The team at Adam S. Kutner & Associates was able to give away two tickets and a Zamboni ride to last night’s preseason home game. Take a look through our Facebook post for more pictures of our winner. Continue reading for a full-game recap and breaking news about the Vegas Golden Knights!
The play on the ice wasn’t so good Monday night, but the news off the ice on was great for Vegas fans everywhere. As the Golden Knights were having trouble with the Colorado Avalanche, Vegas GM George McPhee was finalizing a 7-year/$36M deal with defenseman Shea Theodore.
“If you’re going to do a long-term deal, and short-term deals but certainly long terms, then you have to get the right numbers. Really have to trust your instincts, trust the experience, trust the scouting reports from your pro staff, trust the analytics data, and make a good decision. We rely on all those resources to make a good decision and we think we made one here and time will tell.”-George McPhee, Vegas GM
Theodore becomes the highest paid defenseman and the fourth highest paid player on the team. The 23-year-old gets a major bump in pay going from $890K to $5.2M per season. The extremely talented defenseman will be a Golden Knight until 2024 and will be a core piece for years to come.
On the ice, it was a different story. It wasn’t the best start for the Golden Knights at the T-Mobile Arena. A minute into Vegas’ fifth exhibition game, the Colorado Avalanche took a quick 1-0 lead. The Avalanche came out fast and took advantage of early Golden Knights mistake.
Unfortunately, the miscues continued for Vegas and Colorado added a second goal midway through the first period. The Avalanche took a 2-0 lead after one period of play.
After the first intermission, Vegas came out strong, pressuring the Avalanche goaltender with eight shots on net in the first ten minutes. After a good defensive play by center Paul Stastny, Golden Knights forward Alex Tuch and Max Pacioretty broke out to score the first goal of the night for Vegas. Tuch laid a pretty one-time pass to Pacioretty for his third preseason goal.
Vegas woke up offensively as veteran defenseman Brad Hunt scored a nifty shot past Avs goaltender Pavel Francouz. Down 4-3, the Golden Knights put the pressure on Colorado but ran out of time. With one minute remaining, head coach Gerard Gallant pulled his goalie for an extra attacker, when Avalanche forward Vladislav Kamenev added an insurance goal on an empty net to close out the game 5-3.
The Golden Knights lost their first 2018-19 exhibition loss, bringing their record to (4-1) in the preseason. Vegas hosts the Los Angeles Kings on Friday before closing out the exhibition season on Sunday, September 30 against the San Jose Sharks at the T-Mobile Arena. No word if Theodore will be suited up for either contest.