Yesterday’s 3-2 win was against the Anaheim Ducks, a team that just over a month ago was ahead of Vegas in the Pacific Division. That was then, this is now, and the Knights have won five games in a row. They’re 16-3-3 in their last 22 games, while Anaheim has lost seven games in a row (0-5-2). With yesterday’s win, Vegas is tied for not only the lead in the Pacific Division with Calgary, but they’re both tied for the lead among all the teams in the Western Conference.
But before we get into the game, a more important matter should be brought to light. That’s why I titled this post, “Not in the Moment.”
Hours before yesterday’s game, it was announced that the hottest player on the VGK was sent back down to the Chicago Wolves. Social media lit up like the roofs of the Strip casinos at midnight on New Year’s Eve — sparks and explosions on Twitter and Facebook and everywhere, with a good portion of the VGK fan base ready to pull the fire alarms. They just couldn’t understand how GM George McPhee could possibly send Pirri down.
This is the way McPhee operates. He was put into his position to build a winner and that means protecting the VGK’s assets on their 23-man roster and beyond.
Brandon Pirri is a valuable asset. Keeping him on the active roster once Max Pacioretty was healthy enough to return would have been managing in the moment and not with the future in mind. After the trade deadline on Feb. 25, Pirri can return to the roster and not be subject to clearing waivers. That seems to be the plan as of now.
The move also gives management a chance to have a look at the newest Golden Knight, Valentin Zykov, in a few NHL games to evaluate his value and future. Zykov is 23 years young and could be a valuable long-term addition to an organization that seems to be stockpiling talent. Zykov led the AHL with 33 goals last season. Currently, even though he’s played his last seven games in the NHL, Brandon Pirri leads the AHL in scoring: 28 goals and 17 assists for 45 points in just 28 games.
Read the NHL rule that covers the rosters before and after the trade deadline.
According to Article 16 Section 4, the 23-man roster limit is in place from the conclusion of the preseason until 12:01 a.m. on the day of the NHL’s trade deadline. After that, teams are allowed to have an unlimited active roster at the NHL level, provided players are signed to one of their 50 contract slots (note: Players assigned back to their junior clubs do not count toward the 50).
This team is built to win this year and beyond and McPhee isn’t going to give in to the current moment, not even by keeping Pirri, who has an astonishing six goals and three assists in seven games, on the roster, forcing him to expose another player to waivers to comply with the 23-man-roster requirement, or even worse, play Pirri in 10 games, only to lose him to another team for zilch if he’s forced to send him or another player down.
Don’t for one moment think that a few players didn’t exactly know how McPhee would resolve the Pirri problem. There was speculation that if Pirri remained, a player named Carpenter, Nosek, Hunt, Merrill, or Lindberg might be the body that was put on waivers to make room for Pirri.
You may remember that McPhee did the same thing with Alex Tuch and Shea Theodore last season, giving the team enough time to evaluate the roster and make an educated decision, rather than the kind of knee-jerk reaction that most fans wanted when it came to Pirri.
I mentioned in my last few blogs that the Pirri problem was approaching fast and something had to give. Well, it did yesterday and in the long term, it’s a smart move from the same smart GM who thumped the other 30 GM in the expansion draft—what happened with this team last year wasn’t an accident. Granted, lots of things fell into place, but the mix-and-match lineup George envisioned was near genius.
In yesterday’s game, almost like magic, Pirri’s replacement Max Pacioretty picked up right where Brandon left off. Max scored the winning goal on a pretty cross-ice pass from Paul Stastny. The pre-season thinking, once Stastny was signed as a free agent, was to go and get Max so that Paulie “Walnuts” could set him up and that’s exactly what happened as Vegas scored two goals within 31 seconds to trump Anaheim’s two goals in 18 seconds early in the second period, which eliminated the VGK’s one-goal lead.
The first goal was Nate Schmidt’s fourth of the season at the 6:52 mark of the first. It’s listed as an even-strength goal, even though Vegas had an extra skater on the ice as Anaheim was going to be assessed a minor penalty, but play continued, since Vegas was in possession of the puck. It’s the delayed-penalty rule.
15.1 Calling a Penalty: Most fans should know this, as it’s one of the first things they might notice when they watch a game. “What’s that guy in stripes doing raising his arm up like that?”
If the referee has a penalty to call, whether minor, major, match, or misconduct, he blows the whistle when the offending team takes possession of the puck, including waiting for a change of possession if the offending team doesn’t already have it. If he’s waiting for that change of possession, the raised arm signals a delayed-penalty call. If you’ve ever wondered or been asked why it’s necessary to delay penalty calls, think of it this way: Why punish the non-offending team by ending their potential scoring chance?
That was the exact situation that Vegas took advantage of, since they had and maintained possession of the puck.
Remember the possible waiver names I mentioned above? Yesterday, Tomas Nosek played like he wanted to remove his name from GM GM’s mind for waiver-wire consideration. Nosek played an impressive game, scoring the tying goal, assisting on Nate Schmidt’s opening goal, and having five shots on goal.
Likewise, Ryan Carpenter had two shots on goal, four hits, and a nice defensive play late in the game when Anaheim had the goaltender pulled for the extra skater in their attempt to tie the score and send it into overtime.
Brad Hunt played 16:35, registered an assist on Schmidt’s goal, and played 3:37 of power-play time.
These three players were attempting to make sure the coaching staff and McPhee were aware of their valuable contributions in a key divisional game, all in the hopes that they’d remain in VGK sweaters.
In Pacioretty’s return, he scored the winning goal, had six shots on net, played 18 minutes, and looked comfortable with no signs of rust or lack of timing.
Now to the Flower, who just seems to keep getting better each game. Yesterday he wasn’t real busy, facing 27 shots and stopping 25 of them, but he was good when he had to be. Anaheim goalie John Gibson, who always seems to play well against Vegas, faced 42 shots and stopped 39, some while Vegas had an extended power play of 4-1/2 minutes and 1-1/2 minutes of 5-on-3. Their failure to score on the power play and 5-on-3 made for the nail-biting ending, as Anaheim pushed real hard with Gibson on the bench for the extra skater.
My 3 Stars of the Game: Max Pacioretty (game-winning goal), Tomas Nosek (1 goal, 1 assist, and a complete game covering all 200 feet), Marc-Andre Fleury (25 saves on 27 shots with key saves in the last minute to preserve the win in a 4-point division game)
Next game is tomorrow, Jan 6, vs. New Jersey Devils at 1 p.m.
Your comments and opinions are welcome here at Las Vegas Advisor or you may contact me directly at [email protected] or visit my Facebook page Vegas Hockey Guy.
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