'I wish him the best in recovery and as for him as a player, he's a world class player. I think that's a big step for all of us players in the league, that we respect his choice. He gets to go and take care of his body his way.

“First and foremost, I'm just happy for him. “I played with Jack and obviously I've been talking to him quite a bit the last few months here,” Lehner said. When Eichel will join the Knights is unclear as the 25-year-old will undergo artificial disk replacement surgery soon. Ottawa starter Filip Gustavsson stopped 35 shots in the loss. Goalie Robin Lehner didn’t make things easy for his former club with 38 saves to improve his record to 9-0-3.īrady Tkachuk scored the lone goal for the Senators (3-6-1). William Carrier, Janmark, Brett Howden and Alex Pietrangelo also scored for the Knights. Jonathan Marchessault led Vegas with a pair of goals, including an empty-netter. The Golden Knights (5-5-0) won on and off the ice Thursday when the team acquired Jack Eichel in a trade with the Buffalo Sabres. 'That’s a mature team that just played north, south, nothing fancy, and you can win games like that in this league.” “You’re not going to win in the National Hockey League if you can’t get on and off the ice. “We had an entire line change and leave two (defencemen) out there and it ends up in the back of the net,” said Smith. Smith felt Vegas played a more mature, disciplined game than his team. Smith couldn’t hide his frustration following Thursday's 5-1 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights because it was the third straight game the Sens gave up five goals.

Knights of the force 2.0