Scherbak scores less than 10 minutes into his first game on a new team.

The young former first round pick is setting out to prove all of his doubters wrong. 

On Saturday the newest member of the Los Angeles Kings, former Montreal Canadiens forward Nikita Scherbak, made a strong first impression on his new team and made a lot of fans in Montreal sweat a little as they pondered whether or not Canadiens general manager Marc Bergevin has made yet another big mistake. 

Scherbak and the Kings were facing off against the Las Vegas Golden Knights on Saturday and for the young forward that meant his very first National Hockey League game in a Los Angeles Kings uniform the 22 year old forward was facing a very tough test, veteran goaltender Marc Andre Fleury. The good news for both Scherbak, and of course the Kings as well, is that it took him less than 10 minutes to pass his very first test as a King. With roughly 8 minutes played in the first period the Kings got a break when they had a 2 on 2 moving into the Golden Knights zone, but Scherbak showed confidence beyond his years when he fired off a hard shot between the defender to beat Fleury on the right side. 

It had to be a huge moment for Scherbak who saw only limited opportunities during his time in Montreal and who was placed on waivers by the Habs organization roughly one week prior to him appearing in this game. The move to place him on waivers was a clear indication from both general manager Marc Bergevin and the Canadiens organization as a whole that they felt that Scherbak was a lost cause, or at the very least would never be more valuable than some 4th liners who could have taken his place on the waiver wire. 

Now it may be that the Canadiens and Bergevin will be correct at the end of the day and this may prove to merely be a one off for Scherbak and the Kings, but if it is not it could not come at a better time for Los Angeles. The Kings have been, to put it mildly, one of the worst teams in the entire league this season and if they can get some scoring from a player they acquired for nothing, it would be massive for them.

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