Knights on Ice — Fleury Shines, while the VGK Deliver a Handful of Goals

The VGK may now have the biggest home-ice advantage of the 14 teams still left in the playoffs. They also may have the best goaltender among these 14 teams.

Yes, in less than a week, two teams have already been eliminated. Last night, the odds-on favorite was swept. The Tampa Bay Lightning were widely predicted to not only get to the Stanley Cup Finals through the Eastern Conference, but to win it all before they even played a game. Incredibly, they were ushered out in the first round, four games to zero, by the Columbus Blue Jackets, the wildcard team.

The other team that was also beaten in four straight was the Pittsburgh Penguins, who have won the Stanley Cup twice in the last three years.

With both of these teams eliminated, the race to 16 wins is wide open and the VGK are now considered a favorite to accomplish what they fell three games short of last season.

Last night at T-Mobile, Marc-André Fleury took matters into his own hands and stifled the San Jose Sharks, even though they pretty much dominated the entire first period, peppering Fleury with 18 shots, compared to the measly seven the VGK managed on Martin Jones. But like in the previous nine playoff games that Martin Jones has played against the VGK, he came up with yet another stinker, allowing two goals on those seven in the first 20 minutes. Including last night’s game in his 10 playoff games vs. Vegas, Jones hasn’t completed four of them.

The VGK’s first goal was scored on their very first shot of the game. They missed scoring in the first minute as Max Pacioretty’s goal, set up by Mark Stone, came a minute and 11 seconds into the game.

Jones was replaced by Aaron Dell at the start of the second period. Dell gave up the final 3 VGK goals on 20 shots. The handful of goals was more than enough for the VGK to not only win the game, but also to have a complete stranglehold on this series, now leading it three games to one.

In my last blog, I talked about how SJ coach Peter DeBoer was being outcoached by Gallant, based on the lack of discipline shown by the Sharks. Last night, San Jose was assessed 38 minutes of penalty time, compared to the Knights’ eight.

Evander Kane was responsible for 16 of the 38 minutes. Kane has become unglued in this series, accumulating 39 total penalty minutes in just four games. Last night, with the score 4-0, Kane, who has been running his mouth about Ryan Reaves the entire series, stepped it up a notch by calling Reaves a “muffin boy” after their fight in Game 3. In my opinion, Kane was looking for an EO from last night’s game.

In Las Vegas, an EO is when an employee, usually a dealer, asks for an “early out,” allowing him or her to leave the shift early, and Kane knew that with the score 4-0 halfway through the third period, he might have to once again encounter Muffin Boy for round 2. He’s no fool, so with the play right in front of the Vegas bench, Kane cross-checked Paul Stastny with a nasty blow, sending him to the ice face first. A scrum ensued. Kane, now looking at a Lion in the Jungle as opposed to a Muffin Boy, proceeded to punch an unprepared Colin Miller in the head, sending him to the ice as well. Kane knew full well that this would get the EO he was so desperately seeking.

The series isn’t over and hockey players have elephant-like memories. If the situation is right and the final score and outcome are pretty much set, Kane may have to face Revo one more time before this series concludes.

The San Jose Sharks actually turned in a much better performance last night for the first 40 minutes, but had zero to show for it offensively. They were also exposed defensively, as both Brent Burns and Erik Karlsson appeared more like stationary cones in their defensive zones. San Jose avoided a third shorthanded goal of the series when Erik Karlsson pretty much handed the puck to William Karlsson 20 feet in front of Martin Jones while San Jose was on the power play. The good Karlsson missed on his shot.

Last night marked Fleury’s 77^th playoff win and his 15^th playoff shutout. Last night’s shutout was the first for Fleury in this year’s playoffs. In last year’s first round, Fleury had shutouts against the L.A. Kings in Game 1 and the clinching Game 4. Fleury stopped all 28 shots he faced last night. Fleury had to stop only two shots in the entire third period, as the Sharks committed six minor penalties, along with two 10-minute misconducts. Vegas went 2-for-9 on their power play and the Sharks were 0-4.

Late in the game with the score 5-0, the coaching staff rewarded the fourth line of Bellemare, Reaves, and Carrier with power-play time. You can hear what Gallant had to say about this in the video.

With last night’s loss, San Jose has now lost three games in a row, outscored 16-6 in this span.

Max Pacioretty is having one heck of a playoff so far. Last night, he scored two goals and had two assists for a 4-point game, which brings his total offensive output to 10 points (4G, 6A) and ties him for the league lead in scoring with Mark Stone, who added 2 assists to his league-leading total of 10 points (6G, 4A).

Not to go unnoticed is Shea Theodore, who last night had a Bobby Orr-like goal, making Brent Burns appear to have his skates on backwards. Burns was unable to respond to Shea’s outside-inside move around the man with the worst beard in the NHL. Shea also added an assist to Pacioretty’s PPG for back-to-back multi-point playoff games

The VGK continue to rewrite the NHL record book. Last night, they became the only team in the 101 years of the NHL history to score in the first 90 seconds of three consecutive playoff games and four consecutive postseason periods.

Player for player, in the post-game locker room and at the CNA practice facility, none is shy about saying that they feed off the energy and noise from the VGK fans. They (including Max Pacioretty) credit their fast starts to the T-Mobile crowd — all 18,567 of them. What’s so crazy about this is that there are 17,500 seats in T-Mobile for a hockey game. That leaves 1,067 fans who are willing to stand for almost three hours to be part of this magical journey that was started two years ago.

My 3 Stars of the Game: Marc-Andre Fleury (who held down the fortress when San Jose took their game to another level), Max Pacioretty (2 goals, 2 assists, and his first goal helped stem the Sharks momentum in the early stages of the game), Shea Theodore (1 impressive goal and 1 assist for his second multi-point playoff game in a row)

The next game is tomorrow in San Jose a 7 p.m.

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