from Ben Gotz of the Las Vegas Review-Journal,

One team entered with everything to play for. The other, nothing but pride.

It turns out pride was enough.

“At the end of the day, no one’s going to make us play in the playoffs,” Marchessault said. “We have to earn it, and we’re definitely not earning it.”

There are images from Monday that probably will be burned into the Knights’ brains if they’re no longer playing hockey at the end of the month.

Their 23 missed shots. The stunned building in the third period. The frame of center Jesper Boqvist muscling his way toward the net for a game-winning goal that warmed the hearts of every Los Angeles, Dallas and Nashville fan.

It wasn’t supposed to go that way for the Knights. They were at home and facing a team that entered Monday with the fifth-fewest points in the NHL. The opposing goaltender was 34-year-old Andrew Hammond, who had a 3.98 goals-against average and .874 save percentage.

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