Knights on Ice — Potpourri VGK-Style Leads to Four Unanswered Goals

Potpourri is a French word that describes a mixture of dried fragrant plant materials, used to provide a gentle natural scent, commonly in residential settings. It’s often placed in a decorative bowl.

Yesterday, VGK Coach Peter DeBoer placed his own version of hockey’s newest scent of potpourri on a slab of ice instead of in a decorative bowl. This new aroma smelled great, so great that it allowed the VGK to a come-from-behind 5-3 win over the Dallas Stars with four unanswered 3rd-period goals.

Because hockey has less scoring than basketball or football — and no shot or play clocks — a team with the lead can concentrate on keeping an opponent at bay. It can blanket attackers in its zone, or back check, and focus on sweeping the puck out of its own zone, so the opponent has to regroup at neutral ice to start over.

Maintaining a lead may look easy and seem boring, but players say it’s a feat in itself. Fewer goals are scored in the third period than in the first or second. Most times, the team with the lead buckles down in the third period and plays its defensive system a little harder, while teams that trail entering the third period win only 15.7% of the time for a reason.

Last night, was it Coach DeBoer’s potpourri? Or was it Dallas just relying on the math that says a 2-goal lead going into the 3^rd period is a pretty safe bet, especially in a game with as much importance that this game had attached to it? Or are the VGK good enough to play only about 30 minutes of a 60-minute game to win? One can only speculate what the real reason was.

DeBoer really had no choice but to dismantle 3 of his 4 lines during yesterday’s first game of the three that the VGK will play in the round-robin series to determine their seed as one of the top 4 among the 8 teams that will fight for the Western Conference Championship. His hand was forced; the VGK didn’t seem to be prepared or interested in playing the entire 2nd period as they gave up 3 Dallas goals on 3 consecutive shots spanning 4 minutes and 52 seconds.

The 9 forwards that make up the VGK’s first 3 lines were shaken, stirred, and put into a blender and the only line that a VGK fan would recognize after the blender was turned off was the one that made its incredible run in the inaugural season: Reilly Smith, Jonathan Marchessault, and William Karlsson. That line was reunited and the 4th line of Reaves, Nosek, and Carrier was the only one that DeBoer didn’t touch. He even juggled the 6 defensemen. 

DeBoer looked like a magician as his bowl of potpourri played a flawless 3^rd period and had a shot advantage of 13-2 when Carrier deposited his winning goal with a Kobe Bryant-like between-the-legs shot with his back facing the net and goaltender Ben Bishop. Carrier’s goal was immediately waved off for goaltender interference and now the potential winning goal was in the hands of the War Room in Toronto, as all goals are reviewed.

If you’ve been following the VGK, you know that the War Room hasn’t been friendly to the VGK for the most part. After conferring with his assistant coaches, including VGK video coach Tommy Cruz, DeBoer challenged the call on the ice — a dicey choice. If the call of no goal stood, the VGK would receive a 2-minute penalty for delay of game, putting Dallas on the power play in a 3-3 game with just 5:12 left. Dallas already had a power-play goal.

When I watched the replay of the goal, I was thinking that when Carrier made contact with Bishop, the goaltender’s left skate and most of his right pad were in the blue paint. I expected the goal not to stand and for the game to remain at 3-3 with Dallas going on the power play. But this is 2020 and nothing seems normal, including calls from the War Room in Toronto.

The call on the ice was reversed. Carrier had his first-ever playoff goal in the 18th playoff game of his career and his first winning playoff goal to boot.

Chandler Stephenson scored on the first VGK shot of the game just 1:04 into the game. That lead stood until Dallas scored its 3 goals on 3 straight shots in the 2nd period within 4:52 of one another.

The VGK scored their 3 comeback goals in a span of 5:02, with one by Stone, then Nate Schmidt, followed by Carrier’s game-winner. Karlsson added an empty-net goal with just 21 seconds left to seal the 5-3 win and give Vegas a leg up in the round-robin playoff games.

Speaking of a leg up, during the playing of both the American and Canadian national anthems, William Carrier, Tomas Nosek, Zach Whitecloud, and Nick Holden stood on both legs. Two VGK players did not. Their choice to do this will not solve the problem they believe exists and as a matter of fact, in my opinion, it creates a greater divide among all of us by bringing politics into this great game of hockey. Considering all that we’ve endured during the last 6 months, can’t we just play and watch hockey without opinions that are not related to the game itself?

I would say that VGK owner Bill Foley, a West Point graduate, could not be happy about this display, especially considering that those two players were wearing the jerseys that are part of the hefty $550 million he paid for the privilege of having an NHL franchise.

Immediately after the game, a friend of mine and season ticket holder who I met at T-Mobile back in 2017 texted me to ask if I knew anyone who would like to go to any future games at T-Mobile as his wife who had already sworn off of other major sports because of these displays is now refusing to attend any further VGK games.

My 3 stars of the game: William Carrier (for standing tall and scoring the winning goal); Mark Stone (1G 1A) and Nate Schmidt (1G 1A), and Pete DeBoer for his hockey potpourri

Next game is Thursday August 6th vs. the St Louis Blues (TBD)

Your comments and opinions are welcome here at Las Vegas Advisor or you can contact me directly at [email protected] or visit my Facebook page or the Facebook page of Vegas Hockey Guy

Carrier’s winning goal

Stephenson’s opening goal