Knights on Ice — RX Fleury

Rx: a medical prescription. The symbol “Rx” is usually said to stand for the Latin word “recipe” meaning “to take.”

Last night Marc-André Fleury was exactly the medicine the VGK needed or had to take in their dominating 5-1 win over the Chicago Blackhawks. This is no way a sign of disrespect for Malcolm Subban, who played well while Fleury was absent, but if you were not aware or have been locked in a closet for the last 2 seasons, plus 32 games of the 2019-20 season, this is and always has been Fleury’s team.

The 18 skaters will skate through a wall for him on most nights, but last night they knew what needed to be done and they came within 27 seconds of performing a near perfect result. All 4 lines contributed and 2 were just put together for the first time last night.

Two lines weren’t tinkered: the 1A line of Marchy-Karlsson-Smith and they were lights out last night, scoring a PPG and a SHG, and the crash line of Noesk-Reaves-Carrier. The 3^rd line was a new mixture of Paul Stastny in the middle, with Alex Tuch and Valentin Zykov, who was playing his first game since finishing his 20-game suspension for violating the PED rules of the NHL. The 1B line saw the newly acquired Chandler Stephenson centering Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty.

Even the often-criticized defense of the VGK was nearly flawless in their defensive zone and even peppered Corey Crawford with 13 of the 37 shots on the offensive side of the puck. Deryk Engelland, who had gone 27 games this season without scoring a goal, had the game winner when he sent a puck high over Crawford’s right shoulder. Deryk has scored only 3 goals since the beginning of the 2018-19 season and 2 of them have come against the Chicago Blackhawks. In the 9 games these 2 teams have played against each other in VGK history, the VGK have a record of 8-1-0. The only game the VGK lost to the Blackhawks was less than a month ago when Vegas blew a 2-goal lead on Nov 13 at T-Mobile and Chicago stormed back to win 5-3.

That was not about to repeat itself last night. Vegas held another 2-goal lead in the 2^nd period on a power-play goal by Reilly Smith and the eventual game winner from Deryk Engelland, who waited patiently at the blue line while Alex Tuch pretty much took control of the puck deep in the Chicago end along the right wing boards and skated around what seemed like the entire Chicago team and wound up along the left wing boards and then sent a tape-to-tape pass to the waiting Engelland who wasted no time in zipping it past Crawford for the 2-0 lead. Crawford gave up 5 goals on the 37 shots he faced and has lost 3 of the last 4 games he’s played, while giving up 15 goals in the process.

Fleury was near perfect all night and robbed Jonathan Towes on back-to-back saves from in close in the 2^nd period. He stopped the first 28 shots he faced. The only shot he missed was a slap shot from Dominik Kubalik with Chicago on the power play, when Stephenson was off for interference with 1:50 left in the game. The PPG by Chicago made only one person in Las Vegas happy and that was the CEO of Krispy Kreme Donuts, which was 27 seconds from giving away 18,319 dozens.

A few players got healthy last night offensive-wise: William Karlsson scored his first goal in 11 games; Deryk Engelland scored his first goal of the season (his last was on March 6, 2019, vs. Calgary; Ryan Reaves scored his first goal in 20 games (his last was on Oct. 27 vs. Anaheim); Paul Stastny had the primary assist on Ryan Reaves’ goal (his first assist since Oct. 22 against the very same Chicago Blackhawks).

I would like to list more than 3 stars, because that’s how much of a complete game the VGK played last night. but if I’m forced to stick with 3, so here they are.

My 3 Stars of the Game: Marc-André Fleury (28 saves on 29 shots and just 27 seconds from having a perfect result), Reilly Smith (1 PPG and a sweet last-second pass on the penalty kill that left William Karlsson with a wide-open net to send the puck into), Deryk Engelland (1G, the game winner, 3 SOG, and a +2 for the night with 12:23 of ice time; only McNabb and Schmidt had more ice time than Deryk and he’s in the 3^rd pair of defensemen. Gallant was aware that Deryk was engaged last night and was sending him over the boards every chance he could)

Now, you lost your dozen Krispy Kreme donuts with only 27 seconds left, but you can still get a Jumbo Jack tomorrow with the purchase of a large drink. I know it’s a poor substitute, but the win last night was more important for the VGK, as the Pacific Division is currently as tight as the butt cheeks of the CEO of Krispy Kreme was until there was only 27 seconds were left in the game and he saved over 18,000 dozen donuts.

Next game is on the road tomorrow against the Stanley Cup champs, the St. Louis Blues, at 5 p.m.

Eddie put the X’s and O’s away for this game and offers a look that many others will not provide.

Dad

By Eddie Rivkin

There were several subplots going into last night’s game against the Chicago

Blackhawks. How would the VGK respond after an awful 5-0 shutout in their last game against the Rangers? The return of Valentin Zykov after a 20-game suspension for performance enhancing drugs. How would the Gallant Line Blender handle missing not one, but both Cody’s for the first time this season?

Truthfully, to me, the ONLY real story tonight was the return of Marc Andre Fleury to the

Golden Knights.

So instead of writing about the 5-1 complete game effort route of the Blackhawks, I am going to write about The Flower and The Flower only. And I am going to write about it

from a highly personal perspective. I hope you all don’t mind.

As a kid growing up playing hockey, my father was at all my games. From the time I was a mite until my last game in school, big games and small, my father was always there. No matter what rink we were in, my dad (and the rest of the fathers) were always in the same place: top of the stands at the face off dot in the end we defended twice. When I was having a great game, I looked up to see him proud. When I was nervous in front of a huge crowd or having a bad game, I looked up to him for strength and support. For my entire time playing hockey, my father was my rock.

Tuesday night, the Flower played his first game after losing his father. It was his first start in 18 days and probably the hardest of his hockey life. It was his first start not being able to talk to his father after the game, something he has done throughout his hockey life. As always, the Flower said all the right things upon his return to the team, thanking his teammates and the incredible VGK fans. He spoke (albeit briefly) about how good it was to be back with the team and trying to get back to his normal routine. As any of us who have lost a parent know all too well, it’s going to be an all new normal from now on.

Tuesday night the Flower, for 3 hours, was able to escape the sadness and focus on playing a game of hockey. And play he did. He didn’t need to be spectacular, but the right pad I seem to write about often came up big several times.

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In front of him, the VGK played a poised controlled game. They limited the Hawks’ chances to coming mostly from the outside, as the new D Zone strategy starts to get more and more familiar.

The VGK clearly knew that the game last night was much more than a regular-season game on a Tuesday night. They rallied around their teammate, their soft-spoken leader, and put together an effort worthy of what the fans have come to expect from the VGK. It made the loss to the Rangers the blip we all hoped it would be. Hopefully, last night’s dominating win will be the true catalyst that restores order to what has been a very tumultuous stretch for the VGK and most certainly for the Flower.

Unfortunately for the 18,319 in attendance at the Fortress, a late penalty led to a PP goal for the Hawks, spoiling the shutout and the donuts. And as we have come to expect from Flower, in his postgame comments, he was disappointed for not finishing the shutout for his team and the fans.

As fans of the VGK and the Flower, we’re all sad that for the first time, he will not make the phone call he has made after every game, to his father.

Your comments and opinions are welcome here at Las Vegas Advisor or you can contact me directly at [email protected] or at my Facebook page or the Facebook page of Vegas Hockey Guy.