Knights on Ice — A Strong Finish to 2019

I wrote the following paragraph following the Dec. 15 game vs. Vancouver, which was 8 long games ago.

“If Stone can find his scoring touch and the Pacioretty Express continues down the tracks, look for your VGK to be sitting on top of the Pacific Division come Jan. 1, 2020, as 5 of their next 7 games are against Pacific Division opponents.”

Well, yesterday afternoon the VGK beat the Anaheim Ducks soundly by a score of 5-2 in front of another sold-out arena of 18,320 fans. They thus made amends for their horrible and unacceptable performance last Friday in Anaheim when they lost to one of the bottom-feeding team of the Pacific Division.

With yesterday’s win, they now sit on top of the Pacific Division and it’s no mystery that this team has found its stride. It doesn’t hurt that Mark Stone has in fact found his scoring touch. Stone has 5 goals and 7 assists since that December 15 game and the Pacioretty Express continues down the tracks with 6 goals and 8 assists since Dec. 10 in a game vs. Chicago.

I don’t claim to have a crystal ball, but I have spent enough time watching this team to know that they had a lot more to give and weren’t playing up to their talent. They have ridden a roller coaster, starting from their first two games on Oct. 2 and 4, which they won against their arch enemy the San Jose Sharks, outscoring them 9-2 in the 2 games.

That was when everyone thought, wow! We’re off and running. If they can manhandle the Sharks, the Pacific Division is all theirs.

Not so fast, Misfit fans. The VGK proceeded to go 6-7 in their next 13 games, followed by 1 win in their next 6 games. So 7 wins in 19 games is not going to get you anywhere fast.

But December was approaching and this team in its brief history has been real good in December: 29-8-6 to be exact since December 2017. In December 2019 they went 9-4-2 and closed out November 2019 with 2 wins, highlighted by that amazing win in Nashville the day before Thanksgiving.

They are extremely lucky to be playing in the Pacific Division, which allowed them to sputter along in their first 21 games. It’s the division that first saw Edmonton burst out of the gate to the top, along with Arizona, while the Pacific Division champions from last season, the Calgary Flames, have been a disappointment.

Speaking of disappointment, who can really feel bad for the San Jose Sharks? They’ve been exposed as a team that is defensively suspect and I’m not just talking about their goaltending. When they opened the vault to keep Karlsson from leaving via free agency and also signed Timo Meier to a 4-year $24 million contract, they had to make adjustments and that came at the expense of Joe Pavelski. His departure now appears to have been a big mistake for the Sharks, who have gone from the Western Conference Finals last season to the worst record in the entire Western Conference with 37 points through 41 games, 17-21-3.

The Pacific Division is the weakest of the 4 in the NHL. Vegas leads the Pacific with 50 points through 43 games; the other 3 divisions leaders all have 58 points with only 41 games played. So Vegas in a way was fortunate to play in the Pacific, but make no mistake, they are now playing with a swagger and if they stay on course, they will capture their second Pacific Division title in just their third year. You heard this here from me on January 1, 2020.

Yesterday’s game could have gone bad real quick, as once again John Gibson was just being Gibson facing 22 first-period shots, while Anaheim had just 5. Until Alex Tuch was credited with a goal with just 20 seconds to go in the first period, the score was tied at 1-1. The one goal that Anaheim did score came on the VGK failure to clear the puck out of their defensive zone and to make matters worse, they left Korbinian Holzer all alone in the corner to Fleury’s right. In Holzer’s first 33 games this season, he had zero goals and 2 assists. A scoring machine he’s not. So when somehow the puck found its way back into the corner where Holzer was all by himself, he took the puck and walked in on Fleury for the game’s first goal 8:13 in. It was an unassisted goal, which is kind of rare, and yesterday 4 goals of the 7 were unassisted. Granted, Marchessault’s goal, which came via a penalty shot, will always be unassisted. It was Marshessault’s 3 penalty-shot goal.

Marchessault, who has five goals in his past six games, scored his third penalty-shot goal since 2012-13, trailing only Boston Bruins forward Brad Marchand of the Boston Bruins, who has 4 .

Tuch’s goal, his 6^th of the season and his first since Dec. 5 vs. the NY Islanders, was actually put into the net by an Anaheim player off a mad scramble in front of John Gibson. Tuch was the closest player to the puck and thus was awarded the goal, one of the 4 unassisted goals of the game. That goal allowed Vegas to leave the first period leading by a score of 2-1.

The second period saw the Vegas Golden Knights showing up a tad late; they didn’t register a shot on Gibson until over 13 minutes had been played. But the VGK got it back into gear and ended the period with 11 shots, all taken in the final 7 minutes of the period.

Even though Marchessault’s 2 goals came via a penalty shot and an empty-netter, the line of Karlsson, Smith, and Marchy played a good game, creating multiple chances along with a forecheck that gave Anaheim fits. Reilly Smith added a goal of his own on a nifty backhand and had one of the assists on Marchy’s empty-net goal.

Mark Stone added a goal, his 3^rd in 2 games, created off of a forecheck from Max Pacioretty, who has been a force on both sides of the puck over the last month. How he wasn’t selected for the upcoming All-Star Team is a mystery. He may still get in on the NHL’s last-man-in voting option. He sure deserves the honor: He has 41 points in 43 games, on pace for an 80-point season, which would be a career high for Patches. He scored a career-high 67 points in both the 2014-15 and 2016-17 seasons. The most goals Patches has scored in a season was 39 in the 2013-14 season. He has 16 goals so far this season through 43 games.

Kudos to the 4^th line of Nosek, Carrier, and Reaves, which of late has had one good game after another. Their contributions may not show up on the score sheet, but trust me, they create the tempo for the top two lines that follow them and the havoc they create in their forecheck and body checks. In just their 10 minutes of ice time yesterday, that line registered 12 hits, 6 by Reaves and 3 each from Nosek and Carrier, and these aren’t just rub-outs along the boards; these are glass shakers that for the most part result in prone bodies on the ice. Opposing players play with one and sometimes two of their eyes looking around for the next bomb to explode on them. It’s a tough way to make a living, but as Gallant says over and over again, everyone on this team has a role. And these 3 warriors play their role well.

My 3 Stars of the Game: Jonathan Marchessault (2 goals and a plus 3), Reilly Smith (1 goal, the GWG, and 1 assist), the Crunch Line of Nosek, Carrier, and Reaves

Next Game is tomorrow vs. the Philadelphia Flyers at 7 p.m.

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Happy New Year, everyone.