So far, so good for Robin Lehner and the Vegas Golden Knights. For the second straight season, the Golden Knights made a big splash at the trade deadline and for the second straight year, it has been a success story.
During the 2018-19 season, the Golden Knights acquired an elite two-way forward in Mark Stone, from the Ottawa Senators. Stone would go on to record 11 points in Vegas' final 18 games of the regular season, adding 12 more in seven games of playoff puck. He's been a big contributor to the team and is currently second to linemate Max Pacioretty, with 63 points.
Unfortunately for Vegas, they are temporarily without Stone, as he is labeled "week-to-week", with a lower-body injury. Luckily, the team solidified their own end, acquiring Lehner from the Chicago Blackhawks. The addition of Lehner certainly helps with the loss of Stone because the self-proclaimed "big guy" has been expectedly great.
It's been an entertaining - on Twitter - six games since Lehner relocated to Sin City. His first game in the lineup was spent as a spectator to Marc-Andre Fleury's 3-0 shutout win, at home against the Edmonton Oilers on Feb 26. Fleury's game had been slipping in the weeks prior to the Lehner trade, but the Panda's presence awoke the Flower.
Lehner's first start came just two days later, against a familiar team in the Buffalo Sabres. Holding pattern from those first two games, Head Coach Pete DeBoer elected to go with a dead-even 50/50 split in goal. Every other game, the goalie has been swapped, keeping both men busy and sharp.
"I think the new NHL is trending towards more rest, fresher guys and using two goalies. It is a great luxury for a coach to have. I haven’t been in a position really like this before."
- Pete DeBoer
DeBoer's strategy has worked well, as evidenced by their 4-2-0 record over those six games. Both losses were credited to Fleury, with Lehner boasting a sparking 3-0-0 record. He was critical of his own performance in his first road appearance in Calgary, but he's made the important stops and has good numbers to boot.
Robin Lehner's Vegas Ledger:
- 2020-03-08 VEG @ CGY: 19 saves on 22 shots, W 5-3
- 2020-03-03 VEG v NJD: 27 saves on 27 shots, W 3-0
- 2020-02-28 VEG v BUF: 32 saves on 34 shots, W 4-2
- 3-0-0 Record
- 1.667 Goals Against Average
- .940 Save Percentage
"I’ve got to do better. I wasn’t that good today, but again, I’m still adjusting a little bit. It was a big two points and we’ve got to keep building.”
- Robin Lehner addressing Calgary media
Despite the self-criticism, early returns have been great on the new netminder. His new pads have arrived and he looks great in black and gold. Fleury seems to genuinely appreciate the help in goal, congratulating his counterpart and beaming ear to ear when the Golden Knights win on his off day.
Seemingly out of nowhere, the injury-ravaged Golden Knights are on a tear, sporting an elite goalie tandem few teams can rival. Lehner has been a big piece of the puzzle, but Nick Cousins and Alec Martinez are also big deadline adds that are paying off for the club. As they say in Vegas, "the house always wins" and right now it seems that GM Kelly McCrimmon has the keys to the house.
Huge 2 points. Boys stepped up and got it done.
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