3 takeaways from Knights’ win: Team locks down champs at home
The Golden Knights’ past 10 games haven’t been their best.
Luck hasn’t been on their side. The bounces haven’t gone their way. Yet they remained confident they could overcome their slide.
A 4-1 win over the Florida Panthers at T-Mobile Arena on Sunday night might be a good first step in the right direction.
Center Jack Eichel scored for the third time in two games, center Nicolas Roy had a career-high three assists and the Knights (31-15-4) picked up their third win in their last 10 games (3-6-1).
“It’s getting there,” coach Bruce Cassidy said.
The Knights beat the Panthers for the first time since defeating Florida in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final on June 13, 2023, which earned the team its first championship.
The Panthers won the next three meetings between the two teams. Florida also went on to lift the Cup in 2023.
Goaltender Adin Hill played like he did in the 2023 Stanley Cup Final on Sunday.
The Panthers, playing for the second straight night after beating the San Jose Sharks 7-2 on Saturday, came out flying. Florida’s top line had two dangerous chances its first shift that Hill turned aside.
The Knights took advantage of their goalie’s hot start. Defenseman Brayden McNabb beat goaltender Spencer Knight with a long-range shot 6:26 into the first period to put the team up 1-0.
“You know they’re going to come in here hungry and I thought we did a great job of kind of just playing our game tonight,” said Hill, who finished with 32 saves. “I thought we survived the first few minutes there.”
McNabb made another key play in the third period, blocking a shot to start a transition play. Left wing Ivan Barbashev found a streaking Eichel, who scored his 15th goal of the season to put the Knights up 3-1 with 8:29 remaining in the third period.
McNabb’s block was the kind of play in the slot the team didn’t make in its 4-3 loss to the Dallas Stars on Friday.
“In Dallas, that might have needed to be one of the ones we needed to save or they capitalize on,” Cassidy said. “Good on them winning that battle and keeping them at bay.”
Sunday’s game was the Knights’ strongest in recent memory. Time will tell if that means they’re turning the corner.
“It’s nice to get a big win here at home ice,” Hill said. “A lot of our losses, they’ve been one-goal games with a bounce here, play there. It happens. We want to kind of put that behind us and just carry this momentum into Tuesday against Dallas.”
Here are three takeaways from the win:
1. Pietrangelo withdraws
Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo withdrew from the 4 Nations Face-Off due to an undisclosed ailment, the Knights announced Sunday.
Pietrangelo, 35, was set to represent Team Canada in the round-robin tournament from Feb. 12-20. He played Sunday and was not made available for comment after the game. He is expected to address his withdrawal Monday.
Center William Karlsson, who is out with a lower-body injury, is also in danger of missing the tournament for Team Sweden.
2. Get hit, make a play
Roy paid a price for his career night. He held onto the puck for a long time before setting up left wing Tanner Pearson’s goal in the second period and took a big hit from defenseman Aaron Ekblad.
“I was not expecting that at all,” Roy said. “Kind of got destroyed there a little bit.”
Right wing Keegan Kolesar added two assists on Roy’s line.
3. Wingers switch
Cassidy didn’t like the energy his top line had at the beginning of the game, so he made a switch.
He put captain Mark Stone with center Brett Howden and left wing Jonas Rondbjerg, while putting right wing Alexander Holtz with Eichel and Barbashev.
Cassidy used Stone, Howden and Rondbjerg to match up with Florida’s top line featuring center Aleksander Barkov. The move also paid off for Holtz, who got an assist on Eichel’s goal.
“I thought (Howden’s) line did a good job,” Cassidy said. “And (the switch) gave Holtz a little life. It might be good for his confidence to play with players like that, to see the puck a little more. We’ll see how it plays out on Tuesday.”
Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.
