In Las Vegas, the Golden Knights opened their season f defense with a solid effort in a 4-1 win over the Seattle Kraken.
One game does not silence all the doubters, but Adin Hill put on a show with 32 saves in the win.
“It was cool seeing the banner go up (in pregame). I haven’t seen a banner with that much detail on it,” Hill said. “We know what we did last year, and we were ready to go tonight. You want to win every game, so it’s one of 82. We got that one checked off the list, and now it’s time to turn our attention.”
Jared McCann was the lone striker for the Kraken.
“There’s no way we’re going to let it go,” Seattle coach Dave Hakstol said. “We left something on the table today. I’m not disappointed with the overall effort. I think some individuals can have a better night. We’ve got to take some things out of this, improve on them, and get right back at it in two nights (against the Nashville Predators).”
Vegas grabbed a 1-0 lead when Chandler Stephenson hit for a goal at 7:16 of the first period.
“We weren’t on top of our game early,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “As I said, I’m not surprised. I figured we would get to it eventually when we were good enough. A lot of that had do with Adin early. … We got the saves early that we needed.”
Jonathan Marchessault struck at 14:57 to double the advantage to 2-0 for the Knights.
“We got a few fortunate bounces, which was awesome,” Vegas’ Mark Stone (two assists) said. “It kind of got us into a bit of a groove and got the 2-0 lead and kind of settled us in. I don’t think we were great for the first five, 10 minutes. But once we started settling in, I thought we took over the second half of the first.”
Eighty seconds into the middle frame Ivan Barbashev added to the lead with a breakaway goal.
McCann got Seattle on the board just ahead of the midway point of the second.
Jack Eichel sealed the win with an empty-net goal at 18:45 of the third for the 4-1 final.
“We had a lot of things going on in your life, and try to enjoy what we accomplished and prepare for a season. So you try to balance both,” Eichel said. “It’s an amazing experience to watch a banner go up. You want to enjoy every moment.”
Philipp Grubauer made 24 saves in the Seattle loss.
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