Knights on Ice — Pirri’s Replacement, plus the Subban Wall

The guy who replaced James Neal back in September and replaced Brandon Pirri just the other day not only scored for the second game in a row, but they were back-to-back game-winning goals.

Max “Patches” Pacioretty deflected Shea Theodore’s slap shot from high in the zone off his pants to beat the New Jersey Devils by a score of 3-2.

It was also the third winning goal of the season for Patches, who started the VGK’s resurgence in the standings when he scored the OT winner in Arizona on Nov. 21.

The other important piece in this win was the Subban Wall, especially in the third period when the Devils made a hard push to tie the game. At the 10-minute mark, the shots were 5-4 in favor of the Golden Knights, but then the Devils outshot the VGK 16-0 in the final 8:43. The final shots were 38-28 in favor of New Jersey. It’s not often that Vegas gets outshot in a game, but last night Malcolm Subban preserved the win that gave Vegas their longest streak of the season at six and the second-longest in franchise history; their eight wins in a row occurred between Dec. 14, 2017, and Jan. 2, 2018.

The VGK continue their impressive turnaround to this season. On Nov. 22, they were sitting in sixth place in the Pacific Division. The only teams they were ahead of then were the Arizona Coyotes and the L.A. Kings. Both remain at the bottom of the Pacific, while Vegas has gone a 16-3-3 tear in their last 22 games. They haven’t lost a game at home in regulation in more than 1-1/2 months and their record at T-Mobile since Nov. 16 is 9-0-2. We also clearly remember the overtime losses to Montreal and L.A. that could have been easily avoided.

Since their 3-2 OT game-winner against Arizona scored by Pacioretty, the VGK have gone 17-3-3, the best record in the entire Western Conference and the second best in the NHL. Only Tampa Bay, at 17-2-1, is better. The Knights have points in nine straight games with a 7-0-2 record and have points in 11 consecutive home games at 9-0-2.

Their goaltending has been stellar, giving up only seven goals in their last six games. Yesterday, before the Wall was fully constructed, Subban did surrender two goals on New Jersey’s first five shots. Once the last brick was put in place, though, he denied the next 33 shots for his second win of the season after losing his first five starts. Yesterday was Subban’s first start at T-Mobile since March 30 against St. Louis in a game that Subban and the Knights won by a score of 4-3 on Jonathan Marchessault’s OT goal.

Ever since the debacle in Calgary on Nov. 19 where he was dinged for seven goals,  Malcolm has turned the corner and has given up only four goals in his last three starts. The importance of this cannot be overemphasized, as it gives Coach Gallant and goaltending coach David Prior wiggle room in giving the Flower some time off. Fleury played in 38 of the VGK’s previous 44 games.

They’d never say this, but there was some concern in going to Subban. In losing his first five starts, he didn’t give the coaches anything to feel confident about. Barring any major negative developments, I predict you’ll see Subban in the four back-to-back games Vegas has on the schedule: Feb. 1-2, March 9-10, March 17-18, and March 29-30. They also have eight games in 14 days at the end of March.

With yesterday’s win, Vegas has an overall record of 26-15-4 for 56 points, which once again ties them with Calgary for first place in both the Pacific Division and the Western Conference.

In yesterday’s game, Brayden McNabb scored his first goal of the season to tie the game at 2-2 at the 11:17 mark of the second period. Ryan Reaves had trimmed the Devils’ 2-0 lead, established on their two first-period goals when Revo scored unassisted at the 12:30 mark of the first period.

Those who have followed my blog know all about my 2-0 theory. It’s uncanny how often this happens, but the next team to score in a 2-0 game regularly seems to win. It happened again yesterday, just as it happened on Dec. 20 when the New York Islanders scored two first-period goals to go ahead 2-0 and the VGK responded with a goal in the second and three in the third for a 4-2 win.

With McNabb’s goal, that leaves Jon Merrill as the only VGK who has played this season not to score a goal in his 22 games. Reaves’ goal, his eighth of the season, is a career high. Along with his six assists, he also has a career-high 14 points with 38 games left to be played.

Reaves, who always seems to control the tempo of the game, gave us a heart-pumping final 3:22. He first took a tripping penalty with 3:22 left, which meant that New Jersey would have a man advantage for the rest of the game. Even if they didn’t score on the power play, they’d pull their goaltender to extend the man advantage.

But just 20 seconds after leaving the penalty box, returning to the ice against the Devils’ 6-4 man advantage, Revo made it 6-5, then fired a shot from just inside his blue line toward the open net. Even launched from about 115 feet away, it sailed way over the net. If it hadn’t been for the net that hangs from the ceiling to protect the fans from shots like Revo’s, the puck would have wound up inside of the Raiders stadium going up on the other side of I-15.

So back to the box went Revo for a delay-of-game penalty and with the Devil goaltender pulled, it was another 6-on-4 for the final 1:02.

Subban and the other VGK played their hearts out for these 62 seconds of sheer terror as Revo watched helplessly from the penalty box. Post-game, Revo told me that that might be the last time he sees the ice with an open net. I asked Coach Gallant that question in his post-game presser, which turned into a funny moment. That video is at the end of this blog.

The only sore spot for the VGK is their power play, which went 0-2 tonight and is 0-16 recently.

Reilly Smith injured himself early in the third period and never returned. He’ll be evaluated today before the team issues an update. If he can’t go on Tuesday night, this may open the door to seeing newly acquired Valentin Zykov make his first appearance in a VGK sweater.

My 3 Stars of the Game: 1) Malcolm Subban (36 saves on 38 shots with 20 coming in the third period), 2) Max Pacioretty (game-winning goal, his second in two games and third of the year), 3) Alex Tuch (who has become a power forward in less than two seasons; he created Pacioretty’s goal by powering over and through two NJ defenders; he also leads the team with 33 points and is second in goals with 14).

Next game is against the New York Rangers, tomorrow Jan. 8, at 7 p.m.

Those who know me know I was born a NY Rangers’ fan and actually worked for them in 1994, the year they won their last Stanley Cup. I refer to this game as my wife vs. my girlfriend.

Your comments and opinions are welcome and appreciated 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.

Here are the video links:

Gallant Part 1 and Part 2

Malcolm Subban

Revo Part 1 and Part 2

Max Pacioretty

Alex Tuch