Knights' strong showing tempered by Hertl injury

LAS VEGAS — Just when things appeared to be falling into place, the Vegas Golden Knights are bracing themselves for a potential monkey wrench into their postseason preparations.

Tomas Hertl, arguably the hottest goal scorer in hockey, left Sunday’s game against Tampa Bay with 5:49 to play after being cross-checked into the end boards from behind by Lightning defenseman Emil Lilleberg. And while Hertl was able to skate off the ice under his own power, it didn’t look good.

Knights coach Bruce Cassidy didn’t go into details about the extent of Hertl’s injury. He did say the center, who has a team-leading 31 goals and scored Vegas’ second goal Sunday, would be re-evaluated Monday prior to the team leaving for a three-game road trip which begins Tuesday in St. Paul against the Minnesota Wild.

The Knights capped their three-game homestead with a 4-2 win over the Lightning and appear to have righted the ship following a less-than-stellar road performance which saw them go 1-1-2 with a sweep of Boston, Detroit and Tampa Bay at T-Mobile Arena. They got one of their centers back with the return of William Karlsson but now the concern is how long will they be without Hertl, who has four goals in his last two games and a pair of hat tricks in his last eight contests.

It’s no easy task trying to replace your top goal scorer, not to mention the person driving the team’s most productive line at the moment. Will Pavel Dorofeyev and Brandon Saad be as effective with say, Nic Roy, if Hertl misses a significant amount of time?

Plus, with just 12 games left in the regular season, the Knights are in no position to coast to the finish line. They’re still at the top of the Pacific Division with 92 points (42-20-8). But both Edmonton and Los Angeles are within striking distance with 87 points apiece.
The hope was the return of defenseman Shea Theodore before the season ends would make the roster whole. Ben Hutton returned to the lineup Sunday for the first time since Nov. 17 and Tanner Pearson got the night off as Victor Olofsson skated on the fourth line with Roy and Keegan Kolesar.

But if Cassidy has to fiddle with his lines with Hertl unavailable for any considerable length of time, it will impact things up the middle. Yes, Cassidy can move Karlsson up to the second line and have Brett Howden slide over from wing to center and play with Reilly Smith and Tanner Pearson. But when you lose a player as hot as Hertl has been, it’s going to hurt.

Let’s see what transpires before hitting the panic button. The fact Hertl didn’t need to go to the hospital is a positive and that Cassidy didn’t rule him out long-term is another plus. But this is a tough time for any team to suffer an injury to a star player. The trade deadline has long since passed and unless you get a guy off LTIR such as was the case with Karlsson, you’re going to be in a bit of a bind.

But there were a number of positives to come out of Sunday, Hertl’s injury aside. Ilya Samsonov gave the Knights 60 quality minutes in goal and stopped 36 of the 38 Tampa shots he faced. He looked in control and his positional play in the crease was excellent. Overall, it may have been one of Samsonov’s best performances in his time with Vegas.

Jack Eichel continues adding to what is his best statistical season as an NHLer. He scored what was ultimately the game-winner off a sizzling one-timer late in the first period to give the Knights a 3-0 lead. Eichel has 23 goals and 87 points total. He has registered at least one point in 11 of his last 12 games and continues to play well in his own end of the ice.

And while the Lightning were looking to claw its way back into it Sunday, trailing 3-1 going into the third period, the Knights didn’t sit back and play rope-a-dope. They attacked when the opportunity presented itself and in doing so, kept the puck away from the Bolts. And when it did get control, Tampa had to travel 200 feet the other way.

The Knights may still be working on finding their playoff form but Sunday was an indication that they’re getting there. The goaltending was solid, the defense did its job keeping the Lightning on the perimeter offensively. The forwards were quick in transitioning from their zone into attack mode and Vegas had a number of quality chances including a Dorofeyev breakaway chance, a point-blank opportunity from Smith and Hertl’s breakaway which ultimately led to the bad hit on him from Lilleberg which could have been called a match penalty for attempt to injure until it was reviewed and decided to just give him two minutes for boarding.

“I think we’re getting closer to where we want to be,” said Roy, who opened the scoring Sunday with his 11th tally of the season, of the team’s playoff readiness.

Ultimately, that’s the goal. Be as healthy as you can while playing the right way as often as you can. There’s a fine line that connects the two. We’ll see if this team can achieve the former in order to ensure the latter.