This team is snake-bitten this year when it comes to injuries. Yet they keep on plugging along, winning the 8th of their last 9 games with last night’s 6-3 win over the Edmonton Oilers. All of this despite the parade to the infirmary. They have yet to have a complete healthy roster at any point this season.
Alex Tuch was out of the lineup from Oct. 4 till Oct. 20.
Paul Stastny was out of the lineup Oct. 10 till Dec. 12.
Deryk Engelland was out of the lineup from Oct. 16 till Oct. 24.
Erik Haula has been out of the lineup since he was injured against Toronto on Nov. 6.
Max Pacioretty was out of the lineup from Dec. 20 till Jan 1.
Colin Miller was out of the line up from Dec 20 till Jan. 15.
Reilly Smith was out of the lineup from Jan. 8 till Jan. 23.
William Carrier was out of the lineup from Jan. 8 till Feb. 7, returned for 4 games, and has been out of the lineup from Feb. 15 and has yet to return.
Malcolm Subban was out of the lineup from Jan. 19 till Feb. 7.
Nick Holden was out of the lineup from Feb. 1 to Feb. 18.
William Carpenter was out of the lineup from Feb. 9 till Feb. 22.
Marc-Andre Fleury missed his first game this season last night because of an undisclosed lower-body injury.
In addition to all of this missed games, let’s not forget Nate Schmidt’s 20-game suspension.
At Coach Gallant’s post-game press conference, he let it be known that Fleury would not be joining the team for tonight’s crucial game against San Jose.
I call it crucial as there is a slight chance that they could catch San Jose for the second spot in the Pacific Division. They trail the Sharks by 9 points and have 2 games yet to play against them, both on the road. It’s a longshot, but so was this team ever getting to play for the Stanley Cup in their first year. They currently lead Arizona by 7 points.
In the VGK’s final 10 games of the season, they play 6 teams currently not in the playoffs. Their other 4 games are against teams that are right now in a playoff spot. They play San Jose twice and Winnipeg and St. Louis.
In San Jose’s last 10 games, they face non-playoff teams in seven. Their 3 playoff opponents are Calgary and the VGK twice. Somewhat of an easier schedule than Vegas.
In Calgary’s last 10 games, their only game against a playoff team is vs. San Jose, while their other 9 games are against opponents who are not in a playoff spot. Columbus and Dallas are in a race for a wildcard spot, but by far Calgary has the easiest schedule.
So a lot of things will have to break just right for Vegas to gain home ice in the opening round.
Last night’s game broke right for Vegas, as they had an impressive first shift for the Karlsson-Marchessault-Smith line, which spent their entire shift in the Edmonton zone and had two shots on net. Granted, they were catching Edmonton on a back-to-back game and it showed. The first 10 minutes of the game were dominated by the VGK. The Karlsson line had an impressive night overall, with 2 goals by Marchessault and 2 assists by both Karlsson and Smith.
Mark Stone, who opened the scoring at the 5:40 mark of the first, actually wound up on the ice with Karlsson and Marchessault, as Reilly Smith changed early and Stone jumped on to replace him. It turned into a good change.
Edmonton got their legs under them by the halfway mark of the first period and when Nugent-Hopkins scored a power-play goal, it appeared the teams would go to the locker rooms tied at 1-1. Cody Eakin had a different vision as he took a nice cross-ice pass from Tomas Nosek and snuck into the Edmonton zone down the left wing. He beat Mikko Koskinen from the faceoff circle with a snap shot over Koskinen’s left shoulder to regain the 1-goal lead with just 55 seconds left in the first.
Edmonton answered back just 22 seconds into the second off of a faceoff win by Connor McDavid, who dished it off to Leon Draisaitl. It was McDavid’s second assist of the night and his eighth-straight multi-point game. The last time this was accomplished in the NHL was when Vincent Lecavalier had the same eight-game multi-point streak with Tampa Bay between Nov. 3 and Nov. 19, 2007.
With the score tied 2-2, Jonathan Marchessault took matters into his own hands by scoring the next 2 goals, one just less than 2 minutes after Edmonton tied the game and his second came 40 seconds into the third period on blistering snap shots past Koskinen to regain the lead that Vegas would not surrender. Edmonton pulled within one goal 5:52 into the third period, but goals by Brayden McNabb and Alex Tuck sealed the deal.
It was a complete team effort last night, with Gallant rolling four fresh lines throughout the game against a tired Edmonton team.
Seven different VGK players had at least 3 shots on goal or more: Statsny and Stone had 5; Engelland, Smith, Pacioretty, Reaves, and Marchessault had three apiece and Marchessault scored on two of them.
Vegas out shot Edmonton 34-19.
“That’s a team, they come at you in waves,” Oilers forward Sam Gagner said of the Golden Knights. “We did a good job when we were making them turn it over and playing in their end, but it wasn’t enough.”
“I think they play at a tempo that’s hard to match,” said Oilers coach Ken Hitchcock. “They’re deep and they come at you with four lines. We negated them in our building [a 2-1 Edmonton win Dec. 1], but they were on top of us for most of the night.”
When opposing teams are saying these things about Vegas, you know that the VGK are on the right path with just 10 games to go before the real season begins.
The Knights, who’d been surrendering the first goal of the game lately, have now scored first in 7 of the last 8 games.
Not to be disappointed, there was once again another goaltender interference call on McNabb’s goal. From the replay, Bellemare clearly has his hand on Koskinen’s back and it appears that he may have prevented him from moving to his left. But not to be disappointed, the War Room in Toronto ruled in favor of Vegas and allowed McNabb’s fourth goal of the season to stand. You just never know what the War Room is thinking.
Circling back to the vast amount of injuries that has plagued Vegas since opening night on Oct. 4, I can see a silver lining into this: There are 11 players who did not have to grind through 82 games. Will they be fresher come April 10 when the playoffs start? One would think so. A good indication is the lack of maintenance days that were taken this year by the VGK. Plus, Gallant has had a number of optional practices, allowing players to manage their recovery times.
I guess we’ll find out very soon.
My 3 Stars of the Game: Jonathan Marchessault (2 goals on 3 shots and the game- winner), William Karlsson (2 primary assists on Stone’s goal and Marchessault’s game-winner), Reilly Smith (2 assists on both of Marchessault goals).
With Fleury not traveling with the team to San Jose and Subban facing only 19 shots, it leads me to believe you’ll see Subban in a back-to-back starting role in the next game, this evening at San Jose at 7:30 p.m.
Here are the links to the post-game interviews:
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.
Never miss another post