Golden Knights’ new bruising line could torment opponents in NHL restart

By Justin Emerson

Friday, July 24, 2020 | 2 a.m.

It’s the kind of line that plays perfectly in the playoffs. The trio won’t be scoring a ton or making highlight-reel plays, but when they hit, they’re going to hit hard and it’s going to be fun to watch.

There won’t be many, if any, more physical lines in the NHL’s restart than the Golden Knights’ group of William Carrier at left wing, Ryan Reaves on the right wing and Nick Cousins in the middle.

Reaves leads the league with 316 hits, and Carrier isn’t far behind in sixth with 213 of his own. Those two have played together for years, prowling the ice and roughing up anyone who dared get in their way.

Cousins is the new, and in some aspects perfect, addition. Teammate Alec Martinez gave Cousins the colorful label of, “s*** disturber,” when he arrived.

He has a reputation throughout the NHL as an opponent players hate to be up against and was voted the fourth-worst trash talker in the league this year.

So naturally, why not put all three together?

“Who would sign up to play against those three guys?" coach Peter DeBoer said. “Not many guys are going to look up at a faceoff and be excited about those three guys coming at you and hounding you.”

Cousins hasn’t skated with Reaves and Carrier in a few days, bumping up to the top line while Max Pacioretty has been absent, but the expectation is that he will return to centering them once games start.

They played all of 6:54 together before the season’s pause with positive results in a small sample size. They’re excited to log more time together, whether it comes in the exhibition against the Coyotes next Thursday or the start of the round-robin series against the Stars on Aug. 3.

“They’re hard to play against,” Cousins said of his new linemates. “They play the right way. I definitely want those guys on my team every day.”

The hitting and chirping opponents speaks for itself, but there’s more skill on the line than some may realize. Carrier set a career high with 19 points this year while Reaves followed last season’s breakout with eight more goals this year.

Cousins is also the most skilled center the bruising wingers have had, with 10 goals and 25 points across his time in Montreal and Vegas.

“It’s a good line, he’s a good player that’s got some good skills,” Carrier said of Cousins. “We showed that we can score goals this year, so it’s good for us.”

Goals are nice and important, of course, but the fourth line isn’t going to be counted upon to carry the team offensively. They can focus on badgering opponents and other aspects.

A reporter asked Carrier to nickname the group, and he joked that he would leave the marketing to Reaves. They’ll all do the bone-crushing hitting.

“They play a heavy, hard, direct game, which really for me sets the mindset of the rest of our group in the right spot,” DeBoer said. “On paper it looks like it should work, but we’ll see.”