The expansion Golden Knights ran their pre-season record to 3-1 with a 4-2 victory over the Ducks.
Vegas rested most of their vets, so a cast of on-the-bubble players starred. These were some of skaters who caught my eye:
William Carrier
Nothing against Carrier, but I thought that George McPhee should have selected goalie Linus Ullmark over him from the Buffalo Sabres in the Expansion Draft. The talented Ullmark, who still has a waiver-exempt year remaining, would have been a perfect goalie in the wings behind Marc-Andre Fleury and Calvin Pickard.
That said, Carrier sure can skate:
Wasn't big fan of taking Carrier over Ullmark, but he makes Cooper look like a pylon here pic.twitter.com/ZoguoXtGWQ
In this clip, I like how Carrier goes right at Andrew Welinski. Such aggressiveness can force the defender into a rash action, which is actually what happens:
Granted, Cooper and Welinski aren't exactly Norris material. But this willingness to attack the defense is a plus, as playing the perimeter is tempting when you can move like the 6'2" winger. While Carrier's hands and hockey sense don't project into the top-six, his skating gives him a chance to be a terror in every zone.
Tomas Hyka & Tyler Wong
Perhaps the biggest surprises of training camp, both Hyka and Wong continued to shine against Anaheim.
The 24-year-old Hyka, who starred in the Czech league last season, showed off some sweet hands on this deflection goal. He leads Vegas with four pre-season goals.
Both Hyka (5'11") and Wong (5'9") are both slighter-of-size scorers who lack elite skating. To thrive in the NHL, they'll need to survive traffic and show high-end hockey sense. While Wong didn't make the scoresheet, he accomplished those tasks over and over again in the third period.
Here, Wong takes advantage of Cooper, who doesn't seem to see the hard-charging Carrier. Cooper goes for the big hit, which Wong evades. At the exact right moment, the diminutive winger takes a defenseman out of the play, distributes the puck to the most dangerous forward, and avoids being crushed.
All by yourself and surrounded by three defenders is often a bad thing. But if three men are focusing on you, there's somebody open.
Here, Wong simply puts his head down and cuts toward the net, realizing he might get destroyed. Korbinian Holzer makes the last-minute recovery.
Now this wasn't Hampus Lindholm that Wong was abusing in these clips. But I expect the 21-year-old to do big things in Chicago, and at this rate, Las Vegas isn't too far away.
What's also not far away is the Golden Knights' home debut -- they'll be entertaining the Kings on Tuesday night.
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