CHEAP SEATS
Vegas’ Marchessault emerging as candidate for Conn Smythe Trophy ... Golden Knights go overboard with pre-game show ... GM of the Year? It should be McPhee ... Ageless Jagr still ticking
To say that at the start of the season he’d be a dark horse would be the understatement of all understatements.
How about that Jonathan Marchessault?
On Wednesday night, the Golden Knights 5-foot-9 fireball picked up where he left off in Game 2, when he scored two goals to lead his team to a Western Conference final series evening 3-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets.
Just 35 seconds into the first period of Game 3, after
Brayden McNabb stripped the puck from Mark Scheif
ele at the Vegas blueline, Marchessault sped by Jacob Trouba and put a beautiful move on Connor Hellebuyck to open the scoring.
It was his seventh goal and 16th point in Vegas’ 13th playoff game.
It was the Golden Knights sixth goal of the series, and Marchessault had been involved in five of them. What a remarkable story. To recap, Marchessault was undrafted after a fouryear junior career with the Quebec Remparts, during which he had 293 points.
He signed with Columbus as a free agent, and in 2012 was traded by the Blue Jackets along with Dalton Smith to Tampa Bay for Matt
Taormina and Dana Tyrell. He was then signed by Florida and finally got his first full time NHL gig with the Panthers in 2016-17. He scored 30 goals but was still left unprotected by the Panthers for the expansion draft.
Vegas claimed him, and he said thank you to the new franchise with 75 points in 77 games.
If Vegas does go on to win the Cup, either Marchessault or Marc-Andre Fleury will likely win the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable player in the playoffs.
Marchessault could very well take the trophy that has belonged to Sidney Crosby the past two springs.
And to think, 30 teams could have had him a couple of years ago.
STARTS AND STOPS
The Golden Knights have gone too far.
The opening at T-Mobile Arena was hokey and way over the top. Unless you like medieval plays mixed in with your hockey games ...
Scott Oake called it “special.” That was him being kind ... Nice touch by anthem singer Carnell
Johnson, who left out the words “true north” in O
Canada so the Jets fans in attendance could belt them out. That’s making someone feel at home.
BETWEEN PERIODS
When Paul Maurice says he will explain why Nikolaj
Ehlers did not play after the game, it doesn’t sound good ... Marchessault would have had a first-period assist to go along with his first-pe-
riod goal, but Hellebuyck made a spectacular glove save off William Karlsson
... When James Neal left the Vegas bench for the quiet room, you probably thought there’s no way he’s coming back. Concussion, all the way. Sure enough, he only missed a couple of shifts ... Still missing from the Golden Knights roster is the injured David Perron, who was third on the team in scoring during the regular season with 66 points and has seven assists in the nine playoff games he has played.
CHANGING LINES
The NHL revealed its three candidates for the GM of the Year award — Winnipeg’s Kevin Cheveldayoff, Vegas’ George McPhee and Tampa’s Steve Yzerman. Can’t see how McPhee doesn’t take it ... When Dus
tin Byfuglien and Ryan Reaves run into each other, the ice must shake ... The Carolina Hurricanes say every player on their team except Sebastien Aho is available in a trade. If I’m calling, I’m asking about
Noah Hanifin first. Then Justin Faulk .Then Jeff Skinner. After that, I’m hanging up. Because nothing else there really interests me.
BACK TO THE POINT
You didn’t really think
Jaromir Jagr was calling it quits, did you? Well if so, think again. Jagr says he plans to play his 30th season of pro hockey with Kladno, the team he owns in the Czech Republic. “I will get back in the locker room to my role as a player,” he said on the team’s website. Jagr, who played 22 games for the Calgary Flames this season before suffering a knee injury, will become an unrestricted free agent on July 1. The 46-year old legend is not discounting a return to the NHL. Here’s hoping he signs somewhere in the league and plays until he’s 50 ... Fleury’s first big test came early in the second period when he stretched his right leg as far as it could go to make an outstanding toe stop off a Byfuglien boomer.
AFTER 20
The Jets had just three shots on net in the first period. One by Adam
Lowry ,oneby Joel Armia andoneby Josh Morrissey.
Their best players were not their best players ... Lowry led the Jets in first-period hits with four ... Trouba and Byfuglien each had three blocked shots in the opening 20 minutes ... McNabb had the same number of hits for the Golden Knights ... Winnipeg’s Cody Eakin was 3-0 in the face-off circle for Vegas.