Knights on Ice — Not A Playoff Team

On Jan. 15, 2020, the VGK are not a playoff team. I know that’s hard to believe, considering that just a few games ago they were not only a playoff team, but they were firmly in 1^st place in the Pacific Division. Last night in the first game of an 8-game road trip, the VGK were in Buffalo to play the Sabres. The Sabres scored 2 power-play goals on the way to defeating the VGK by a final score of 4-2.

Buffalo is also not currently a playoff team; they sit in 5^th place in the Atlantic Division and trail 4 teams for the last 2 wild-card spots. Vegas is in 5^th place in the Pacific Division, trailing 2 teams for the 2 spots. Their last 4 games are solely responsible for the current New York City-sized pothole this team is stuck in. The VGK have been outscored 16-7 in these last 4 losses.

The VGK’s penalty killing-unit once led the league in penalty killing, but now has given up at least one power play goal in the last 6 games, including the two last night. These goals were instrumental in the loss. Buffalo has scored multiple power-play goals in consecutive games for the first time since doing it in three straight to begin the season from Oct. 5 to 9. Vegas has allowed at least one power-play goal in each of its past six games (6-for-14 on penalty kill).

Last night started out seeming like the final results might be different than the last few games played at T-Mobile. For the first time in the last 4 games, Vegas held the opposing team to no goals in the first period and didn’t fall behind on the scoreboard. Actually, they scored the first goal of the game early in the 2^nd period, giving Vegas a lead that hadn’t happened in the prior 4 games.

Tomas Nosek scored his 6^th goal of the season off his skate when a centering pass from Chandler Stephenson to the front of the net slipped behind Buffalo netminder Linus Ullmark on the fortuitous bounce. Ullmark only gave up one other goal, which was scored in a normal hockey manner, when Reilly Smith registered his 19^th goal on a wicked snap shot just 7 seconds into the power play to tie the score at 2-2 in the 3^rd period.

Ullmark went on to make 24 saves for Buffalo, who with last night’s win improved their record to 21-19-7. Buffalo has won four of its past six games. Vegas is headed in the complete opposite direction, losing their last 4 games and 6 of their last 10. These results are the reason Vegas has gone from the top of the Pacific to completely out of a playoff spot.

Reilly Smith has scored his 19 goals in 49 games. In the 2018-2019 season, he scored 19 goals in 74 games. Smith had a career-high 25 goals in the 2015-2016 season with the Florida Panthers. At this current scoring pace, Smith is on track to score 32 goals this season. That may bold well for Reilly Smith, but never forget this is a team sport and right now Vegas isn’t firing on all cylinders. They’re a fragile team right now, especially losing to teams like the Buffalo Sabres and the L.A. Kings and not being able to take advantage of the multiple injuries and depleted lineups of both the Columbus Blue Jackets and Pittsburgh Penguins.

It’s not often that a veteran will call an opposing team inferior, but last night a very frustrated Mark Stone called the Buffalo Sabres just that. Here are his exact words.

“It’s tougher, especially when you’re losing to teams you know that you’re better than, and we’re a better hockey team. We just have to find ways to put the puck in the net, and we’ve kind of gotten stale the last bunch of games.”

These words are very telling of the level of frustration that is currently affecting not only Mark Stone, but the entire VGK organization

Thursday’s game is another against a team that would fall into the same category that Mark Stone put the Buffalo Sabres in. These are games that are imperative in gathering valuable points and right now every point is important.

In life when you feel good about yourself, you walk with your head held high and you have a jump to your step. Things just seem to fall into place. This is something we’ve all experienced. We’ve also all experienced times when we don’t have that positive feeling and start to expect things to go wrong. And guess what? For the most part, that actually happens. But there’s just too much talent on this team to think they can’t snap out of this and their next 2 games against Ottawa and Montreal are the proper medication that will help in curing this cloud of doubt that seems to be hanging over the VGK.

The return of Jonathan Marchessault should play a huge role in settling the room down. It sure looked like it last night; his being back in the lineup clearly had an impact on Karlsson and Smith, who seem to play with more purpose when Jonathan is alongside them. He was physical last night in his return. He’s also one of the leaders of this team and his voice was missing during the 3-game losing streak that occurred in the final 3 games at T-Mobile.

Shea Theodore assisted on both VGK goals last night and has now recorded at least 2 assists in a game for the 5^th time in just 49 games. In a season that has seen the defense of the VGK take a lot of blame for inconsistency, Theodore continues to shine offensively, even though Jack Eichel undressed both Theodore and Fleury on the winning goal scored on the power play seconds short of the 8-minute mark of the 3^rd period, which broke the 2-2 tie. Buffalo added a late open-net goal to prevent a late-game comeback forcing overtime, with Fleury on the bench for the extra skater.

The next Game is tomorrow vs. Ottawa at 4:30 p.m.

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Smith’s goal