3 Takeaways: Golden Knights Win, Brossoit Great, Marchessault the Hero

Evgenii Dadonov’s second goal in as many nights meant a second point and a needed reward as the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Dallas Stars 3-2 in overtime Wednesday night. Thanks to a relentless forecheck by Nic Roy, Dadonov received a pass while parked in front of the net and buried the OT winner.

“I just stopped in front of the net and shot… all that matters is the win. I don’t try and think about (my) goals and points. It is just the win that matters,” said Dadonov.

Injuries have been a major storyline for the Golden Knights early in the season. Top players such as Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone remain out of the lineup. The injury bug continued to bite on Wednesday against Dallas as Mattias Janmark was also unable to go, and William Carrier left the game after blocking a shot by Denis Gurianov.

“It was a gutsy road trip and a gutsy win again today with a short bench. We had more guys leave during the game so we were basically playing three lines and the guys dug deep all week. We got great goaltending from LB (Laurent Brossoit) who hadn’t played in a while and in tough circumstances guys found a way. It was a real character win,” said Golden Knights head coach Peter DeBoer.

Laurent Brossoit stopped 32 of 34 shots in his first start as a Vegas Golden Knight. The 28-year old goaltender was one of the few players that did not play last night’s game against the Colorado Avalanche and it showed. 

“I thought our guys did a great job of weathering the storm in the first period and getting the plane legs and travel legs out of us and making the smart choices chipping pucks out. As cliche as that sounds we were not trying to complicate things and just weathering the storm. And then when we had our chances we buried,” said Brossoit.

3 Takeaways from Vegas Golden Knights 3-2 OT win

Laurent Brossoit is the backup the Golden Knights need

When Marc-Andre Fleury was traded in July the Golden Knights passed the torch of starting goaltender to Robin Lehner. Lehner started the first six games for the Golden Knights and was only relieved once. He has played like the NHL starter that he can be. 

But the Golden Knights’ acquisition of NHL free agent Laurent Brossoit was something that was overlooked in the offseason. Brossoit, who spent the past three years with the Winnipeg Jets, proved to be a reliable backup behind Vezina-winning goaltender Connor Hellebyuck.

Tonight, Golden Knights fans got to see just how suitable Brossoit can be as a backup. The Golden Knights may not have the pure talent of a Fleury/Lehner pairing anymore, but this Lehner/Brossoit parking is nothing to scoff at. 

Jonathan Marchessault needs to continue to be a hero

With Stone and Pacioretty out the Golden Knights are out two of their top scorers and star players. The “misfit line” of original Golden Knights Jonathan Marchessault, Reilly Smith, and William Karlsson has struggled at five on five. But Marchessault broke free in the final minutes of the third period to tie the game up.

This is exactly what the team needs out of Marchessault, who before guys like Stone and Pacioretty were brought in, was the top scorer for Vegas. Peter DeBoer switched up his line combinations late in the game to try and get things going for his team. We will have to see if the misfit line will stay broken up or not and if Marchessault will build off of tonight’s game.

Shea Theodore is showing his offensive instincts

In both of the Golden Knights regulation goals, Shea Theodore was involved. Obviously the first came off a weak shot that slipped by Anton Khudobin. Theodore was able to anticipate a bad pass and capitalized on it.

Late in the dying minutes of the game, Theodore was responsible for setting up Marchessault’s tying goal. Theodore was able to bait the Stars defense towards him giving Marchessault enough room to get into a prime scoring position.

Theodore continues to show his offensive instincts and as a result, is one of the most important players for the Golden Knights. With all of the injures at forward, the Golden Knights need Theodore to continue to generate offense from the blue line.

Up Next: The Golden Knights will return home to try and continue their current two-game winning streak against the Anaheim Ducks on Friday at 5:00.