Being outscored 12 to 4 over the last 2 games is a problem. Granted, one of the 12 was an empty-net goal last night that derailed the comeback for Vegas, who eventually lost the game 4-2 to the Minnesota Wild.
Vegas started playing in the last few minutes of the third period. Unfortunately, that was too little too late. Fleury losing four home games in a row is and should be a concern. One of his 4 losses was in OT to the LA Kings. But this shouldn’t be occurring so late in the season.
Team confidence is essential to success and this team has thrived off a level of confidence from one player to another up and down the lineup. They’ve played as a team and have success as a team. Early in the season when they had mounting injuries in the goaltender position, the team rose to the occasion and played as a unit until both Fleury and Subban became healthy. Since Subban went on IR for the second time this season, Fleury has been the workhorse in nets.
But you can only ride someone for so long before the cracks begin to appear. By no means am I suggesting that Fleury is to assume complete responsibility for last night’s loss. As a team in the NHL, especially this late in the season fighting for a playoff spot, you have to play the entire 60 minutes. Last night, Vegas didn’t even come close to playing 30 minutes. They were extremely lucky to survive the first period trailing by only one goal. Their failure to test the second-string goalie early in the game made their job going forward even more difficult as Alex Stalock became more comfortable in nets—so comfortable that he was initiating stretch passes to forwards in the neutral zone, creating odd-man rushes. Vegas is usually the team creating odd-man rushes via the stretch pass.
Minnesota forward Jason Zucker is the only Las Vegas-born player in the NHL, and he came to town with a little extra zip in his legs. Last night it was clear right from the drop of the puck.
Shea Theodore, who has had glaring turnovers over the last few games, was at it once again when his giveaway wound up being Zucker’s 29th goal of the season. Fleury never had a chance to react to the giveaway by Theodore. Zucker not only scored the goal, but also got an assist on a night he was certainly looking forward to and one he’ll remember for a long time, having his whole family here, along with a lot of friends he grew up with.
Vegas managed only eight shots on net in the first period; they missed the net on 12 shots and had 8 blocked. Things only got worse in the second as they registered only 7 shots on goal for a two-period total of 15, compared to Minnesota’s 24.
But what put Vegas in an almost insurmountable hole was that Minnesota scored two goals on their first three shots of the second period. Through two periods Vegas had just 15 shots and had 21 missed shots and 12 blocked. Vegas was being outplayed in a fashion that they usually subject the opposing teams to—playing the entire 200 feet of ice.
It’s not a good feeling to lose, but when you’re beat in the manner of last night’s game, it stings even more. They know they were outworked and they saw that if they’d played the first 54 minutes like the final six-plus minutes of the game, the result would have been different. Their failure to get pucks to the net gave Alex Stalock all the confidence he needed, having a record of 9 wins and 10 loses so far this year. Eric Haula did get one by Stalock (his 28th) one second after the VGK power play ended. It counted as an even-strength goal, even though the Knights still had one extra skater in the offensive zone.
Stalock faced only 28 shots and 13 of those were mostly in the last 6:30 minutes of the game. Fleury faced 29, but gave up 3 goals. VGK also took 3 lazy penalties last night, with two tripping penalties and a careless high stick. Only their penalty-kill unit prevented this from being a blowout. It has been strong all year and last night it almost provided a miracle as it kept the game close, with the VGK closing the gap to 3-2 with 55 seconds left to play.
But with Zach Parise’s empty-net goal 22 seconds after Ryan Carpenter’s ninth goal of the season, the loss was sealed at that point and the once double-digit lead in the Pacific Division is now down to just 8 points over the San Jose Sharks.
So? Is there anything to worry about?
Sunday’s game against Calgary will be the answer to my question here and in the title to this post. Good teams find a way to learn from mistakes and correct things that need to be corrected.
VGK scorers: Haula (28) who has scored 4 goals in his last 3 game and has been the only offensive bright spot of late for Vegas, Carpenter (9)
P.S. My apologies for missing the post from the New Jersey Devil’s game on Wednesday night. I came down with a stomach virus that had me in bed for over 36 hours. Not that you really wanted to read about that debacle. I saved us all a bad replay of a bad performance.
VGK’s next game is Sunday 3/18 at T-Mobile at 1 p.m. Pacific Time.
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