Knights on Ice — A Close Game

I wrote the title of this blog, of course, with tongue in cheek; last night’s game could not have been any further apart in effort and determination between two teams who in the last two seasons both appeared in, and lost, the Stanley Cup Final.

When you look at the score of 4-3 and the shots on goal (35 for Boston, 34 for Vegas), then add in Vegas scoring two power play goals compared to Boston’s one, it isn’t a stretch to assume that Vegas won their 3^rd straight game and remain undefeated so far this season. But that’s where the saying “When you assume, you make an ass out of u and me” comes from.

Boston is the team that remains undefeated, winning their first 3 games, all on the road, with last night’s 4-3 victory over the VGK. Boston was the better team last night, but the bar was set really low, as Vegas played maybe 15 minutes of a 60-minute game. There’s just too much parity in the league, thanks to the dreaded salary cap, to expect to win with a 15-minute effort.

Vegas came out of the gate flying, scoring 2 goals in the first 8 minutes of the game. Mark Stone kept up his torrid scoring pace with a power-play goal just 6:36 into the game and had an assist on Max Pacioretty’s PPG with just 6:18 left in the game to make the score seem like Vegas was in the game throughout the three periods. Stone has 2 goals and 4 assists in his first 3 games.

Less than 2 minutes after Stone’s goal, Reilly Smith, who had a whale of a game, scored his goal giving Vegas a quick 2-0 lead. Smith’s goal was his 3^rd of the season along with 1 assist, for 4 points in 3 games.

Smith was flying up and down the ice all night and was the best player for Vegas, but one player can’t do it all. Hockey is a team game and Boston, player for player, weathered the storm in the first 10 minutes and scored 2 goals to even the score at 2-2 after the first period. The backbreaking goal was scored late in the first by the NHL licker, Brad Marchand, with just 1:02 left in the first to tie the game after David Pastrnak cut the Vegas lead in half with his goal 3 minutes after Reilly Smith’s goal.

Giving up goals late in a period or in the first minute of a period are backbreakers. Boston’s 2^nd and 3^rd goals came in 2 different periods, but they were only 1:35 seconds apart, as Marchand scored just 33 seconds into the 2^nd period for a lead that Boston didn’t surrender. Pacioretty’s goal late in the game got Vegas within one goal, but that was a close as they would come. You can’t take 45 minutes off and expect to win. Vegas had poor puck management and poor decisions in moving the puck out of their defensive zone. The NHL official score sheet only Vegas with shows 12 giveaways, but I have a feeling the guy tracking that stat was trying to be nice to the VGK.

Another aspect exposed last night is that the weakest links on the VGK are the 2^nd and 3^rd defensive pairings, especially with Nate Schmidt injured. His presence makes the first 2 defensive pairings not a liability, but with his absence, Vegas is forced to play a rookie in the 3^rd pair. Last night, the 3^rd pair of Engelland and Nicolas Hague had a game they’ll want to forget and move on from. Shea Theodore was paired with Braydon McNabb, while Nick Holden was paired with Jon Merrill. The 2^nd and 3^rd defensive pairings were beat wide a lot and seemed slow to react to a solid Boston team; truth be told, they were pretty much beat in all areas of the ice.

This caused Fleury a lot of problems. He was hung out to dry a few times last night. Fleury kept the game a lot closer than it should have been.

Ironically, Boston scored only 3 goals in their first 2 games and when they jumped out to a 2-0 lead, things began to look like it would be an uphill battle for Boston. So much for my thinking about their ability to respond being down 2-0 early.

After the game, Torey Krug, whose 4^th Boston goal turned out to be the game-winner, said, “They’re a great team. We knew what they were going to bring. This game had the potential to go a lot of different directions. Obviously, being down early, being able to come back, winning a close game at the end, those are just some experiences that we’ll put in our pocket and use for another day.”

It was so unknight-like watching the VGK lose just about every battle for loose pucks and committing turnovers and giveaways.

But we have 79 more games to play and coming off of 2 emotional division games against San Jose could be an excuse as to what caused this letdown. That said, it’s a poor excuse, because good teams don’t take 45 minutes off in any game, especially in front of 18,223 fans.

Next game is Thursday night at 7 p.m., another division game against Arizona, a much improved team, especially with adding Kessler into their lineup. Arizona plays Vegas five times this year, the most of any other team.

Your comments and opinions are welcome here at Las Vegas Advisor or you can contact me directly at [email protected] or visit my Facebook Page Vegas Hockey Guy.

And now for a few words from Eddie Rivkin, titled “The Heel.”

Turnovers are bad in every sport. At their least, nothing more comes of them than a change in territorial advantage. At their worst (in hockey), they end up in the back of your net.

Last night the VGK had 3 of 15+ turnovers end up in the back of their net. That led to a 4-3 defeat to the Eastern Conference Champion Boston Bruins.

Going into the game, one of the big keys to winning was for the VGK tlo contain the Bruins’ top line. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen; the line of Marchand, Bergeron, and Pastrnak torched the VGK for seven points.

For the third game in a row, the VGK got off to a roaring start, with Mark Stone opening the scoring on the power play at 6:36. Less than two minutes later, Reilly Smith put the VGK up 2-0 on a beautiful tic tac toe passing play with Karlsson and Marchessault. The Bruins turned that early two-goal deficit around and then some, with four unanswered goals in just over 10 minutes of game-clock time. In fact, the Bruins carried the play to the VGK until 5 minutes to go in third when the VGK made a game of it with their second power-play goal of the night to make it 4-3.

Max Pacioretty lit the lamp for his first of the year with an absolute snipe from the faceoff circle. That jolt of energy led to a valiant push to tie the game, which came up just short.

If you are a numbers person, into Corsi and all that stuff, this was an even game. In my opinion, it wasn’t. The B’s out VGK’d the VGK with a tenacious forecheck causing way too many turnovers and bad decisions, especially breaking out of the D zone.

That last sentence brings us to the title of this article “The Heel.” Last night we saw for the first time what might be the one glaring issue with the VGK this season, the bottom 4 D men. Of course, that changes if/when Nate Schmidt returns and slots back on the #1 pairing with Braydon McNabb. When that happens, Shea Theodore moves back to the 2nd pair as the primary puck mover. My concern is the rest of the D crew. Schmidt’s injury forces Merrill and Holden into a pairing and leaving Engelland and Hague as the 3rd pair. All of them have their specific roles and upsides. But the 4 of them don’t fit together into a serviceable bottom 2 pairs at the NHL level. Holden and Merrill are stay-at-home-type D men, best paired with an offensive-minded puck mover like 88 or 27. Together, they struggle mightily with the crucial first pass on the breakout and some decision making when pressured by a strong forecheck. While Nic Hague has a strong potential offensive upside, the downside of his skating got exposed. Pairing him with an aging veteran like Engelland will most certainly help Hague acclimate to the NHL game. Unfortunately, both of them are exposed when the opposition is attacking with speed into the VGK zone. Hopefully this is all a temporary issue, but with no real information of 88’s return to the lineup, the VGK have some difficult decisions to make on the back end. There are certainly plenty of options and combinations that can be explored until 88 comes back. I have a feeling we may start seeing them as early as tomorrow night in Phoenix.​

I’m not sounding any alarm; that would be ridiculous (as ridiculous as wondering why the VGK called timeout at the end of the game!). It was game 3 of 82. It’s simply an observation that I’m positive Coach Gallant and the team are aware of and will make the necessary adjustments.

My 3 Stars: Brad Marchand (2G, 1A), David Pastrnak (1G, 2A), Reilly Smith (1G)

Observations from the couch:

The VGK had this game going in the absolute right direction until 3 miscues on the same play led to the first Boston goal at 11:21 of the first. That goal completely changed the flow of the game. As much as I understand playing Cody Glass between Patches and Stone right now, I wonder what might be going on in Stastny’s head? The 3rd line seems to really be struggling with chemistry. There have been flashes of quality play by all of them. But they are struggling. Man oh man, when 21 and 89 are back in the lineup, the VGK are going to have some difficult decisions on paying time vs. press box.

Next up, we are off to Phoenix tomorrow night, where I am sure there will be tons of VGK fans in attendance cheering the boys on!

Thank’s as always to my friend Joe Pane for letting me share his spot on the Internet.