Knights on Ice — Defensive Breakdowns and a Power Outage Bury the VGK in the Desert

The VGK embarked on their first road trip of the season to face off against the Arizona Coyotes, whom they just played and beat twice at T-Mobile. The venue changed and so did the outcome as the Coyotes avenged their back-to-back losses earlier this week by defeating the VGK by a final score of 5-2.

Arizona was clearly the better team Friday night in the third game of the unconventional 4-game series that these two teams are in the midst of.

Vegas and Arizona will be the first teams in NHL history ever to play 4 straight games against the same opponent in the regular season. As much as this has never been done before there is a push from the NHL Players Association to make it commonplace. From what I’m hearing, this idea has legs. Not so much 4 games in a row, but 2 in a row against the same team in the same city. It will cut down on travel time and wear and tear on the players. Under the usual travel plans, the visiting team completes a road game around 10 p.m., attend to their media obligations, shower, and pack their gear for a late-night flight to a different city to play a different team. The traveling team usually arrives in the next city around 3 a.m., has a morning skate around 11 a.m., followed by another game that day or the next. No one wants to pay $100-$1,000 a ticket to see a team that’s just not performing to the best of their ability. Not to mention 2 games against the same opponent in back-to-back days or in 3 days creates a lot of emotion and possibly some bad blood between the teams. Sure, it makes for an entertaining hockey game for the fans paying top dollar to be there in person (when that happens again), but it’s fraught for the players.

In this 3rd game between the VGK and Coyotes, there was neither emotion nor bad blood between the teams. Arizona was trying to right their ship and avoid a 3-game losing streak, while Vegas was trying to win their 5th game in a row. Arizona came prepared and the VGK did not. If Vegas had won last night’s game, they would have been only the 39th team in the entire history of the NHL to open a season with 5 straight wins. If you were wondering how long the NHL has been around, it played its first game on Nov. 26, 1917. That’s more than 103 years ago.

Arizona lost the first game at T-Mobile to the VGK after having a 2-goal lead and they weren’t about to let that happen again. They were all over the VGK, capitalizing on numerous defensive turnovers. Even though on the official NHL stat sheet, Vegas was charged with just 6 giveaways, that stat’s deceiving, as it seemed every mistake Vegas made with the puck wound up behind Robin Lehner. In Robin’s first 2 starts this season, he allowed only 4 goals. Last night he allowed 4 just in this game. The 5th Arizona goal was scored with Robin on the bench pulled for an extra skater in the final minute of the game.

This loss was also Lehner first as a VGK in the regular season. He had a very off night with a dismal .840 save percentage, but the blame cannot be placed just on his shoulders. The team offered him no help at all, with blown coverages, turnovers, and a power play that registered zero shots on Darcy Kuemper on the first of their two power plays. Vegas came into the game with just 1 PPG on 14 attempts, but they finally got their 2nd PPG of the season when Cody Glass redirected a Mark Stone shot that was already headed for the net and the back of the goal. Glass got credit for the goal, because the puck hit his stick right before it crossed the line. A gift at the very least for Cody Glass, who found himself back in the lineup when Pete DeBoer went back to the 13-forwards 5-defensemen configuration. Like I said in a previous post, this configuration is a disaster waiting to happen. The wear and tear on playing 5 defensemen, even in a condensed 56-game season, is asking for trouble, or worst case injuries, as players will eventually get fatigued playing big minutes. Pietrangelo played over 29 minutes of 60 in a recent game.

Vegas once again went an extended period of time in the first period without a shot on net. The final 9:24 of the first period, Vegas had zero shots on goal.

Vegas is the better team, but you can’t go almost half a period without a shot and expect good things to happen. The Knights did get close when Shea Theodore scored early in the second period to tie the game at 1-1, but that was as close as Vegas got, as Arizona scored the next 3 goals to regain a 4-1 lead that they’d never surrender. Shea’s goal was his 3rd in the last 2 games.

There would be no miracle 3rd period comebacks for the VGK who had outscored their opponents 9-1 in the 3rd periods of their previous 4 games.

The lack of a flow to their offensive game can be attributed to their parade to the penalty box. Vegas took 6 minor penalties and Arizona scored 2 power-play goals to twist the knife even deeper into the heart of the VGK, dashing a possible 5-game winning streak to open the season.

Sunday’s game will not be a cake walk, as Arizona is a very good home team. The last time they lost a home game to a division opponent (Calgary) was back on December 10, 2019.

I’m hard-pressed to find 3 VGK stars of the game, considering their performance last night. I would say Shea Theodore, who had a goal and an assist, but he also wound up a –2 for the game.

One other note: If you’re reading this blog from Facebook or Twitter and would like to access it earlier in the morning before I share it on social media platforms, it’s usually published by 8 a.m. the morning after a game on LasVegasAdvisor.com. What better way is there to enjoy your morning coffee than reading my take on the previous VGK game?

The next game is tomorrow at 1 p.m.

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

Shea Theodore’s goal

Cody Glass’ PPG