In Las Vegas, the Boston Bruins’ Craig Smith hit for a hat trick in a 5-2 win over Golden Knights on Thursday.
“I think good teams need secondary support,” Bruins coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Tonight, [Charlie] Coyle’s line was excellent, and I thought [Erik] Haula’s line did some good things too. … Our third line comes through, and if that can be a thing that you can get through some games where your top guys aren’t going, or you don’t get on the power play much, or generate on it, then you’re going to be dangerous.”
Jeremy Swayman made 34 saves in the Bruins win.
“I think any time you can pop three, it’s great,” Smith said. “It’s great here, and obviously road wins are huge, too. It’s special with the team. Any time you can get three, you’ll take them when you can get them.”
Boston improved to 33-18-4.
“I think one of the things we focused on tonight was a little bit of spacing at times,” Smith said. “I think there are certain areas where we think alike and get into the same position in the [offensive] zone, which you can cover with a blanket, so I think we fixed that a little bit tonight, and it opened up some things for us.”
Jack Eichel and Jonathan Marchessault were the Vegas strikers.
“I think they might have had a bad change there, the puck came out of the zone, and I think I had a step on my guy,” Eichel said. “I just tried to go to the forehand, I lost the puck and it went into the net. I’ll take it.”
The Golden Knights dropped to 30-21-4.
“I think there’s always solutions and things you can do better, and I do think it’s execution,” Golden Knights coach Peter DeBoer said. “When you’ve got [Max] Pacioretty and [Mark] Stone out of the lineup, you can’t have multiple guys going double-digit games without a goal. That’s the difference in a game like that. Two pretty even teams and a tightly contested game.”
David Pastrnak hit for a double in the win.
Robin Lehner made 31 saves in the Vegas loss.
“We’re trying to get some mojo, but at some point there’s no excuses for our group,” Marchessault said. “Enough is enough. We can blame it as much as we want on every little thing, injuries, or whatever. It doesn’t matter. The guys in the lineup, we all have to step up. Good teams find a way to win, and we’re not doing that.”
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