Knights on Ice — Just Flush It

Actually, the way Mark Stone put it was, “We’ll flush this one. We’ll see what we did wrong. There are a few areas that we were actually not bad at, but there’s a lot we need to improve. We’re fortunate to have two days in between games here, a little bit of rest, a little bit of recovery, regroup, and be ready for Wednesday.”

Stone was attempting to sugarcoat the 7-1 drubbing that the VGK took at the hands of the Colorado Avalanche last night. Many hockey people, including myself, thought that yesterday’s game would be the easier to win of the first 2 games of Round 2. Vegas was riding a wave of emotion following a near-perfect performance in Game 7 vs. Minnesota. In addition, Colorado hadn’t played a game in 7 days, while Vegas has been in playoff mode for the last 14. By no means am I suggesting that any game in this 2nd round series will be easy, but the circumstances looked like this could have been the only soft spot.

I could not have been more mistaken.

Vegas looked like the team that hadn’t skated or played a meaningful game in 7 days. But maybe that was the problem. Did they leave all they had to give in Round 1 after having to recoup from blowing a 3-1 series lead and being forced to win an emotional Game 7?

Or is Colorado that much better than Vegas? I don’t believe that one bit. Colorado is a good team, maybe even a great team, but the VGK are just as good. In my opinion, this was a combination of an emotional letdown and just one day off, then having to play in the thin air of Colorado.

You can add that Robin Lehner was in the net, giving Marc-Andre Fleury a day off. With Game 2 scheduled for Wednesday, it allowed Fleury 4 complete days of rest and enough time to adjust to the change in altitude. It was clear that was Pete DeBoer’s ultimate intention, as he never even considered replacing Lehner in the net when under normal circumstances, he would have been pulled to try to change the momentum.

To be fair to Lehner, he hadn’t played since May 10. That game was also against Colorado, where he allowed 2 goals on 21 shots. Last night he allowed 2 goals on the first 6 shots he faced. Not every one of the 7 goals can be laid on his shoulders, but the first goal can be for sure. You just cannot allow a backhanded shot from the faceoff circle to beat you, even if it’s from Mikko Rantanen, who had 30 goals in 52 games this season. What made matters worse on this goal was a poor pass in the offensive zone by Jonathan Marchessault that was intercepted by Cale Makar while Shea Theodore was headed deeper into the offensive zone. Nicholas Roy was back covering for Theodore and probably wasn’t comfortable forcing Rantanen even wider towards the boards. Roy played it safe and just tried to get between the puck and Lehner, which allowed Mikko to continue speed into the zone. With that much speed and space, Rantanen got his backhand shot up and over the glove of Lehner and the onslaught of goals by Colorado was in progress. It was 2-0 after the 1st period, then 4-0 when Gabriel Landeskog scored his 2nd goal of the game at the 14:23 mark.

William Karlsson scored the VGK’s only goal just 36 seconds after Landeskog’s goal to trim the 4-0 lead to 4-1. It was as close as Vegas would get in a game that everyone would like to forget.

Another storyline in this game can’t be ignored. With the score 4-0 Ryan Graves hit Mattias Janmark high and hard even though Janmark wasn’t in possession of the puck. Janmark was completely blindsided. This hit was predatory, in my opinion, though Graves only received a 2-minute minor penalty for interference. The non-major call by the on-ice officials created an eye-for-an eye attitude by the VGK and some will disagree with me on this, but good for the VGK for taking matters into their own hands, since the on-ice officials now created a boiling pot of hot water and no cover for it.

William Carrier took 2 different penalties in attempting to get to Graves. Max Pacioretty used his shoulder on a reverse hit on 2 different Colorado players. First, he caught Andre Burakovsky who was about to check Pacioretty along the boards; Andre wound up with a bloody mouth for his efforts. Then Samuel Girard got a quick lesson from an experienced veteran on reverse hits. Girard left with a nose that wasn’t only bloody, but appeared to have a completely new shape. This all can be attributed to the missed major call on Janmark, who never returned to the game.

But we weren’t done yet. Graves himself had yet to answer for his blindside hit on Janmark. Enter Ryan Reaves. With a scrum in front of the Colorado net, Reaves found himself right next to Graves. Graves went down to the ice with Reaves on top of him. A mass of bodies all came together with ill intentions. Ironically, when it all cleared Ryan Graves was lying on the ice like he was really injured. He never missed a shift, BTW. Reaves was given a match penalty, which created a 9-minute power play for Colorado.

I’ve been around hockey a long time. And I’ve never seen a 9-minute power play. I have seen players like Graves turtle up when forced to answer the bell for a cheap hit. Reaves’ match penalty calls for an automatic review by the NHL for a possible suspension or fine. While they’re reviewing Reaves’ match penalty, maybe they should have a second look at Graves’ hit. Which was a lot more dangerous than what Ryan Reaves did.

Post-game Stone said, “Defenseless player, that’s blindside interference. Obviously, I didn’t like the hit. We lost a player. It’s an interference blindside hit. We’re trying to get those out of the game. But, yeah, 4-0, if we score on that power play, maybe it will change a little bit.”

Other game notes. Teams that win Game 1 are 495-224 (68.8%) winning a best-of-7 Stanley Cup Playoffs series, including 5-2 in the first round this season. The VGK lost Game 1 in their series vs. Minnesota. So much for that stat.

Colorado is 19-0-1 in its past 20 games at home, including three wins in the playoffs.

Vegas defenseman Alex Pietrangelo played his 100th NHL playoff game. Even though his play looks like this is his first playoff experience.

My 3 Stars of the Game
1) Gabriel Landeskog (2G, 1A)
2) Nathan Mackinnon (2G, 1A)
3) Cale Makar (1G, 3A)

Next game is Wednesday at 7 p.m. Pacific Time

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.

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 last night’s VGK game.

The opening goal that Lehner needed to stop

The lone goal by the VGK

Mackinnon blows by Hague