Vegas Golden Knights: Fleury, Neal make history in inaugural win

Led by Marc-Andre Fleury and James Neal, the Vegas Golden Knights made history with their first win as a franchise.

There are a lot of reasons to be excited about the Vegas Golden Knights. They represent the first major professional sports team to play in Las Vegas. Despite criticisms of their roster, the Knights have a lot of fun players to root for. And now, they’ve won their first game in franchise history.

The Golden Knights won their inaugural game against the Dallas Stars by a score of 2-1 on Friday night. A stellar performance by goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury highlighted a historic evening for the Golden Knights.

Whether you love it as a hedonistic tourist destination, you’re a native, or you’ve never set foot in Las Vegas, the city has had an indescribably horrific week. There are no words to describe the devastation caused by the mass shooting there on Sunday. Many times, sports can be a release from the real world. Both for fans and athletes.

So for whatever value pro sports have – weirdly, strangely, sadly – this is the first time Las Vegas has been able to find the bizarre escape of a local team.

The Stars deserve a lot of credit. They sported helmet decals in solidarity. In a very powerful statement, the Stars lined up with the Golden Knights in a pregame ceremony. The Golden Knights didn’t have to bear the weight of a broken city by themselves. The Stars, no strangers to sorrow themselves, made sure of that.

And somehow after all of that, there was still a hockey game. Buoyed by performances from two former Pittsburgh Penguins teammates, the Golden Knights picked up the first regular season win in franchise history.

The goaltending

There are so many puns about flowers blooming in the desert a Penguins fan could cry.

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The perception of Fleury’s career has gone up and down, to say the least. If you spend long enough in one place, the fans will turn on you and turn back. Just ask Patrick Marleau, who recently departed his longtime home with the Sharks for the greener (or bluer, depending on how you feel about teal) pastures of Toronto.

Fleury spent 13 seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Eight of those were as the unquestioned starting goaltender. In that time, Fleury claimed nearly every team goaltending record. He was drafted by the Penguins when they were in a very rough time. And Fleury left a three-time Stanley Cup champion.

He’s the clear-cut number one goalie in Vegas, for however long that lasts. Fleury dispelled any rumors of his demise tonight.

Fleury stopped flurries of shots – the Golden Knights were outshot 21-8 in the second period – to keep Vegas in it. Of course, all of those saves would have been for not without some offense.

Neal

In June, James Neal was competing for a Stanley Cup with the Nashville Predators. An integral part of a Predators team that came up two games short of a championship, Neal scored the game-winning OT goal in game three of the conference finals against the Anaheim Ducks.

He has an even larger role with the Knights. Neal has scored everywhere he’s been. The 30-year-old has posted 20-goal seasons with three different teams, including a 40-goal season with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Now Neal is expected to both put up goals and lead the team, and he did so tonight.

Neal was all over the ice in Dallas. In 17:37 of playing time, he didn’t just hit the scoresheet. It’s not often your top six forwards also clear the net to protect the netminder. Fleury had a lot of work to do, and it was nice to see Neal helping out his once again teammate.

After potting the first goal in franchise history and making his presence known physically, he went ahead and scored the game winner on this beauty.

Cody Eakin, a former Dallas Star himself, deserves credit for sliding this pass across the slot through the Dallas backcheck. Neal drops to one knee like he’s proposing and puts it home.

Next: 3 Burning Questions For The Golden Knights

This team will not win many games this year. That’s reality. Seeing the grizzled vets picked up in the Expansion Draft is something to look forward to though.

For now, the Vegas Golden Knights are undefeated.