The movie Valiant will be shown before today’s game at T-Mobile. Anyone with a ticket to the game will relive the incredible story about a team being so valiant that they shocked the entire hockey world in their inaugural season, setting numerous records that had been around for 100 years in the NHL. The team I’m speaking about is the 2017-2018 Vegas Golden Knights. They were exactly what “valiant” means: possessing or showing courage or determination.
That was the 2017-18 team, a team of 23 captains and 23 players who all had a chip on their shoulders and a mission to accomplish.
The 2019-2020 team may, in fact, need one captain. It appears that the idea of 23 voices isn’t working and chips on shoulders are nowhere to be found. They seem to be missing something. Is it courage or just good old-fashioned determination?
There’s a ton of talent on this team. The recent results are not what’s expected from this group. Is Gallant’s message not being heard? Have they tuned him out? Or is it that there is no one to step to the center of the room and just call out the players individually? That’s what a captain does and maybe having 23 captains prevents that from happening.
I believe there may have been a players-only meeting after the Chicago game. The locker room was closed for a while before the media was let in. If that was the case, that meeting solved squat.
Yesterday, the VGK lost to a team they should have beaten, a team that the valiant 2017-2018 Knights swept in the first round of the playoffs when the games really count. Yesterday’s game wasn’t a playoff game or a game of win or go home, but for the 2019-20 team, it was very important. They are 0-4-1 in their last 5 games and 2-5-3 in their last 10 games. Seven points out of a possible 20 and 5 of those 10 games were at T-Mobile where the team of 2017-18 had opposing teams looking like stationary cones on the ice with their speed and relentless forecheck from all 4 lines. The Valiant team was almost unbeatable.
As much as you would like to soften the realization of trouble in paradise, they really needed this game. They did show signs of determination, coming back twice from 2-goal deficits of 2-0 and 3-1 before tying the game at 3-3 entering the 3rd period. To make matters even more frustrating, the L.A. Kings had a minus-12-goal differential entering the 3rd periods of their games so far this season, which ranked them 30th of the 31 teams.
They were ripe for the picking, but Cody Eakin clearly lost a crucial faceoff to Subban’s left to Jeff Carter, who got the puck back to the blue line and headed to the front of the net unchecked, as Eakin also blew his coverage on Carter. Carter was checked, but it was by his own teammate, as they both were in front of Subban. Carter tipped the shot from Matt Roy as he fell over his teammate for the winning goal with just 7:18 left in the game for the 4-3 victory for the Kings.
Where has this gone wrong? They started the season with 2 wins against the San Jose Sharks, followed by back-to-back losses to Boston at T-Mobile and the Arizona Coyotes on the road. They haven’t won 2 games in a row since Oct. 19, 12 games and counting.
The first time they played L.A. this season, they scored 3 power-play goals in their 5-2 win on Oct. 13. Yesterday, their power play went 0-3 and gave up a shorthanded goal to give L.A. the lead 1-0 with 9:01 left in the first period. Approximately 4 minutes later, Drew Doughty scored a power-play goal to extend the lead to 2-0. The VGK penalty kill, which for a while was ranked the best in the league, has fallen to 3rd now.
Vegas battled back twice to erase 2-goal deficits with goals by Pacioretty and Marchessault. Karlsson tied it 3-3 at 17:06 of the 2nd period. After Shea Theodore’s initial shot hit off the glass, Kings defenseman Sean Walker overskated the rebound and Pacioretty dropped it to Karlsson for the one-timer.
The quick 2-goal deficit seemed to just be too much for Vegas to recover from as they didn’t get much help from Subban, who has yet to win a game in his 5 starts.
A former captain and one who will most likely be considered if and when one is named on this team stepped up with these words following yesterday’s disappointing loss.
“It’s time for everyone to kind of be selfish and just worry about their own game. And what I mean by that is if you’re not going, just find a way to get going and worry about the process, and that’ll help the team a lot.”
Max Pacioretty is in a subtle way calling out his teammates with these words. In the 2-plus years, stuff like this was never said, nor did it ever need to be, but this is not the 2017-18 VGK. This is the 2019-20 VGK, a team that, it appears, will have to work on finding the valiant they once had very soon before its becomes time to circle the wagons.
Management isn’t sitting on their hands. They see what we all see.
Today, they put Brandon Pirri on waivers. I have no news about whether or not he cleared waivers as I write this, but it’s refreshing to know that something is going to change. It has too. This team is built to win. Fleury has only a few years left and with Subban as the backup, it’s clear they have to win on the shoulders and pads of the Flower. Subban gave up 4 goals on just 25 shots, a miserable .840 save percentage.
Every forward for Vegas registered at least one shot on goal, except for Ryan Reaves, and Jon Merrill was the only defenseman not to have a shot on net. Nate Schmidt and Mark Stone had a team high of 4 shots each. Stone has now gone 6 games without scoring a goal.
To say today’s game is a must-win just 22 games into the season may seem extreme, but it very well may be if just for the mindset of the team and to prevent the VGK fans from booking a trip to bungee jump from the Strat tower.
My 3 stars of the Game: Drew Doughty (1G, 1A), Jonathan Quick (28 saves on 31 Shots), William Karlsson (1G, 1A) tied with Max Pacioretty (1G, 1A)
Next game is today at 4 p.m. vs. Calgary.
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Comment received from Jonathan Dominici
Obviously we can’t even edge a win 🤦🏻♂️