Knights on Ice — Bogus Penalty Ends the VGK Season

From October 2017 till last night, I’ve written blog posts on 164 regular-season games and 26 playoff games and not once, win or lose, have I felt like the on-ice officials played a major role in the final score. That all changed last night in the VGK’s 27^th playoff game in their short history, which they lost in overtime by a score of 5-4.

The unofficial/unspoken rule in NHL playoff hockey is that the referees not have an impact on the results. They, along with the fans, always want the players to decide the final results. The VGK fans, many new to hockey, are most likely livid about what transpired last night. Even the seasoned long-time hockey fan, the category I fall into, is in complete dismay as how a bogus five-minute major penalty and a game misconduct on Cody Eakin could be called in a Game 7 series-deciding game. Not only was it called, but the results were 100% responsible for the final score.

When a team is issued a major penalty of five minutes, the opposing team can score plenty of goals. With the score 3-0 in favor of VGK and only 10:47 left in the third period, a faceoff was taking place to the left of Marc-André Fleury. The center for the VGK was Cody Eakin and center for the Sharks was Joe Pavelski. Pavelski won the draw and Cody Eakin cross-checked Pavelski in the chest area, which caused Pavelski to lose his balance. As this happened, he got tangled up with Paul Stastny, who was headed out toward the point for his defensive assignment.

Pavelski fell awkwardly and struck his head on the ice.

Eakin’s cross-check didn’t cause Pavelski to hit his head on the ice. It wasn’t to the face of Pavelski, as the NHL supervisor of the on-ice officials said following the game in their attempt to justify a call that denied Vegas a fair chance to win the game. The call, if any, should have been a two-minute penalty for cross-checking that even if the Sharks scored, would have made the score just 3-1. But the bogus call put the Sharks on a five-minute major and in just 4:01, they scored four power-play goals with the help of an NHL referee who shouldn’t be allowed to officiate another playoff game this season.

Yet it seemed like the hockey gods were going to do their best to justify the egregious penalty. The gods put the puck on Jonathan Marchessault’s stick with just 47 seconds left in the third period and Marchy didn’t disappoint: He snuck in his shot between Martin Jones’ left arm and the left post. It was the fourth game in a row in which Marchessault scored a goal, which has never happened in his career that spans 283 games, including playoffs.

It was also the second game in a row that went to overtime and Barclay Goodrow had a direct impact on both OT games — as it should be and not the on-ice officials. Goodrow took a two-minute penalty in Game 6 during the second OT period and while he was serving that penalty, Tomas Hertl delivered the shorthanded goal that kept the Sharks’ playoffs alive, forcing Game 7.

Last night, Goodrow was entering the Vegas zone with a ton of speed on his off wing and took a pass from Erik Karlsson, who drew the attention of both Vegas defensemen, especially Brayden McNabb on the left; McNabb is the defenseman responsible for the winger coming down the right side of the ice. McNabb was flat-footed and not able to recover once Goodrow accepted the pass and with that speed, he easily beat McNabb toward the front of the net and unopposed on Fleury. Goodrow skated right to left across the crease and slipped the puck past Fleury, who couldn’t recover in time to prevent the heartbreaking OT winning goal.

Vegas led this series 3 games to 1 and led this crucial Game 7 by a score of 3-0 with just under 11 minutes to play. I do blame the call, but I also have to lay some responsibility on the Vegas penalty kill that had been real good all season long. Last night, the wheels fell off the VGK penalty-killing bus.

Good teams win Game 7. Good teams are supposed to find a way not to let a bogus penalty have a resounding effect on the final score. It just happened to be a perfect storm that allowed it all to go wrong.

What hurts even more is, of the teams remaining in the playoffs, Vegas may be among the better ones. I said in my last post that a win by Vegas in last night’s Game 7 could have been their return ticket to the Stanley Cup Final. We’ll never know now, will we?

The Golden Knights never had a completely healthy roster through the entire 82-game season and the seven playoff games. San Jose could have mailed it in following Game 4 being down three games to one. They were all but done last night with only 11 minutes left, just waiting for the fork to be put into them. The questionable two-minute cross-checking penalty that in most playoff games would not even be called somehow became a five-minute major and a game misconduct to a key center  and penalty killer for the VGK, who also scored the second goal to extend the Knights lead to 2-0 before Max Pacioretty scored a goal to make it 3-0 and give the VGK a seemingly unbeatable lead in a Game 7.

My 3 Stars of the Game: The officiating crew who stepped in to be the deciding factor in a Game 7; the NHL supervisor of officials who tried to justify the BOGUS call by saying in a post-game statement that the cross-check was to the face of Joe Pavelski; Barclay Goodrow (OT game-winning goal).

The next game is the first week of October. It will be a long summer, considering the potential this team has shown, even with all the bumps in the road they encountered and endured for the past 89 games.

Your comments and opinions are welcome and appreciated here at LasVegasAdvisor.com (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