Golden Knights’ 4th line shines with team atop NHL standings

Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy sends a message every time he submits his lineup card.

Get ready to feel the boards early.

Cassidy has started the fourth line of left wing William Carrier, center Nicolas Roy and right wing Keegan Kolesar almost every game they have been available. The heavy group has rewarded that faith by helping the Knights begin almost every game on the front foot. They’ve scored six goals in the first five minutes of the first period and allowed two.

Cassidy believes that’s a credit to the three’s hard work. They play a direct, physical game that wears down opponents in their own zone and leaves them with no energy to attack the other way. The line showed what it can be when it’s clicking Saturday against Montreal, when Kolesar and Roy scored 21 seconds apart in the Knights’ seventh straight win.

“They really set the table for the next line coming over the boards, and they end up finishing a few plays,” Cassidy said before channeling his inner coach Lil Jon from a recent Knights’ viral video. “I was glad to see they get rewarded on the scoresheet, because sometimes those types of lines, they get lots of shots, shots, shots, shots and they don’t always go in.”

The Knights’ fourth-line success has been long overdue.

The three were put together last training camp by former coach Pete DeBoer, who also was never afraid to use his 10th, 11th and 12th forwards to start games. They just rarely got time together.

Injuries kept forcing Carrier, Roy and Kolesar apart. Roy was elevated in the lineup for long stretches because many of the Knights’ top forwards, such as captain Mark Stone and left wing Max Pacioretty, missed games. Carrier, Roy and Kolesar ended up playing only 41:36 together.

They were confident they could be a good line this season. They just needed to show it.

“We know what we got to do,” Roy said. “Be reliable. We can play against the fourth line or we can play against a first line and be hard to play against. We want to spend as much time in the o-zone as we can. When the next line goes on the ice, they have more space.”

The group’s formula is working.

The Knights have outscored opponents 5-2 with the three on the ice. They have a 23-21 edge in high-danger chances.

All three have contributed to that success. Roy has three goals and four assists in 13 games. Carrier has three goals and two assists in 12, putting his career highs of nine goals and 20 points well in range. Kolesar has two goals and an assist, including a tally 12 seconds into the Knights’ visit to Seattle on Oct. 15.

That ability to deliver an early spark is why Cassidy feels confident sending the line over the boards first each game. Roy has started 11 times, only beginning on the bench when Kolesar missed two games with an illness and forced a lineup shuffle.

Roy and Kolesar said they enjoy the challenge, but Kolesar admitted if he didn’t “I’d learn to like it.”

“Gets the boys into it, gets myself into it,” he said.

It’s something they’ve earned. Cassidy challenged them after a poor preseason performance, saying the fourth line was “not anywhere close to where it needs to be” a week before the Oct. 11 opener. The three have responded.

They’ve been one of the Knights’ most successful group during their 11-2 start, the best in the NHL.

“I wouldn’t say they’re a fourth line,” right wing Jonathan Marchessault said. “The way they play, it’s remarkable. Every night they get momentum. Not only goals, but momentum for the next shift going out there.”

Contact Ben Gotz at bgotz@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BenSGotz on Twitter.