Entering the frozen waters of T-Mobile last night, the wounded VGK came face to face with the Sharks, never a good idea with real sharks or with a San Jose team that’s been on fire of late, now winning five straight, while snapping the VGK’s win streak at seven (one shy of a franchise record). Last night’s loss also snapped another streak for the VGK: their 12-game point streak at home, where they were 10-0-2.
I’m in no way, shape, or form making excuses for the VGK loss, but when you’re missing one player from each of your four lines, along with Colin Miller, who helps quarterback the power play, you’re bleeding in waters filled with hungry sharks.
The Karlsson line is missing Reilly Smith. The Stastny line is missing Max Pacioretty, who has replaced Smith on the first line. The third line last night was without Cody Eakin, who missed Wednesday’s practice. It was reported to be a maintenance day for Eakin, but it turned into a scratch. Valentin Zykov saw his first action as a VGK, filling in for Eakin. Brandon Pirri, who was returned to the Chicago Wolves, at least as an official transaction, was recalled a short time later to the roster and replaced Max Pacioretty. William Carrier was missing from the fourth line and was replaced by Tomas Nosek.
The VGK didn’t offer much of an explanation for the Pirri shuffle. In his post-game press conference, Coach Gallant said he doesn’t get involved in player transactions, then went on to say that if Pirri is available and on the roster, he’ll play him. The injury situation with the VGK just seems like a merry go round of players going on and coming off of IR.
The VGK trainers’ room looks like a hospital ward and that has been the case from game one to game 47. There hasn’t been one game so far this season in which all their players were available. Even Malcolm Subban was scratched and third-string goalie Maxime Legacé was called up from the Chicago Wolves to fill in.
It’s astonishing that even with all the games lost due to injuries, the VGK sit where they are. San Jose with last night’s win did leapfrog over Vegas into second place in the Pacific Division and now trails Calgary by just one point for both the division and the Western Conference lead.
Tomas Nosek opened the scoring just 1:34 into the game when he picked up a rebound off a shot taken by Ryan Reaves from the right faceoff circle. Nosek was trailing the play and snuck in behind Shark defenseman Tim Heed, who was facing Reaves, then wasted no time in snapping it past Martin Jones who had committed himself to the left post to face Reaves and his shot.
Otherwise, it seemed like every bounce was fortunate for the Sharks and just the opposite for Vegas. On attempting a clearing pass to Zykov using the boards in the neutral zone, Nate Schmidt partially fanned on his pass. Tomas Hertl picked up the errant pass and used Nate as a screen to beat Fleury to his stick side to tie the score at 1-1 at the 14:05 mark of the second period. The period ended tied at 1-1 with San Jose only having five shots total in the second and 15 through two periods.
The Sharks were content with playing a wait-and-see game, not looking to create a lot of offense, but rather attempting to slow down the speed of the Knights. The Sharks had only two shots on Fleury in the first 13:30 of the first period. They did eventually register 10 shots on Fleury in the first with a late offensive surge. They stalked their prey and waited for an opening, a.k.a. a mistake by Vegas.
The same held true in the second as they had only one shot for the first 10 minutes, scoring on their second shot 14:05 into the period. San Jose had a meager five shots in the entire second period, while the VGK were consistent with 13 shots in both the first and second periods.
Early in the third period, Jon Merrill took a pass from Brandon Pirri just as he was entering the zone and a well-timed screen by Ryan Carpenter prevented Martin Jones from seeing Merrill shoot — the Knights took the lead on Merrill’s first goal of the season.
San Jose could no longer stick to its rope-a-dope style of play now that they were trailing in the third period. Martin Jones had been spectacular in net, stopping 36 of the 38 shots Vegas took. Jones was perfect on the Golden Knights’ three power-play chances, stopping all seven shots.
The VGK power play has been dismal of late and last night was 0-3. Their set-up in entering their offensive zone is choppy at best and it hampers the flow of the power play. This is where Colin Miller is missed.
They’ve dodged a bullet winning the last seven games, scoring just one power-play goal against the Rangers on Tuesday by Pirri. They even pulled Fleury with 2:46 left in the game while on the power play, creating a 6-on-4, but they still didn’t really muster any serious scoring chances. Pirri beat Martin Jones in the third period, but his shot rang off the post. Pirri had a game-high seven shots on Jones and led both team in shots.
What happens with Pirri is still a mystery, as it appears the intention was to return him to the Chicago Wolves. That changed quickly after it was reported.
San Jose’s two goals in the third period came 39 seconds apart and changed the whole momentum of the game.
The only streak that wasn’t broken was Alex Tuch’s eight-game point streak with an assist on Jon Merrill’s goal. Alex has two goals and seven assists in these past eight games.
On a side note, something might be brewing. There were 21 scouts from the other 29 teams at T-Mobile last night. We’re still more than six weeks away from the trade deadline, but 21 teams out of 29 watching this game leads me to believe we’ll see a change or two before then.
My 3 Stars of the Game: Martin Jones (36 saves on 38 shots), Tomas Nosek (one goal and a complete game on both sides of the puck), Jon Merrill (1 goal and a solid defensive performance, which has been the case over the last few games).
Next game is Saturday vs. the Blackhawks in Chicago at 5:30 p.m. Pacific Time.
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Here are links to the videos from post-game:
Coach Gallant Part 1 and Part 2
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Comment I received
Sometimes the puck bounces your way and sometimes it doesn’t. Last night was a good example. One thing is for sure we need to be better on the PP.
A comment I received
Thank you again. Always well written and you explain things in a way that a new fan like myself can understand. I don’t understand the part about all the scouts from the other teams?
Kelly
Scouts are looking at VGK players in case their team wants to make a trade with Vegas before the trade deadline which is Feb 25th. The scouts are there taking notes and observing players that they may be interested in. Their reports are turned into their General Managers who will possibly make trades with either the VGK or any of the other 29 teams
Joe Pane the scout part I understand but about VGK willing to give up players or trade them was the part I didn’t get.
Meaning did we put the word out that we are willing to trade or let players go and that’s why so many scouts showed up? Or does this regularly happen near trade deadlines?
Kelly
Lets see if I can help you understand the process, as the season progresses George McPhee is reevaluating the team to see what he believes he may need to make a deep run in the playoffs if you remember he brought in Ryan Reaves because the team last year as good as they were they did not have a physical aspect and with most likely having to play 2 big heavy teams like the Kings and Sharks Reaves was a good fit he also brought in Tomas Tatar and that turned out to not be a good fit. Things change through 82 games. Plus he knows a lot more about the injuries that is currently bogging down the team
So he may be looking for another piece or two to give him what he needs to win the Cup this team is currently built to win or at least make a deep run over the next 4-5 years.GM are always talking to each other fishing around so to speak on who might be available come trade deadline time.After year 1 the other 30 GM are very cautious dealing with McPhee since he fleeced them in the expansion draft.
The presence of scouts happens, but last night seemed like it was a little earlier than expected
Joe