Lawless: Opening Knight Notebook & Another Eichel Masterpiece

Another Vegas Golden Knights game and another Jack Eichel masterpiece. Is it possible Eichel is even better than we perceive him to be and on the precipice of taking his game and his team to another level? Without question.

Eichel was tour de force for Vegas in Wednesday’s 8-4 spanking of the visiting Colorado Avalanche. Eichel did it all contributing at 5v5 as well as on the power play and the penalty kill while posting four assists.

Going head-to-head with reigning Hart Trophy winner Nathan MacKinnon was a daunting opening night challenge. Eichel made sure his team earned the two points on the night finishing the game with a plus three rating vs. a minus-two mark for MacKinnon. Eichel also blocked three shots.

Eichel has blossomed into a complete center under the tutelage of head coach Bruce Cassidy. Upon his arrival in Vegas, Cassidy told Eichel his idea of a No. 1 center was Boston Bruins legend Patrice Bergeron. Bergeron never crested 100 points in a season but instead won six Selke Trophies as the NHL’s best defensive forward. Bergeron led the Bruins to the Stanley Cup in 2011 and twice won gold with Team Canada at the Olympics.

Eichel is a point-a-game player and has learned to use his elite skating ability to be as effective defending as he is on the offensive rush.

At 27, Eichel may just now be reaching the height of his powers. The Massachusetts native has had to overcome a neck injury which cost him the better part of two seasons and led to a messy breakup with the Buffalo Sabres.

Since arriving in Vegas he’s consistently taken steps in terms of health, leadership and results. He led Vegas in points as well as performing a shutdown role against the opposition’s best players in the Golden Knights run to the 22-23 Stanley Cup. He was by far the most complete and dominating player in the world that spring.

And now he looks physically and mentally at the height of his powers.

Jack ain’t just back. Jack is better.

Two-for-three: Vegas has the best power play personnel in team history. The top unit of Eichel, Mark Stone, Tomas Hertl, Victor Olofsson and Shea Theodore looked tremendous in Game 1.

The passing was crisp, they made smart but simple plays and they were hounds in terms of recovering pucks.

The unit was both patient and aggressive. When there was an opening they attacked and when there wasn’t they moved the puck with precision until the penalty kill gave them a crease. Good stuff which resulted in two goals in three opportunities and it could easily have been a three-for-three night.

Barbie’s backhand: Ivan Barbashev scored a dandy in the third period muscling his way past Avs defenseman Sam Girard and then whipping a backhand past goalie Justus Annunen. Teammate Brett Howden had this to say about the goal.

“I watched it live then a few times after on the scoreboard. Impressive goal,” said Howden. “We knew he wasn’t going to go to his forehand. We’ve seen that backhand from Barbie about 1,000 times. We know how lethal it is. Not many guys can fire it on their backhand like he can.”

Spread it around: Cassidy made sure everyone was involved in Game 1 with defenseman Noah Hanifin leading all skaters in icetime at 22:47. All six defensemen played over 16 minutes and every forward was in double digits.

Vegas has an advantage in depth and Cassidy did a good job in deploying it.

Bad team stats: One should always be careful when judging a player’s metrics. Statistics never tell the whole story and even more so when those numbers are tabulated while a player is on a bad team. Both Olofsson and Alexander Holtz came to Vegas after playing for teams with poor defensive results (Buffalo and New Jersey, respectively).

The early viewings on these two players tell a different story. Both have been strong on the puck and worked hard on the backcheck. Defensive hockey is about will and effort. And culture goes a long way in making a player accountable in those areas. These players can score (Olofsson had a pair on Wednesday), and now that they are on a contender where two-way hockey is both a given and a must, they have shown to be complete.