Knights on Ice — Two Teams Headed In the Opposite Direction, Along with Words That Last Forever

In 2019 when you write things, they remain around forever, as opposed to the days before the Internet ever existed. In the old days, your words might appear in the local newspaper and then in less than 24 hours, they would wind up at the bottom of the bird cage, or wrapped around a glass or cup in a storage box, or your new puppy used it for some light reading material while he sought relief. Whichever way it went, they were never again seen by the human eye.

My words from the 6-5 shootout win against the Florida Panthers on Thursday night are as bright as the light that projects into the Las Vegas sky from Luxor — even after more than 24 hours. When writing about the 11 goals scored in the VGK/Florida game, I made the point that this is the new era of the NHL, where you no longer see games with final scores of 2-1 or, heaven forbid, 3-0. Nope, the average total goals scored is now between five and seven. The goaltenders’ equipment is smaller and the tolerance for infractions on opposing players with the puck is zero. All this adds up to more offense, which is a crowd-pleaser.

So what happens last night in the VGK’s back-to-back game in Anaheim against the Ducks? Wouldn’t you know it? A final score of 3-0 for Vegas. Go figure.

What’s more, only three minor penalties were called in the entire game. And only two goals were scored with John Gibson in the net for the Ducks. Cody Eakin’s empty-netter came with just 21 seconds left in the game.

When Marc-André Fleury is between the pipes, the goal scoring does tend to be at the bottom of the curve. Last night’s shutout was Fleury’s league-leading seventh of the season and his 55^th career shutout, which moved him into third place among all active goaltenders— past Pekka Rinne who has 54. It was Fleury 31^st win this season, which also leads the NHL.

But in defense of my analysis about scoring trends, you do have to give me the benefit of the doubt when the opponent is the Anaheim Ducks — the lowest scoring team in the entire NHL with only 142 goals scored in 65 games. That’s an average of 2.18 goals per game with the league average at five to seven. They have the highest goal differential among the 31 teams with a -60 (the Ducks’ opponents have scored 60 more goals than they have). They’ve now lost five games in a row. Their record since Dec. 21, 2018, is 5-21-4. In December, they were in second place in the Pacific Division; now they sit in seventh place, just four points ahead of the L.A. Kings for last.

The VGK are headed in the opposite direction. They’ve now won three games in a row — the same three that Mark Stone has played in since he was acquired from the Ottawa Senators; Stone registered his first point as a VGK on William Karlsson’s power-play goal in the first period. If you haven’t seen the replay of Karlsson’s goal, I’ve added the link to the end of this post. It’s a thing of beauty. The VGK power-play unit moved the puck around the Duck zone with accurate tape-to-tape passes and Mark Stone’s cross-ice pass to Wild Bill left him a completely open net to deposit the first goal of the game and his 19^th of the season. Karlsson’s goal wound up being the winning goal.

Another good thing about my words sticking around a lot longer than the old days is that in yesterday’s post, I also mentioned that Alex Tuch looked lost playing with Ryan Carpenter and he needed to lose Carpenter as a line mate to help get him out of his 14-game scoring drought. I’m pretty sure Coach Gallant doesn’t rely on me for suggestions on lineup changes, but last night he scratched Tomas Nosek and moved Carpenter down to the fourth line. This move put Pirri back into the lineup after being a healthy scratch for the last two games and he played with Eakin and Tuch, giving the VGK an additional offensive punch. If they have nine forwards with scoring potential, they’ll be a hard team to play against in these last 16 games of the regular season, not to mention into the playoffs, where the ice gets a lot smaller and every goal seems like two in the regular season.

The Eakin-Pirri-Tuch line combined for two goals and eight shots on net. Carpenter, who was on the ice late in the game for defensive purposes, did pick up an assist on Eakin’s empty-net goal.

Tuch’s goal was set up by a stretch pass from Jonathan Marchessault. That sent Tuck in with just Brendan Guhle in the way. Tuch powered passed Guhle to get to the front of the net, where he beat Gibson for his 17^th goal of the season.

Getting Tuch feeling better about his offensive contributions will be paramount in these last 16 games. “It felt pretty big for me,” Tuch said post-game. “At times, when you’re not scoring over a long stretch of games, you get a little down on yourself. But I just wanted to come in and backcheck hard, forecheck even harder, and do what it takes for my team to win.

“We want to make it four [wins] in a row,” he added. “We’re going to prepare for Sunday’s match-up against Vancouver. It’s a Sunday funday at one p.m. So we’ll be ready for it. We’re excited. We’ve been playing really good hockey so far. We’ve got to clean up little bits and pieces and make sure we don’t let teams back in the game.”

Speaking of opposite directions, all NHL teams are allowed to have 50 players under contract at any given time of the season. So far this season, Anaheim has played 47 different players and they’ve made 11 trades since Dec 3. They’re without a head coach as their general manager is behind the bench and will be for the remainder of the season. In other words, it’s a team in complete turmoil. At the same time, the VGK’s Part 2 of Season 2 is moving in the right direction with the addition of Mark Stone.

With last night’s win, Vegas moved within nine points of San Jose for a possible opening-round home-ice advantage and the win kept them eight points ahead of Arizona for the last playoff spot in the Pacific Division.

My 3 Stars of the Game: Marc-André Fleury (34 saves and his league-leading 7^th shutout), Mark Stone (primary assist on a perfect cross-ice pass to Karlsson for the winning goal), William Karlsson (game-winning goal and a much-needed PPG for the team’s power-play unit’s mindset going forward)

Next game is tomorrow at T-Mobile against the Vancouver Canucks at 1 p.m.

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.

Alex Tuch’s goal

William Karlsson’s PPG