Ducks fall on the road to the Golden Knights in season opener
LAS VEGAS — Jack Eichel had a goal and an assist, Adin Hill made 22 saves and the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Ducks 4-1 on Saturday night.
Chandler Stephenson and Shea Theodore also had a goal and an assist, and Jonas Rondbjerg got his first goal of the season. The defending champion Golden Knights, playing their third game in five nights, improved to 3-0-0 with all the wins by identical scores.
Hill improved to 6-0-1 in his career against the Ducks.
Vegas improved to 23-5-1 all-time against the Ducks, its best record against any opponent aside from Seattle (8-1-0) and San Jose (21-2-5).
Vegas has outscored its opponents 12-3 through three games. Ten different skaters have scored, while 18 have at least one point.
Defenseman Jamie Drysdale agrees to a three-year, $6.9-million contract with the Ducks, ending his lengthy absence from the team.
“That’s obviously the good thing about winning (the Stanley Cup) — you don’t have much time off,” Stephenson said. “Roll into camp, knock a little bit of rust off, and doesn’t really feel like you left. That’s been really nice to start how we have. Hopefully, we can just keep rolling on this, building on it.”
Mason McTavish scored and John Gibson made 34 saves for the Ducks in their season opener. Gibson dropped to 4-17-5 in his career against Vegas.
The Ducks have now lost six straight at T-Mobile Arena.
Eichel scored his second of the season when he skated through and around Anaheim’s defense, dangled around Gibson, and fired the puck into a wide-open net for a power-play goal with two seconds left in the first period.
“I took a quick look up, saw there was I think around 13 seconds, so just trying to get another attack in, just trying to get to the net knowing that there’s not a ton of time,” Eichel said. “A couple of fortuitous bounces, and yeah, it was a good goal.”
Stephenson put Vegas in front by two on a perfect 2-on-1 with Paul Cotter. After passing to Cotter across the slot, Stephenson took the return feed for a short tap into a wide-open net.
Theodore, who started his career with the Ducks and was playing in his 400th game as a member of the Golden Knights, scored his first of the season with a blistering one-timer from the top, Vegas’ second power-play goal of the night. Theodore’s assist on Eichel’s goal left him one shy of 200 helpers for his career.
The Ducks answered less than a minute later when McTavish cleaned up a rebound in the slot to beat Hill.
Rondbjerg’s empty-net goal provided the final margin.
Greg Cronin era begins
Saturday began the Greg Cronin era, as the former Islanders and Maple Leafs assistant is in his first stint as an NHL head coach. Cronin spent the last five seasons as head coach of the AHL’s Colorado Eagles. He was an assistant with the Islanders from 2014-18, and with Toronto from 2011-14.
“We played hard,” Cronin said. “I’m not disappointed with the effort. The execution got sloppy. That was a game of inches, for me, on puck battles a number of times and they won those battles. They’re a veteran team, they know how to win, they make the right plays and they execute.”
Up next for Ducks: vs. Carolina in their home opener on Sunday night.
