Nick Cousins joins growing list of Golden Knights to make memorable debut

By Justin Emerson

Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2020 | 11:15 p.m.

It’s becoming a running joke, but when a player makes his Golden Knights debut, the expectation is that he’s going to score.

It’s happened six times this season and three times in a week, the latest coming courtesy of Nick Cousins on Wednesday. He woke up 2,500 miles away, got to town too late to practice, but still netted his first with his new team as the Golden Knights shut out the Edmonton Oilers 3-0 at T-Mobile Arena.

“I was thrown right into the fire, but that kind of makes you feel comfortable,” Cousins said. “I’m excited. We still have 17 games left here and this team’s moving in the right direction and playing well lately, so if I can contribute any way I can I’ll be more than happy to do that.”

Cousins had quite a day. The former Montreal Canadiens forward found out Monday that he had been dealt to the Golden Knights about a half-hour after the trade deadline. He wasn’t expecting to be traded, but once he was, he headed off for Vegas.

Or at least he tried to. He was held up at the border, as the Belleville, Ontario, native who had been working in Montreal needed a visa. When it didn’t happen Monday, it became a question of whether he would even play against the Oilers.

It finally cleared Tuesday afternoon, but he couldn’t get on a flight until Wednesday morning. He woke up nearly at dawn and boarded the flight from Montreal. He landed in Vegas at about 10:30 a.m., while his new teammates were on the ice practicing at City National Arena. He didn’t arrive to the rink in time, so the first time he put on skates as a Golden Knight was right before warmups at T-Mobile Arena.

“It’s been a crazy couple of days,” Cousins said. “I wasn’t sure at all what was going to happen. I thought I was going to be staying (with the Canadiens), and next thing you know my agent called me and I was off to Vegas.”

His debut went quite well. In addition to his power-play goal in the third period to give Vegas a 2-0 lead, he skated 12:09 of ice time, took four shot attempts, won four of his five faceoffs and drew a penalty.

“Nick played a great game, much like Alec on his first game,” Max Pacioretty said. “We’re really excited to have these guys and it’s a little bit of icing on the cake to see them pitch in so early.” 

It was a night that Cousins and the rest of the Golden Knights could celebrate, a nearly flawless victory against a team right behind them in the Pacific Division hunt. It was their seventh win in a row, their first over the Oilers this season, and their 20th victory in 34 home games this season.

It started with the goalie. Marc-Andre Fleury made 29 saves, including 12 in the first period when Vegas needed him at his best. The Oilers played Tuesday night in Anaheim and seemed to have a better jump to start the game than the Golden Knights, who had not played since Sunday. Despite that, Pacioretty scored the first goal of the game with 3:56 left in the first to put Vegas on top.

“That’s vintage Flower,” coach Peter DeBoer said. “We don’t get out of the first period unless he plays the way he does. He was our best player.”

The Golden Knights found their sea legs in the second. They held the Oilers to just five shots on goal, including keeping them shotless for a span of 10:40 from the end of the second into the third. Vegas didn’t score in the second, but the ice started to tilt. Then 5:44 into the third, Cousins struck.

He was on the second power-play unit with fellow newcomer Alec Martinez, and Cousins positioned himself perfectly in front of the goal so that when Martinez’s shot bounced off the pads, Cousins was there to backhand it home. Shea Theodore added a goal 4:15 later that sealed it.

Cousins joined Patrick Brown (Sunday), Martinez (Thursday), Chandler Stephenson (Dec. 3), Nicolas Roy (Oct. 27) and Cody Glass (Oct. 2) as Golden Knights to score in their debuts this season. Brandon Pirri did it last year, and James Neal, Alex Tuch and Vadim Shipachyov did it in the inaugural season.

It could be a combination of adrenaline or wanting to impress new teammates, but whatever it is, the Golden Knights have found the right formula. It’s almost too bad that there won’t be too many more team debuts this season considering how successful they’ve been.

“I don’t have the answer for that, but I know the trade deadline’s over and we won’t have many new guys coming in,” DeBoer said.

But if goalie Robin Lehner, acquired Monday from the Blackhawks, scores in his team debut whenever that is, maybe don’t be too surprised.