Golden Knights hand Kraken loss in expansion team’s debut
Chandler Stephenson’s skate will always hold a dubious place in the history of the Seattle Kraken.
The Golden Knights forward scored the winning goal off his boot in the third period Tuesday night at T-Mobile Arena to hand the expansion team a 4-3 defeat in its debut.
“I wasn’t really too sure. I was kind of asking around what the ruling was,” Stephenson said. “I guess it being the outside of my skate helped a lot.
“Good play by (Mark Stone) to kind of pick off the pass and then him and (Max Pacioretty) with a little tic-tac-toe and just kind of tried to plant myself and have it hit me. Luckily, it deflected in.”
The Knights squandered a 3-0 second-period lead in the season opener before an announced crowd of 18,431, but quickly answered Morgan Geekie’s tying goal at 7:58 of the third to grab the two points against their new Pacific Division foe.
Stone intercepted the puck in the neutral zone to start the rush, and after getting a return feed from linemate Pacioretty, he sent a pass through the slot intended for Stephenson.
The puck went off the outside of Stephenson’s right skate as he was being tied up by Seattle defenseman Adam Larsson and into the net. Following video review, it was ruled he did not make a distinct kicking motion.
“I was fairly confident,” coach Pete DeBoer said. “It’s really hard to make a kicking motion with the outside of your foot. Typically when they’re called back for a kicking motion, it’s usually with the inside of your foot, the blade leaving the ice in a pretty significant way. I just thought I haven’t seen too many on the outside of the blade be called a kicking motion.”
Pacioretty scored twice and added an assist, and Jonathan Marchessault also had a goal. Stone finished with three assists, as the Knights had to get creative with their opening night roster.
Forwards Mattias Janmark (COVID-19 protocol) and William Carrier (concussion protocol) were scratched, while Brett Howden and Nicolas Roy are on injured reserve.
Pavel Dorofeyev, a third-round pick in 2019, made his NHL debut after not appearing in the preseason. Defenseman Dylan Coghlan also was in the lineup and skated a handful of shifts at forward.
Ryan Donato will go down as the first goal scorer in Kraken history, as he fought off defenseman Alec Martinez and deposited a rebound for a power-play goal at 11:32 of the second period. Jared McCann followed with a backhand from the right wing that trickled past Robin Lehner 1:12 later.
“I thought we had opportunities to really extend that lead and put that game away in the middle portion there,” DeBoer said. “Hit some crossbars, missed some chances to do that, let them hang around a little bit, but found a way to win.”
Here are takeaways from the game:
1. Celebration retaliation
Geekie drew the attention of the Knights’ bench with his celebration following the Kraken’s third goal.
After the Seattle winger picked up a loose puck in the neutral zone, carried across the blue line and fired a wrist shot from the right faceoff dot that beat Lehner high to the glove side, Geekie twirled his stick and holstered it.
“I was pretty fired up to get out there,” Stone said. “Guy kind of did a little stick twirl, stared the bench down. Kind of got our line fired up. Went out there and (got) the game-winner. We were feeling pretty good after that one. Don’t get us fired up, I guess.”
Stephenson’s winner came 35 seconds later on the next shift.
“I didn’t see the celebration, but I know our players took offense to it and decided they were going to do something about it the next shift and went out and scored the goal,” DeBoer said. “Good learning lesson for some guys.”
2. Star power
The biggest difference between the past two expansion clubs is the front-line talent acquired in the ensuing years by the Knights.
That collection of skill was on display with five of the top-six forwards collecting at least one point. Only Reilly Smith was held off the scoresheet.
“Essentially we were short-handed tonight with the lineup we dressed,” DeBoer said. “We had some young guys in there and some inexperienced guys, and we had to really lean on the big guys. I thought both top two lines were exceptional.”
The Knights had to weather an early storm and scored on two of their first three shots. Marchessault showed off his hands for the second goal, dancing down the slot before he rounded Philipp Grubauer and tucked the puck in from behind the goal line.
Marchessault has three goals in season-opening games, the most by any player in franchise history, according to NHL public relations.
3. From the depths
The Knights were unable to stage their elaborate pregame shows last season with the NHL being extra cautious during the coronavirus pandemic.
But the extravaganza was back, and holy Kraken! It made the Winnipeg jet being sliced in half during the 2018 Western Conference Final look like eight-bit Nintendo graphics.
After the knight and villain representing the visitors squared off at center ice, an animated octopus was summoned from under the rink to continue the fight. The giant sea creature eventually was vanquished by lasers that were fired out of the scoreboard.
Best. Pregame. Ever.
Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.
