Knights on Ice — “It’s Starting To Get Old”

Before anyone accuses me of being too critical of the VGK with the title of this blog, please be aware that it’s a quote from Jonathan Marchessault. It immediately followed the Knights’ 3-2 loss to the Detroit Red Wings, when he was asked about the team’s failure to protect leads and close out games. Marchessault is the unofficial voice of the VGK. He tells it like it is and wears his emotions on his sleeves when it comes to the VGK. I say this because last week, a reader commented on a previous post chastising me for turning anything and everything positive about the VGK into negative stuff. She even suggested that I may be a San Jose Shark fan in disguise.

I will tell you that I couldn’t agree more with Marchy, as this is not only getting old, but it’s especially frustrating against the Red Wings, a team that took the ice yesterday with a record of 1-11-1 and was outscored by a 57-21 margin in their last 13 games. The Red Wings so far this season have scored the fewest goals and have given up the most goals of any team.

This was supposed to be a game that would make the plane ride back to Las Vegas bearable, on somewhat of a positive note, something to build on, but that didn’t happen. Now, with only one game on the schedule over the next 5 days, questions will be asked of the players and the coaches will consider more lineup changes.

Yesterday, Jon Merrill and Tomas Nosek were healthy scratches. Inserted into the lineup were Brandon Pirri and Nick Hague. Nothing seems to spark this team, especially the 3^rd line, which has been lost since Alex Tuch returned from a preseason injury, but lasted only 1-1/2 games before he was injured again from a check along the boards. Merrill isn’t the problem and Pirri isn’t the solution. Last year, Pirri scored 8 goals in his first 11 games; this year, he has zero goals in 11 games. Cody Eakin scored 22 goals last year and has zero goals in 15 games. The 3^rd line of Eakin, Pirri, and Glass combined for 1 shot on goal. The 12 VGK forwards contributed only 11 shots on goal, with 9 of the 12 having either zero shots or just 1. Max Pacioretty, who isn’t afraid to shoot the puck, had 3 SOG yesterday.

With no real offense, the VGK have scored only 7 goals in their last 4 games and their once-impressive penalty-killing unit has allowed 3 PPG in the last 3 games. To make matters even worse, Detroit was 0-11-1 when entering the 3^rd period trailing. They scored to tie the game up and then, with just 31 seconds left when it looked like it was headed for another 5-minute OT session, Brayden McNabb stepped up in the neutral zone to intercept a seemingly harmless cross-ice pass — bad choice in a 2-2 game with just 31 seconds left. Stay back and take the one point and hope to steal the 2^nd point in OT or in the so-called skills-competition shootout. Unfortunately, McNabb whiffed on the interception, Anthony Mantha picked up the loose puck and swooped in on Subban, with Nate Schmidt busting his tail to try to get back into the play. Nate was late and Subban was slow to react to Mantha’s shot that broke the tie and made this 4-game road trip a disaster.

I wrote in my last post that the band-aid effect would be in place after this game, as I expected Vegas would beat the worst team in the league, salvage 5 points out of a possible 8, and most would call the road trip a success, even though there’s a problem that is currently causing this team not only to lose focus in various stages of their game, but to continually blow 3^rd period leads. They have blown 3^rd period leads in 4 of their last 6 games and have won only one of those games.

Yesterday’s game was strange. The teams took a total of 5 shots combined for the entire 2nd period: 3 by Vegas and 2 by Detroit. The VGK didn’t register a shot on goal until Max Pacioretty scored on their first shot of the period 9 minutes and 4 seconds in. It was Pacioretty’s 4^th goal in the last 5 games. Sometimes the VGK register 3 shots on net on a 50-second shift. Well, at least that’s what we were used to seeing from this team in the past.

The VGK forwards, other than Reilly Smith and Max Pacioretty, are nowhere to be found. Marchessault did open the scoring off a sweet pass from Reilly Smith, who without question has been the best VGK player so far this season. Prior to yesterday’s goal by Marchy, his 4^th of the season, he only had 2 goals in the previous 16 games. Mark Stone has only scored 2 goals in the last 10 games after having scored 6 goals in his first 9 games.

Fleury and Subban can only do so much. Subban, who was excellent in the Toronto game, wasn’t sharp yesterday and I’m sure he knows he could have and should have stopped all 3 goals that Detroit scored, especially the first that somehow slipped under his right pad when he had it down on the ice in time to stop the shot.

The Detroit penalty-killing unit is ranked last in the league and Vegas had 2 power-play chances that would have made a difference in yesterday’s outcome, but the team is currently squeezing their sticks and losing focus in all areas of the ice.

In an attempt to shake things up on the back end, McNabb and Schmidt were reunited and Engelland and Holden were paired up, leaving the offensive-minded Theodore paired up with the rookie Hague. The coaching staff is looking for something to click on the back end. The question now is, does Merrill return to the lineup and if so, who comes out?

It’s still early in the season and there’s time to correct what’s currently wrong, but shuffling players in and out erodes their confidence; it leads to uncertainty and they become afraid to make a mistake, as it will lock up a seat in the press box for them. Gallant and the coaching staff need to decide on the players they want to go to war with and stand firm. Their record last season after 19 games was 8-10-1 for 17 points. This year’s after 19 games is 9-7-3 for 21 points. Stay calm, take a deep breath, and come off the top of the Stratosphere, otherwise now known as the Strat.

My 3 Stars of the Game: Anthony Mantha (game-winning goal with 31 seconds left), Reilly Smith (assisted on Marchessault’s goal with a tape-to-tape pass on a 2-on-1 and once again was the best player on the ice for Vegas), Jonathan Marchessault (1 goal and one of 3 forwards with more than 1 SOG for the Knights)

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Jonathan Marchessault’s goal

Max Paccioretty’s goal