Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Marchessault’s steady hand helping guide Golden Knights through season

0303_sun_VGKWild22

Steve Marcus

Vegas Golden Knights center Jonathan Marchessault, center, celebrates with right wings Alex Tuch (89) and Reilly Smith (19) after scoring in the second period of a game against the Minnesota Wild at T-Mobile Arena Wednesday, March 3, 2021.

Consistency is the gold standard hockey players strive for. Not too hot, not too cold — like Goldilocks’ porridge, they want to be just right.

That’s been Jonathan Marchessault this season. The Golden Knights forward has been a steadying force for Vegas all year, and a night after failing to score and registering a season-worst minus-three rating, Marchessault scored the eventual game-winning goal Wednesday in a 5-1 victory over the Minnesota Wild at T-Mobile Arena.

“The detail in his game, not just offensively but defensively, has been there right from Day 1 of training camp,” coach Pete DeBoer said. “I think he’s on a mission to have a really good year for us and he’s going out and doing that every night."

If it feels like Marchessault has a goal or an assist almost every night, it’s because it’s true. This year he’s only gone scoreless in back-to-back games once, and that was Monday against the Wild and Saturday against the Ducks. He has a point in 13 of the team’s 19 games.

Golden Knights Beat Wild, 5-1

Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo (7) punches Minnesota Wild left wing Kevin Fiala (22) duding a fight in the third period of a game at T-Mobile Arena Wednesday, March 3, 2021. Launch slideshow »

It’s predictable that he’ll get on the board, and that’s the case for a full year too. Going into a season, you have an idea of what Marchessault’s stat line will look like at the end. Since he became an NHL regular in 2016-17 with the Florida Panthers, Marchessault (pro-rated to 82 games) has scored at paces of 33, 28, 25 and 27 goals. His point totals are even closer, registering rates of 56, 80, 59 and 58.

That’s remarkably stable over a four-year sample size. And the fifth season to that data set? He’s on an 82-game pace of 30 goals and 60 points this year.

Wednesday’s point was a big goal for Vegas, coming 5:03 into the second period and giving the Golden Knights a 2-0 lead. Although Minnesota scored just shy of five minutes later, it never managed the second goal that Marchessault provided Vegas.

He said it felt even better considering he knew that Minnesota goalie Cam Talbot anticipated where the shot was going to be, and it still beat him.

“I played with Cam so he knows I like to go high-glove and I’m pretty happy about that,” Marchessault said with a smirk.

Marchessault was reunited with old linemates William Karlsson and Reilly Smith on Wednesday after four games apart and the trio picked up right where they left off. The trio was Vegas’ best against the Wild, helping the team generate 16 shot attempts in the 13:10 they were on the ice together, compared with just eight allowed.

They didn’t allow a goal and only allowed 0.1 expected goals, according to stats website Natural Stat Trick, which was the lowest among Vegas’ four forward lines.

“I think that entire line has been working very hard. They’ve had a lot of possession in the O-zone, a lot of good opportunities, and burying that second goal, which ended up being the game winner, was huge,” forward Alex Tuch said. “The guy’s got an unbelievable shot, he finds his openings and he’s been playing really well, especially over the past few games.”

Tuch had a good game of his own, assisting Marchessault’s goal as a power play expired and scoring one of his own at 2:02 into the game. It was his ninth goal in 19 games this season, surpassing last year’s total of eight goals in 42 games.

It didn’t hurt that he got to play the Wild. After Vegas beat Anaheim last weekend, former Ducks Shea Theodore and Karlsson remarked how they liked beating their old team, considering how they let those players leave during the expansion draft.

Tuch is in a similar situation, as the Wild’s 2014 first-round pick that they traded to Vegas at the expansion draft. He scored the game-tying goal in the final minute of Monday’s game against Minnesota, and he savors pitching in to beat his former team.

“Whenever we play those other teams we have that little chip on our shoulder,” Tuch said. “I always like playing against the Wild. We haven’t had much success in the past, but this year so far 2-0, so it’s been a lot of fun to beat that team.”

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