The Mitch Marner era of Vegas hockey begins Wednesday night when the defending Pacific Division champion Golden Knights open their season against the Los Angeles Kings in Las Vegas.
The Kings began their season on Tuesday with a 4-1 home loss to the Colorado Avalanche.
Marner, who scored 221 goals and dished off 520 assists in 657 regular-season games with Toronto, was acquired in a sign-and-trade deal on July 1 that saw center Nicolas Roy go to the Maple Leafs. The highly coveted right winger signed an eight-year, $96 million with the Golden Knights.
Marner, who finished fifth in the NHL with a career-high 102 points (27 goals, 75 assists) last season, will play on a line with All-Star center Jack Eichel, who was eighth in the league with 94 points (28 goals, 66 assists), and left winger Ivan Barbashev, who had 23 goals and 28 assists.
“Their chemistry, I think, is fine,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “You want that stuff to develop over time. We’ll see. It’s that simple. There will be a certain time where we say it’s working or it isn’t.”
Marner, 28, admits he will be dealing with nerves in his debut with his new club.
“Now the real thing starts,” Marner said. “Definitely exciting. The nerves and the butterflies come back. I’m excited to play in front of (T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas) for the first time as a Golden Knight.”
Now the question is whether Marner help lead Vegas to its second Stanley Cup in four years. The Golden Knights, who won it in 2023, lost in five games to the Edmonton Oilers in the second round of the Western Conference playoffs last season after eliminating the Minnesota Wild in six games.
“Our goal is to win the Stanley Cup,” Cassidy said. “We talk about it openly. We feel we have the team to do it, and we felt that way last year.”
Los Angeles finished second to Vegas in the Pacific last season and won the final three of four meetings between the teams.
The Kings, playing on a back-to-back, will try shake off a rough opener that saw them fall behind Colorado 3-0 in the second period.
Los Angeles’ Kevin Fiala scored a five-on-three power-play goal on a one-timer off a Adrian Kempe pass with 4:54 remaining to break up the Avalanche’s shutout bid. Captain Anze Kopitar, who announced last month that he would be retiring after this season, also picked up an assist on the score in his 20th and final home opener with the Kings.
Martin Necas scored two goals and Nathan MacKinnon and defenseman Cale Makar both had two assists for Colorado. Kings goalie Darcy Kuemper, who had a career-best 2.02 goals-against average last season, made 19 saves.
“That was not a good game for us, but I don’t want to take away from how well Colorado played here tonight,” Los Angeles coach Jim Hiller said postgame. “Let’s give them the credit that they’re due and say that we need to play better than we did. We’ll bounce back tomorrow, that’s just what we do. That’s how the league works. It’s a marathon.”
