Knights on Ice—Play Hard, Play Quick, No Mistakes

The words in the title could be said by a coach to his players before they hit the ice, but Jonathan Marchessault isn’t the coach. He’s not even the captain. But he is for sure one of the leaders of the first-place VGK.

That’s right: first place.

And not just first place in the Pacific Division, but first place in the entire Western Conference.

Granted, they share this lofty spot with the Calgary Flames and Winnipeg Jets at the top of the Western Conference. Both have played fewer games than Vegas. But considering the start of their season, in which they lost four of their first five games, this turnaround is perhaps a surprise to some of the VGK fans who were quickly jumping ship by the end of October. These fair-weather fans are more than likely swimming back toward the ship, seeking forgiveness and asking for their cabins to be returned for not believing in this team.

Closing out the 2018 portion of the 2018-19 season, the Golden Knights hit 50 points yesterday by beating the Arizona Coyotes 5-1. Just when you thought that this bunch of misfits was all done setting records for an expansion team, now there’s one more, also accomplished yesterday: The VGK are now the first expansion team in the history of the NHL to reach 50 points before January 1 in both of its first two years of existence.

Marchy isn’t afraid to call out his teammates or himself when things need to be said and he’s also the first to tell it like it is. And he did just that post-game yesterday with these exact words: “We played hard, we played quick, we were good on our forecheck, we didn’t make a lot of mistakes, and [Fleury] was just being [Fleury].”

You’ll always get an honest assessment of the game from Marchy, even if it’s sometimes brutal. It’s one of the reasons he’s so respected in the locker room by his teammates. And it’s a voice that the younger players listen to. Yesterday, Marchy liked what he saw from his fellow teammates.

With no superstars, it’s a true blue-collar team that plays for one another. Other teams that have been around for decades, with players who’ve been together for multiple years, tend to break off into cliques. Not so with this team. It’s truly a team that rolls four lines game after game and expects scoring from the top six forwards, with additional contributions from the other six.

But with all the injuries, there really hasn’t been a complete roster of top six forwards. Indeed, more than halfway through the season, two key forwards still aren’t in the lineup. Eric Haula is months away and Max Pacioretty’s return is unknown. But that hasn’t hampered the VGK from recovering from their poor start.

They’re 14-3-3 in the last 20 games and 7-1-3 in their last 11 games. Both Fleury and Subban have given up only one goal in each of their last two starts and the team has scored 11 goals in the last three games, while giving up only three. By comparison, they scored a total of 11 goals in their first six games of the season, while allowing 19.

The amazing contribution of Brandon Pirri has softened the loss of both Haula and Pacioretty. Pirri has now scored five goals and earned seven points in just six games this season. He has eight goals in eight games as a VGK.

Other accomplishments that have lifted this team have been spread up and down the lineup. Cody Eakin, a center on the third line when the team is healthy, has nine goals and nine assists in the games that the VGK have won. Paul Stastny has five goals and four assists just in the month of December, to go along with a three-game goal scoring streak. Reilly Smith has three goals and two assists in the last three games. Ryan Reaves of the Crunch Line is just one goal shy of his career high of eight goals in one season.

On the back end, let’s not forget Nate Schmidt, who not only plays the most minutes, but is pitted against the other teams’ top lines and is still a +11, while also having three goals and 10 assists. They don’t award points for stretch passes that spring VGK forwards into open areas of the ice and often leave the opposition flatfooted, but those are Schmidty’s specialty.

And how about Fleury? There aren’t enough superlatives in the English language to describe him and his play. In last night’s game, the only goal he surrendered was on a 5-on-3 power play.

Coach Gallant has also been afforded the luxury of giving individual players days off and has been shuttling Lindberg, Carpenter, and Nosek in and out of the lineup, where in the past, Lindberg has had his own seat in the press box for multiple games. Even Brad Hunt is flipping spots with Jon Merrill as Gallant is utilizing all 20 healthy players on different nights.

The only problem that’s brewing is the Pirri problem. Brandon has played six games so far. If he hits the 10-game mark, the VGK can no longer send him down to the Chicago Wolves without exposing him to being selected by any of the other 30 teams off the waiver wire. Pirri in my opinion has played well enough to remain with the team, but if he stays, someone else will need to be sent down and everyone else would have to clear waivers. Do you risk sending Lindberg down and losing him or do you shorten your defense to seven if Colin Miller is healthy enough to return and send Merrill down? The year starting tomorrow will be interesting to say the least. GM GM has some tough decisions to make in 2019.

My 3 Stars of the Game: Paul Stastny (1 goal, 1 assist), Brandon Pirri (1 goal, 1 assist), Marc-Andre Fleury (29 saves on 30 shots and his league-leading 22nd win of the season).

The next game is tomorrow, Jan. 1, against the L.A. Kings at T-Mobile at 6 p.m.

Please be safe on New Year’s Eve and have a Happy New Year.

Your comments and opinions are welcome here at Las Vegas Advisor (to comment, you just have to register on the site, which takes all of 30 seconds and is free, of course). You can also contact me directly at [email protected] or visit my Facebook page, Vegas Hockey Guy.

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.