LAS VEGAS, NV – The Colorado Avalanche schooled the Knights for the second time this season, emerging with a 7-3 victory at T-Mobile Arena.
Ex-Golden Knights center Pierre-Edouard Bellemare scored twice to lead the Avalanche (23-11-3). Colorado, which has the second-most points in the Western Conference with 49, has outscored the Knights 13-4 in their two meetings. The Knights (20-14-6) allowed six goals in the first game before giving up a season-high seven Monday.
DENVER, CO – In its third move of the day, the Avalanche on Monday signed veteran French forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, 34, who is defensive/faceoff specialist from the Vegas Golden Knights.
Bellemare, who joined the NHL at age 29 with the Philadelphia Flyers, was signed to a two-year deal worth $3.6 million ($1.8 million cap hit). He was an expansion-draft acquisition for Vegas, and played in 72 and 76 games in each of the Knights’ first two seasons (just 12 combined goals).
Bellemare will help replace center Carl Soderberg in faceoffs and the penalty kill. Soderberg was traded to Arizona for defenseman Kevin Connauton last week.
LAS VEGAS, NV – It wasn’t difficult for Las Vegans to get behind their Golden Knights during the first-year team’s incredible, improbable run to the Stanley Cup Finals. And the community’s whole-hearted acceptance of the Knights allowed the city’s newest residents to get comfortable quickly.
“We realized very early on how important the team was to this community,” said forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, a native of Paris suburb Le Blanc-Mesnil who played for three seasons with the Philadelphia Flyers before Vegas grabbed him in last year’s expansion draft. “You’d go to the store and see all these people wearing Golden Knights gear and it just made us all feel unified.”
Bellemare’s first year in Las Vegas was just as special off the ice as he and his wife, Hannah, welcomed their first child, Leandre, in January, giving new meaning to the Knights’ mantra of being “Vegas born.”
LAS VEGAS, NV – Tomas Nosek‘s face betrayed little. There he was, standing in the far reaches of the Vegas Golden Knights dressing room, surrounded by reporters eagerly tossing questions in his direction. The forward seemed unmoved, though, stoic, not exactly overflowing with the emotions of what had just happened to him and his team and his linemates.
“I am excited,” Nosek insisted.
He had cause to be. In a game that was as back-and-forth as any in Stanley Cup Final history, he and the fourth line clinched Game 1 for the Golden Knights, a raucous, over-the-top, sloppy, exhilarating 6-4 winagainst the Washington Capitals at T-Mobile Arena on Monday. Their line scored three goals in the third period: the tying goal by Ryan Reaves (2:41), the game-winner by Nosek (9:44), and an empty-net goal by Nosek (19:57). They were the difference
LAS VEGAS, NV – By the time Pierre-Edouard Bellemare arrived as a “rookie” atPhiladelphia Flyers training camp in 2014, the French forward had already spent a year in medical school, served an eight-year stint in Sweden, teetered on the brink of bankruptcy and learned his third language. So the fact that most of his prospective Flyers teammates had no idea who he was didn’t faze Bellemare. Neither did their incredulity at his relatively advanced age.
As he struck up a conversation with centers Claude Giroux and Vincent Lecavalier about the most recent world championships, Bellemare casually mentioned that he had played in the event for the first time about 10 years earlier.
LAS VEGAS – Bellemare has been selected by the Vegas Golden Knights in the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft, The Athletic’s Craig Custance reports.
Bellemare is quite the underwhelming selection; however, it must be mentioned that the Flyers really didn’t expose anyone valuable in the expansion draft. Considering that Bellemare has little worth to a contending team, it appears likely that he’s staying in Vegas. Bellemare posted all of four goals and eight points despite playing in all 82 regular-season games for Philadelphia this past season. The Frenchman signed a two-year, $1.45 million contract extension in March.
Just give Pierre-Edouard Bellemare the good-guy award for the 2017 IIHF World Championship.
The Philadelphia Flyers forward, who is representing France at the tournament, was named the player of the game after its 5-1 upset win against Finland on Sunday. But he rejected the acknowledgment, and a free watch, instead letting France goalie Florian Hardy accept the honor.
There is a reason Philadelphia Flyers forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare arrives at the rink every day with a smile on his face.
“If the guys knew where I came from, they’d understand,” Bellemare said.
Where he came from is southern France. His improbable hockey journey is why he savors every second he spends in the NHL.
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