With win over Sabres, Golden Knights close February on high note

By Justin Emerson

Friday, Feb. 28, 2020 | 11:45 p.m.

The last time the Golden Knights faced the Buffalo Sabres, they lost their fourth game in a row and fired their coach. Needless to say, things went a little better this time around.

Vegas scored three goals in the third period on Friday, knocking off the Sabres 4-2 and extending their win streak to a franchise-record-tying eight games.

There was plenty to dissect. Goalie Robin Lehner was stellar in his team debut, Max Pacioretty moved into a share of the points lead, Reilly Smith set a new career-best in goals and Zach Whitecloud had the first point of his NHL career. Vegas is 12-3-2 under coach Peter DeBoer since that fateful game in Buffalo, and the Golden Knights are riding higher than they have all season.

They finished February with a 10-2-1 record, their best record in any month this season.

“It’s exciting every day,” Whitecloud said. “Keep having fun, but obviously do the work when it’s there. Keep doing your job, keep executing and the results will come.”

Smith’s career has been oddly symmetrical. He’s reached the 20-goal plateau four times in his career and they’ve all come in even-numbered years. His previous career-high was 25 back in 2015-16 when he played for Florida and entered the game even with that total. He scored twice — once on an empty net — to continue what may go down as the best offensive season of his career.

It’s not just the goals, but with 52 points and 16 games left to play, his career-high of 60 points is in play as well. He’s been worth 8.1 offensive goals above replacement at even strength this season, according to Evolving-Hockey. That figure puts him fourth on the Golden Knights and with a punter’s chance of reaching his career-high of 11.1.

He scored the eventual game-winning goal at 5:25 of the third, then scored his 27th of the season against an empty net with 1:49 left in the game.

“I play with great linemates and they gave me a lot of opportunities,” Smith said. “It just seems like the puck is going in a little more.”

But it’s got to feel good to reach a new career-high right?

“It doesn’t feel bad,” he said with a smirk.

And now, the goalie. Acquiring him from Chicago on Monday brought more questions than it did answers. Is this truly a rental? What does this mean for Marc-Andre Fleury? What happens with his contract this summer?

For the rest of the season anyway, those questions don’t mean too much. Lehner is here to help the Golden Knights win hockey games, and either he or Fleury will take the net every night and give the team a chance to do so. Fleury drew the first assignment of the goalie tandem era, pitching a 29-save shutout against the Oilers on Wednesday. Lehner matched the effort on Friday, giving up a goal on the first shot then locking it down until there were 12 seconds left and Buffalo scored a goal that only mattered to those who had tickets on the Under 6 goals for the game.

After giving up the first goal, Lehner settled into a groove and turned away the next 32 shots. The first goal didn’t rattle him.

“Ten years ago, sure it would, but you just look at the next shot and try to make the next save,” Lehner said. “I thought we got better as the game went on and obviously had a great jump in the third and got a couple of goals to settle it all down.”

For the remaining 16 games, the Golden Knights know that they have two goalies up to the task. They very well might end up on an every-other-game rotation, as DeBoer already announced Fleury would start Sunday.

What we’ve seen the last two games is the best-case scenario for the goaltending duo: one turns in a shutout and the other gives up just one goal when the outcome was still in question, with both picking up wins.

“You need quality goaltending every night this time of year to put points in the bank,” DeBoer said. “The fact that we have both of these guys and they’re playing at the level they’re playing at is a great luxury.”

With the eight-game win streak, the Golden Knights have built a six-game cushion in the Pacific Division and can’t reasonably be called anything but the favorite to win their second division title in three years.

The division title won’t be decided for another month or so. The Golden Knights know that things change fast — the last time they won four in a row, they lost the next four, culminating in the loss to the Sabres last month that led to drastic changes.

But if the Golden Knights play every night like they did Friday, getting strong goaltending with players reaching levels they never have in their career, they won’t have much to worry about.

“We always knew we had a good team, but of course I think we’re pushing for the playoffs and we try to be as good as we can every night,” said forward Nicolas Roy, who scored the first Vegas goal. “We’re able to do that right now.”