to.”
from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,
How much better were the Oilers than their medieval-themed opponents in a 5-1 win Saturday?
Listen to Vegas head coach Bruce Cassidy after the game:
“They had the puck the whole time,” he said. “That’s how they limited possession. They were hard on the puck … we weren’t. We didn’t have the puck enough.
“If you want to beat a high-powered team, you need the puck. It’s a tough way to play. We needed the puck more.”
'They had the puck the whole time': Knights' Cassidy on how Oilers dominated them in Game 2Play VideoPlayMuteCurrent Time 0:00/Duration 1:03Loaded: 15.59% Fullscreen
To summarize:
It was Edmonton’s puck in Game 2, and as Wayne Gretzky said so many years ago, it was up to Vegas to “go find their own.”
“We played a lot faster. I thought we were more connected. We were a little bit more aggressive,” listed off Oilers captain Connor McDavid, after a two-goal, three-point night. “You know, all the things that we've been building towards.”
Change the momentum?
In the world’s best fight town, this was The Flip Off the Strip.
Edmonton turned this series on its ear, walking into T-Mobile Arena wearing a barrel and suspenders, and strutting out in a Dean Martin tux.
Below watch the game highlights.
from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,
They spent three days on a Santa Monica beach after winning Round 1, and when Round 2 began the Edmonton Oilers looked exactly like you’d think they would.
Like a bunch of guys coming off of a beach vacation.
Attention to detail, execution of the game plan, knowing when to make the safe, easy play… All of those things got left behind at their swanky boutique hotel like a broken pair of sandals, or those sunglasses you can never seem to find when you get on the plane home.
Oilers' Draisaitl does it all himself with four-goal night vs. Golden KnightsPlay VideoPlayMuteCurrent Time 0:00/Duration 3:13Loaded: 5.13% Fullscreen
Leon Drasiaitl scored four times, but even that Herculean effort was enough to carry the Edmonton Oilers past the quick and decisive Vegas Golden Knights, as the Oilers dropped Game 1 of their Rd. 2 series by a 6-4 score.
“I didn't think we gave them a whole lot of trouble tonight. I thought we made it too easy on them — and that can't happen,” said Mattias Ekholm, after a two-assist, plus-2 night. “To be honest, I didn't enjoy the game tonight too much. I thought we gave them our ‘B’ or ‘C’ game.
“Towards the end it's a winnable game still. So there's some kind of strength in that too, but I think we can be a lot better.”
from Jesse Granger of The Athletic,
By defeating the Winnipeg Jets 4-1 tonight, the Golden Knights have advanced to round 2 of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. They defeated the Jets in five games.
Below watch handshakes and highlights.
from Jesse Granger of The Athletic,
Deafening chants rained down from the sold-out crowd, taunting Laurent Brossoit as he stood in the Golden Knights’ crease.
“You’re a backup,” Jets fans screamed at their former goalie, “You’re a backup!”
The boisterous crowd repeatedly reminded Brossoit of his time in Winnipeg, where he backed up Connor Hellebuyck, but Brossoit had the last laugh.
He stopped 24 shots Monday night and earned his second-straight win in his old barn 4-2. It extended the Golden Knights’ lead in the first-round series to 3-1 and pushed his former team to the brink of elimination.
“He looked like a starter to me tonight,” Vegas defenseman Alex Pietrangelo quipped with a smile in the dressing room after.
Brossoit was strong from start to finish on Monday. He needed to be stellar from the opening puck drop, as the first shot he faced was a breakaway by the Jets’ leading scorer Mark Scheifele. The center raced into the Vegas zone alone and deked to his backhand, but Brossoit waited him out and pounced on the shot with his blocker to turn it away. One of the strongest aspects of Brossoit’s game is his patience, and it was on full display early to prevent Canada Life Centre from erupting in the opening minutes.
continued ($)
Watch the highlights below.
WELL WELL WELL…
— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) March 2, 2023
We have acquired Jonathan Quick from the Columbus Blue Jackets in exchange for Michael Hutchinson and a 2025 seventh-round pick!#VegasBorn | #TheGoldenAgepic.twitter.com/ew53N5rvsr
Trade: Vegas has acquired Ivan Barbashev from the Blues for a prospect.
— Darren Dreger (@DarrenDreger) February 26, 2023
from Ben Gotz of the Las Vegas Review-Journal,
It was a bad sign for the Golden Knights that Connor McDavid got loose for a breakaway barely more than five minutes into Saturday’s game at T-Mobile Arena.
Goaltender Logan Thompson managed to stop the NHL’s top scorer, but the chances didn’t stop there. The Knights knew they needed to be on high alert against McDavid and center Leon Draisaitl. Instead, costly turnovers allowed the Oilers to burn them in transition.
The Knights, missing captain Mark Stone (upper-body injury), couldn’t keep up. They fell 4-3 in front of an announced crowd of 18,143 to drop to 0-5-1 in their last six games in the Pacific Division.
The Knights are still in first place, but red-hot Seattle is now only two points back with two games in hand.
“You can’t give up odd-man rushes,” coach Bruce Cassidy said. “This is something we talked about in training camp in September. We’re going to play smarter hockey. We didn’t do it tonight.”
The game highlights are below.
NEW YORK (Jan. 2, 2023) – The National Hockey League (NHL) today announced details for the 2024 Discover NHL Winter Classic®. The outdoor contest will feature the Seattle Kraken hosting the Vegas Golden Knights on Monday, January 1, 2024, at T-Mobile Park, home of the Seattle Mariners, and will be broadcast exclusively on TNT in the U.S. and on Sportsnet and TVA Sports in Canada. In addition, Discover Financial Services (NYSE: DFS) and the NHL announced a multiyear extension of their U.S. partnership that includes Discover maintaining its status as the Official Credit Card and Official Bank of the NHL® in the U.S.
from Kevin Paul Dupont of the Boston Globe,
Bruce Cassidy, abruptly dismissed as the Bruins coach in June, will be back at TD Garden Monday night, with his Vegas Golden Knights nipping at the back tips of the Devils’ and Bruins’ blades for the No. 1 spot in the NHL overall standings.
In his span of six seasons behind the Black-and-Gold bench, Cassidy directed the club to the 2019 Stanley Cup Final, rolled up a franchise-best .672 points percentage, then was kicked curbside by Don Sweeney some three weeks after the general manager told him he would be back in Boston for 2022-23.
Sweeney’s public explanation for the move: messaging. Cassidy was outta here because the players, in the GM’s opinion, weren’t picking up what he was putting down — be it due to tone, timing, content, or frailty of ego.
RELATED: Bruins coach Jim Montgomery learned a lesson about achieving success at the 1991 Frozen Four
Cassidy, whose Knights carried a .700 winning percentage (17-7-1) into Saturday night’s matchup in Detroit, said in a phone interview this past week that he has kept Sweeney’s farewell words in mind.
from Mike Harrington of the Buffalo News,
The snickering started more than eight hours before faceoff as the Vegas Golden Knights were waiting for the Zamboni to finish its rounds so they could take their morning skate at KeyBank Center.
A group of Knights were huddled in front of the boards laughing and you could hear a voice of one chuckle while saying, "We should boo him when he comes out here."
They thought better of it but it was clear everyone in the visitors' locker room knew what to expect Thursday night. Jack Eichel was back in Buffalo and that was going to spark rage in the crowd. The fans were at full-throated hostility for 40 minutes as Eichel – who got booed unmercifully every time he touched the puck – had no points and his team was clinging to a 3-2 lead.
Then they had no choice but to zip it.
Eichel came close to cracking the scoresheet in the first two periods but Eric Comrie stuffed him three times, twice on breakaways. In the third period, Eichel assisted on Alex Pietrangelo's goal at 3:52, banged home a Pietrangelo rebound at 6:13, sizzled a wrister past Comrie at 14:37 and then lofted an empty netter 190 feet to cap a hat trick with 7.6 seconds to go.
Game highlights are below.
from Ryan S. Clark of ESPN,
Perspective can be everything. Look no further than the Vegas Golden Knights.
Missing the playoffs for the first time in franchise history last year has led to questions that had never really been asked about the team before. Then again, this is just the sixth season in franchise history, and the Golden Knights actually finished the 2021-22 campaign well above .500 while also posting the second-most victories in a season in their brief existence.
But lofty expectations have become the standard. That is what happens when a franchise reaches the Stanley Cup Final in its first season and the Western Conference finals in two others. Arriving at those heights only to fall short has since fostered a win-at-all costs culture. It has led the Golden Knights to change coaches along with significant portions of their roster at what might be considered a breakneck pace.
This is what happens when winning a Stanley Cup is the only goal that matters.
"I think when you come here to a team like this, your goal should be to win the Stanley Cup," Golden Knights center Jack Eichel said. "I think we have the players in here to do it. I think that's the standard this organization holds themselves to. ... But it's such a long way away. Nobody has ever achieved a goal eight months away tomorrow. You have to take care of your business throughout the year and give yourself a chance."
from Ed Graney of the Las Vegas Review-Journal,
Anyone who believed that missing the playoffs for the first time in franchise history last season might have dampened the spirit of those who support the Knights didn’t attend a home opener against Chicago on Thursday night before 18,467 at T-Mobile Arena.
They didn’t stand in line at a Gold Carpet arrival ceremony to gather autographs and pictures and high-fives from players.
They didn’t enjoy yet another pregame theatrical performance entitled, “Welcome to The Golden Age.” Where things like a new era, a new age, one with possibilities and beginning anew were major themes.
They didn’t hear that thunderous “Knight!” during the national anthem.
It’s not the worst thing. Demonstrating to fans that reaching the postseason is hardly ever assured. That in the world of professional sports, things like missing 500 man games to injury can really put a damper on those Stanley Cup hopes.
Upset the Knights missed out?
Yeah. Go cheer for Buffalo.