Knights on Ice — The Year of the Rat, a.k.a. the Year of What the Heck Is Going on?

Last night the VGK organization celebrated the Year of the Rat Chinese New Year 2020, along with having an excuse to sell the red warm-up jerseys that the team wore before the game. And what a ratty finish to a game that should have never been in doubt, considering the VGK’s 2-0 lead in the first period and 3-1 entering the 3^rd. With Marc-Andre Fleury in goal, you can pretty much expect to win this game just about every time it’s played.

Except last night, the very reliable and often unbeatable Fleury gave up four 3^rd period goals and 2 goals in 3 attempts in the shootout for a disappointing 6-5 loss to the Carolina Hurricanes.

Not only did the VGK blow a game, plus an even more important point that would have put them in first place as Vancouver lost to Calgary, but the blown point dropped the VGK to 3^rd place in the Pacific, as Edmonton beat Nashville to move past Vegas into 2^nd place.

This game was almost a carbon copy of the last time these 2 teams met 9 days ago. In that game, Vegas also jumped out to a 2-0 lead before Carolina tied it in the 3^rd period, but in that game Alex Tuch scored late in the 3^rd period on the power play to break the 3-3 tie for the win.

Last night, the goal that gave Carolina a glimmer of hope happened with just 29 seconds left in the first period that the VGK dominated for almost the entire first 19 minutes. It was more like a Chinese fire drill, with McNabb over-skating the puck up at the blue line, which kept the puck in their defensive zone. Then, in a comedy of errors, the puck goes off Nate Schmidt’s stick, bouncing past him along the boards, where Sebastian Aho gets the puck. Aho attempts to throw it back to the right point, but instead, it goes off Nicolas Roy’s stick and directly to Teuvo Teravainen on the left point, who sends a floater toward Fleury. Nate Schmidt waves at and misses it with his left hand and McNabb in his haste to get back to the front of the net appears to screen Fleury as the puck beats him high over the glove.

In a game that the winning team scores 6 goals, it’s rare that their first goal would be the one that has a resounding effect on the final score. But this goal in fact did. Going into the locker room up 2-0 with a dominating performance, especially in the first game back home after an 8-game road trip, would be a statement.

But most of the time, these games off an extended road trip can be tricky. It’s just the nature of the beast. The players have been away for a while and returning home, having flown through 3 different time zones. But initially, in their first 19 minutes on the ice at T-Mobile in front of another sold-out crowd of 18,471, it appeared that this was not going to be the case. They were focused and prepared — well, at least that was what the crowd saw until the comedy of errors in the last 29 seconds of the first, which allowed Carolina to feel like they were back in the game while being thoroughly outplayed for the most part of the period.

The first Carolina goal loomed even larger when Shea Theodore scored just 59 seconds into the 2^nd period, which would have given the VGK an almost insurmountable lead of 3-0. But instead it was 3-1 where it remained until the start of the 3^rd period.

Then Carolina dug deep and scored to cut the lead to 3-2. The plot thickened as Zach Whitecloud was given a 4-minute minor for high sticking. You could sense the uncertainty in the crowd.

Chandler Stephenson, who has been outstanding since joining the VGK, scored a shorthanded goal on a breakaway to regain a 2-goal lead for the Knights and the crowd was back into it.

But an old friend named Erik Haula, who was making his T-Mobile debut as an opposing player, scored on the back end of Whitecloud’s penalty to trim the lead to just one goal. Then, Carolina’s Haydn Fleury sent a shot from the blue line that beat Fleury to tie the score at 4-4.

This goal was immediately waved off by referee Garrett Rank for goaltender interference, but Carolina Coach Rod Brind’Amour challenged the call on the ice and now the war room in Toronto was in charge. It didn’t take long: The call was reversed and put back on the scoreboard for a 4-4 tie. This makes 2 games in a row that Vegas has been on the wrong side of a goalie-interference call. I will say this. I thought Fleury was interfered with in their previous game, but last night I believe Toronto got this call right.

With just 6:02 left and Carolina back on the power play, Martin Necas scored to give Carolina their first lead of a game that they fought tooth and nail to get back into. It was a case of pure determination and Vegas putting it on cruise control when they were up 3-1 with just 20 minutes left in the game. Carolina was also down 2-0 to Arizona on Thursday night before they came back to win that game 5-3.

With the VGK trailing 5-4 late in the game, an unlikely hero appeared in Cody Eakin. His forecheck forced James Reimer to mishandle the puck behind the goal. Eakin regained possession of the puck and beat Reimer with a wrap-around goal to knot it back up at 5-5. It was just Eakin’s 4^th goal in 36 games and possibly a good audition for the 15 scouts who were in attendance last night. You can always count on a full press box of scouts 2 weeks before the trade deadline.

It was a very entertaining OT period. Vegas had a power play late in the game that carried over to OT. Yet Carolina had a few quality scoring chances in the 5-minute OT and beat Fleury twice, only to be denied by the post and the crossbar.

Going into the shootout, you had to like the VGK chances with Fleury on one end of the ice and James Reimer at the other. But after all, it’s the Year of the Rat and you know how sneaky rats are. Last night the rats got the cheese and the 2 points as both Marchessault and Theodore came up empty in their shootout attempts.

When Justin William scored on Fleury in round 3, that ended the shootout and denied Vegas of a very valuable point. Vegas was lucky to get the one point last night. You can’t play just 19 minutes of a 60-minute game and expect positive results. There is just too much parity in the league and the salary cap made that all happen. You can thank Gary Bettman for that.

My 3 Stars of the Game: Erik Haula (1G, 1A), Shea Theodore (1G, 1A), Chandler Stephenson (SHG)

Next game is Tuesday Feb 11 vs. Minnesota

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