NY Islanders: 5 moments from Alexander Romanov you’ll love

Romanov stands up Alex Pietrangelo

Back in the hits department is a play where Romanov stands up one of the more prolific defensemen in the NHL today in the 2021 NHL Playoffs. A broken play along the boards in the Vegas Golden Knights end sent the puck to the other end of the ice. Former Golden Knight, Ryan Reaves, backhands a puck out of danger closer to Vegas' end that makes its way to the Montreal blue line. Bouncing, the puck hits off Romanov and lands on Alex Pietrangelo's stick and he skates the puck into Montreal's zone.

Pietrangelo, above the dots, looks to be skating the puck deep into the Canadiens zone until he decides to put the puck on his backhand in an attempt to skate around Romanov and inside the dots. Reading the play well, Romanov stays square to Pietrangelo and lays out a huge chest-on-chest hit sending the 6'3", 213 lb defenseman to the ice. A couple of inches shorter and a few pounds lighter, Romanov's big hit takes the puck off Pietrangelo allowing D-partner, Ben Chiarot, to regain possession. The play wasn't over there, as Chiarot sends the puck back to Romanov in the Montreal end with Vegas forechecking, however, skating and stick-handling with his head up, Romanov passes the puck to a teammate in the neutral zone and away from danger.

It's another good play by Romanov in which he makes a big hit, doesn't take himself out of the play, and negates a scoring chance. It's an added bonus he did it against Pietrangelo, too, who was in the first year of his seven-year, $61.6 million contract.