Knights on Ice — No Rust In Vegas

Las Vegas dry climate pretty much assures you that you will not see rust developing on anything. But one had to think that the VGK might show some signs thereof. The Knights hadn’t played in 9 days and were missing their top defensemen pairing in Pietrangelo and McNabb, which forced the insertion of 2 players into last night’s lineup. One hadn’t played an NHL game since Sept 14 in the Edmonton bubble and the other, Dylan Coghlan, had never played an NHL game period.

But there was not even a trace of rust and before you sat down and could get comfortable on your couch, the VGK had a 3-0 lead. Just 10:40 into the first period, Hague, Stone, and Marchessault had already scored. They added 2 more goals in the 2nd period by William Karlsson and a power play goal by Cody Glass for a 5-0 lead. The L.A. Kings added 2 meaningless goals in the 3rd period to ruin Fleury’s bid for another shutout at T-Mobile. With the 5-2 final score, the VGK improved their record to 6-1-1, which puts them just 3 points behind Colorado and St. Louis, who currently lead the Honda West Division. Vegas has 3 games in hand on both of these teams.

Fleury is unbeaten this year at 4-0 and had a GAA of 1.00 going into last night’s game. Two slipped by him to ruin his near-perfect GAA, but his 1.25 GAA is still amazing and his play through these first 4 games has made Coach Deboer’s decision as to who exactly is the #1 goaltender for the VGK difficult. Granted, just 8 games is not a big enough of a sample to use, but with only 56 games scheduled in this truncated season, the decision will come sooner than later. Right now, Fleury has a leg up on Robin Lehner.

The VGK last night were about as fast as I have seen from them in their first 8 games. Was their 8-day layoff the reason for their fresh legs? The L.A. Kings had played only 2 games in the last 8 days, so this was not a case of a tired team playing a well-rested team; neither should have had a fatigue factor. But the speed of Vegas was more than the Kings could handle.

After giving up 4 goals on just 10 VGK shots, Jonathan Quick was replaced by Cal Petersen, who made 25 saves on the 26 shots he faced. His only blemish was Cody Glass’s power-play goal 7:03 into the 2nd period. It also marked the 2nd consecutive game that Vegas has scored a PPG. VGK had just 2 PPG in the first 6 games, going 2 for 20 with the man advantage. Their power play is still not clicking, but it’s starting to look better and maybe even getting a couple of good bounces along the way may help the PP going forward. In the playoffs, you need your power play to be firing on all cylinders.

There is a Scotty Bowman theory about winning the Stanley Cup. He is of the mindset that your power-play percentage and your penalty killing percentage have to at least equal 100% combined or more if you have any chance.

If you have any question if Scotty knows anything about winning the Stanley Cup, have a look at these accomplishments. As a head coach, Bowman has won a record nine Stanley Cup championships, five with the Canadiens (1973, 1976, 1977, 1978, and 1979), one with the Penguins (1992), and three with the Red Wings (1997, 1998, and 2002). He has also won five Stanley Cups as a member of an organization’s front office.

Currently the VGK power play is scoring at 13.3% and their penalty kill is at 81.5% for a total of 94.8%, which is below the Scotty formula of at least 100% combined. But they do have 48 games to meet Scotty’s numbers.

When Nick Hague opened the scoring just 50 seconds into the game, it was his first goal of the season. Hague also added 2 assists for the first 3-point game in his career. In his previous 38 NHL games, Hague had just 11 points, 1 goal and 10 assists. Mark Stone assisted on Hague’s goal, which made him the fastest VGK to record 10 assists to open a season in their short NHL history.

Pacioretty had another 3-point night with 3 assists, after scoring the hat trick in the last game Vegas played against St. Louis before their last 3 games were postponed. Pacioretty is the 2nd VGK player to have back-to-back 3-point games. Jonathan Marchessault actually accomplished this 3 times in the 2017-2018 season when the line of Karlsson, Smith, and Marchy pretty much lit up their opponents every night.

Five VGK players had multiple points last night: Hague 1G 2A, Karlsson 1G 2A, Pacioretty 3A, Mark Stone 1G 1A, Jonathan Marchessault 1G 1A.

Vegas remains undefeated at T-Mobile in regulation time at 5-0-1. If you happen to live in Summerlin and are close to the house that Nick Hague, Cody Glass, and Dylan Coghlan share, there might be a good chance that there was some loud music playing, as all 3 had a good reason to celebrate a little bit after the game. It’s not often that 3 players living together on the same team will have 2 goals and 2 assists, plus a first NHL game combined on a special night, especially considering their dominant performance over the L.A. Kings in a 4-point division game.

My 3 Stars of the Game: Nick Hague (1G, 2A), William Karlsson (1G, 2A), Max Pacioretty (3A)

Credit to Eddie Rivkin my good friend and a die-hard Red Wing fan for the Scotty Bowman stat about special teams

These 2 teams do it once again on Sunday in a rare 12 noon start at T-Mobile. The unusual start time is because of the Super Bowl, which has an expected kick off time of 3:30 pm Pacific Time.

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

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, 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?

Hague’s goal

Stone’s goal

Glass’ power-play goal