Knights on Ice — VGK Announce New Residency In Las Vegas

In Las Vegas, a number of superstars have had residencies here on the Strip: J-Lo, Lady Gaga, Carlos Santana, and of course Céline Dion, to name just a few.

Last night, Marc-André Fleury announced his own residency — inside the heads of the entire Calgary Flames team, especially Matthew Tkachuk’s and netminder’s David Rittich. In the two games that Fleury has faced the Calgary Flames this year, he has not only beaten them twice, but has given up only one goal in 120 minutes, while facing 63 shots total. He shut them out on Nov. 23 at T-Mobile 2-0. Last night he gave up that one goal on the 34 shots he faced for the 2-1 win.

The win was Fleury’s league-leading 33^rd in his league-leading 57^th game played. He did have his shutout streak snapped when Travis Hamonic scored the Flames’ only goal of the game 11:54 into the 2^nd period that tied the score at 1-1 When Deryk Engelland scored his second goal of the season, it broke the tie at the 9:30 on the 3^rd period; Engelland’s slap shot from the point eluded Rittich, who was screened by Jonathan Marchessault. Engelland’s first goal in 37 games was the game winner. Actually, all three goals in this game were scored by defensemen. Shea Theodore has not only been playing well defensively, but has contributed offensively with two goals and four assists and a goal in the shootout over the last 6 games.

Back to Fleury’s new residency; he’s especially inside the head of Mr. Tkachuk now. Tkachuk attempted to spend his entire time on the ice in the blue paint with Fleury. He actually bumped Fleury before Calgary scored their first goal. It was challenged by Coach Gallant for goaltender interference. Some time elapsed between Tkachuk bumping Fleury and the goal being scored, but Fleury wasn’t able to reset and establish his position to face the shot. We all know how the War Room decides these things, which is, “You Just Never Know.” The crowd of 18,422 held their breath waiting on the call from Toronto. For a change, the call went in favor of  the VGK and the score remained 1-0.

With just 19 seconds remaining in the second period, the high-scoring Flames had only beat Fleury for one goal by Travis Hamonic. Matthew Tkachuk decided that just being in the blue paint wasn’t good enough. He skated backwards right into Fleury, knocking him down, and all hell broke loose.

Both Colin Miller and the Flower starting pounding on Matty boy, who deserved every punch and crosscheck he received.

Tkachuk rose from the pounding he was taking, grabbed Miller, and both of them tumbled to the ice in a heap, taking along a linesman who tried to intervene.

Once that was broken up, Matty boy skated right back to Fleury, who wasn’t going to have any more of this nonsense. Fleury grabbed Tkachuk by the collar and the battle was on again.

This time, Nate Schmidt jumped in, giving Tkachuk a first-class face wash. By then, every other VGK had come to the rescue of Fleury.

While this was going on, Calgary’s goaltender left his crease and skated to the blue line to let Fleury know that if he wanted any additional action, he was ready. Fleury just had that smirk that we’ve all grown to love for Rittich. Fleury’s residency has now been established in Rittich’s head as well.

Here’s a link to the video of the scrum.

Not only was this an important win in creating some breathing room between Vegas and Arizona, but it plants a seed that Vegas, along with Fleury, can shut down the Flames, whom they trail by 10 points. Coming into the game, Calgary was fourth in the league of 31 teams in goals, with 234 goals scored; they also have an astonishing league-leading +41 in third-period goal differential, They scored zero in the third-period shutdown by a goaltender who has won three Stanley Cups and has played in five different Stanley Cup Finals.

It’s no secret that solid goaltending will carry you deep in the postseason. Fleury right now is spinning heads around the league as he’s seeing the puck well. Was this a possible second-round matchup? Or will Vegas continue to surge toward San Jose, whom they trail by seven points with 14 games remaining? It’s a big hill to climb, but they still have two games against San Jose on March 18 and 30 and one game versus Calgary on Sunday. That game could be interesting if the score isn’t close and our “Lion in the Jungle” decides to have a meeting with Matty boy about his desire to play in Fleury’s lap.

Those who were hoping to see former VGK James Neal at T-Mobile were disappointed.  Neal has missed the last 10 games with an injury. Neal has scored at least 20 goals in 10 straight seasons, but he’s had a very disappointing season so far with only five goals and 10 assists in 55 games. Last season as a VGK, Neal scored 25 goals with 19 assists in 71 games. Neal’s last goal was scored on Jan. 18. It appears that the streak will end for the man who scored the very first goal for the VGK back in October 2017.

The VGK defensemen have been a factor in the team’s last seven games: They’ve scored eight goals.

Fleury has won his last four starts and will most likely get a night off in the next game vs. Vancouver on Saturday, the first of back-to-back games with the VGK facing Calgary on Sunday.

Will there be another meeting in the blue paint? I say yes and think that the Lion might have something to say about it.

“Well, they’re a great team, there’s no doubt about it,” commented Calgary Captain Mark Giordano post-game. “The first ten minutes remind of the old San Jose, the old days where you would go into San Jose and they would come at you in waves and they do the same here.”

My 3 Stars of the Game: Marc-André Fleury (who may have had an easy game on Sunday, but last night he was spectacular, especially with all the traffic and high-quality shots he faced), Deryk Engelland (a well-timed game-winning goal), Shea Theodore (who has been not only good in the defensive zone, but his offensive contributions have made a difference, especially on the power play).

Next game is Saturday on the road vs. Vancouver at 7 p.m.

Vegas doesn’t return to T-Mobile until Sunday March 17 vs. Edmonton.

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And for the most comprehensive coverage of the Vegas Golden Knights’ historic inaugural season, take a look at our book Vegas Golden Knights—How a First-Year Expansion Team Healed Las Vegas and Shocked the Hockey World.

Here are the links to the post-game interviews:

Fleury

Deryk Engelland

Shea Theodore

Brayden McNabb

Coach Gallant Part I, Part II, and Part III