Knights on Ice — One Mistake, Plus a Few Fortunate Bounces, Turns into a Wild OT Victory

A costly mistake by Alex Pietrangelo in overtime cost the VGK Game 1 in their best-of-7 series against the Minnesota Wild yesterday at T-Mobile. What makes matters even worse was that Vegas won an important faceoff in overtime deep in their zone to the left of Fleury, who was nothing less than spectacular. The VGK were just about to finish killing off a penalty that Jonathan Marchessault received for hooking when Pietrangelo gathered the puck behind Fleury going left to right. He had 2 easy choices: clear the puck down the ice or send it up the right-wing boards and hopefully Marchessault leaving the penalty box could receive the clearing attempt and possibly have a clean breakaway on Cam Talbot.

Neither happened. Pietrangelo seemed to hesitate, which allowed Marcus Foligno to close the gap between them and he pressured Pietrangelo, who flubbed his clearing attempt. The turnover was picked up by Jordan Greenway, who threw the pass out to the front of Fleury. This is where anything that could have possibly gone wrong did. The puck hit Foligno’s stick and wound up bouncing somehow onto Joel Erikksson Ek’s stick. When Erikksson Ek shot the puck, shot-blocking-machine Alec Martinez did what he’s been doing since he arrived in Las Vegas. But Martinez missed on actually blocking the shot and it just glanced off his skate, which ever so slightly changed the puck’s path. Fleury’s right pad was placed exactly where Joel’s shot was headed, but the puck veered slightly left and found its way between Fleury’s pads, otherwise known as the 5 hole.

Losing a playoff game is always a hard pill to swallow. Losing in overtime is even worse of a feeling and when you look at this game from start to finish, it just makes you wonder how did we even get to a scoreless game after 60 minutes.

The VGK dominated this game, especially in the first period. They had 20 shots on Cam Talbot, 11 others went wide, and 7 were blocked — 38 total shot attempts to just 5 for Minnesota. Their forecheck pressure from the 4th line was back to normal with the return of Ryan Reaves. The combination of Carrier and Kolesar pressured Wild defenseman Dumba into sending a clearing attempt over the glass and out of play for a 2-minute minor for delay of game. But the VGK power play that has been anemic for most of their 56-game schedule once again came up empty on 3 power play chances. Minnesota actually had a better scoring chance while killing Dumba’s penalty than Vegas could muster.

The VGK played with a full lineup, 12 forwards and 6 defensemen. Nosek, Martinez, and Reaves returned, but a huge hole was still not filled. Leading scorer Max Pacioretty was unable to go. Max was in the building, but only as a spectator among the 8,683 who put up some serious cash to be in attendance. His offensive abilities were clearly missed as Vegas scoring goals during the playoffs seems to be a problem that just will not disappear. We all remember the Edmonton bubble where their lack of scoring prevented them from beating the Dallas Stars for the chance to play in the Stanley Cup Final against Tampa Bay. Vegas scored a mere 8 goals in 5 games against Dallas. The absence of Pacioretty and his importance on the power play are concerning to say the least.

Coach DeBoer started Tomas Nosek in Pacioretty’s spot on the first line. Why play 2 centers on the first line? It hampered Mark Stone in yesterday’s game; he registered one shot for the entire game. Eventually, DeBoer moved Tuch up to the first line and sent Nosek back down to the 3rd in an attempt to generate more offense. If Pacioretty is still unavailable for tomorrow’s game, I believe you’ll see Tuch remain with Stone and Stephenson or DeBoer may move Janmark up and keep Tuch on the 3rd line, creating a more balanced offense within the first 3 lines. The 4th line will continue to pressure the Wild’s defensemen, taking the body along with their forecheck that causes Minnesota defensemen into coughing up the puck deep in their zone.

Both Reaves and McNabb had 10 hits each in a game that was very physical, as both teams were attempting to send a message in the anticipation of a long 7-game series. There were 128 hits total between the teams before a goal was scored.

Game 2 looms large as this is a must win for the VGK. They cannot afford to go down 2-0 to the Wild. They clearly wasted an excellent performance from Fleury yesterday and now face an important coaching decision: Is this where the goalie rotation ends? After his performance yesterday, how do you not start Fleury in Game 2? But does starting Fleury put Lehner’s confidence into question? Not an easy decision for DeBoer by no means.

Other games notes. Teams that win Game 1 are 490-222 to win the series (68.8%); last year, Game 1 winners were 7-1 in the first round. Fully 48 of the 128 total hits of the game were in the first period. The VGK were 0-for-3 on the power play and won 62% of all faceoffs. They won the faceoff that led to the winning goal. They say regular-season results are not factors in a playoff series. We shall see if that holds true.

My 3 Stars of the Game
1) Marc-Andre Fleury (you may think I’m a bit bias here with this 1st star, but without him this game never gets to OT; 29 saves on 30 shots a few that were spectacular)
2) Joel Eriksson Ek (game-winning goal in OT)
3) Cam Talbot (42 saves in the shutout)

Next game is tomorrow @ T-Mobile 7 p.m.

If you want to hear and see more VGK content please check out the podcast I do with Eddie Rivkin on YouTube, “Hockey Knights in Vegas.”

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Fleury flashes the glove on Hartman

Fleury save on Kaprizov

GWG off of Pietrangelo’s turnover