Knights on Ice — “We Didn’t Have Much. They Had Way Too Much”

The VGK 3-game winning streak came to an abrupt end last night. Truthfully, it was over before they even broke a sweat.

The VGK were totally outworked, outplayed, and seemingly uninterested in providing any jam in their 4-0 loss last night to Toronto across the border. They might have spent the last 3 days bonding off the ice, but there was no chemistry on the ice at all.

Granted, with the endless list of forwards going down every game, scoring goals is a huge challenge. The next man not standing is William Karlsson. Injuries are part of the game, but the hockey gods have dealt an unplayable hand to the VGK. Karlsson, Pacioretty, Stone, and Tuch accounted for 77 of the Knights 191 goals last season.

When you lose 40% of your offense, you need to look to other areas to compensate for this deficit, such as playing sound defense while moving the puck north to south and clearing your zone with a purpose to get the puck in deep. They unfortunately did nothing close to that, especially in the first period where Toronto dominated the VGK on every inch of the ice. Vegas didn’t register a shot on goal for 9:30 minutes and wound up with all of 4 shots in the first period. They were extremely lucky to be trailing by only 1-0 after 20 minutes and you can look no further than Robin Lehner for keeping the score so close.

Lehner was sharp and he had to be, as Vegas returned to sloppy defensive play and endless turnovers, creating waves of Toronto’s highly skilled forwards having repeated grade-A scoring chances. Toronto had one just a few seconds into the game on a turnover.

The VGK have never won a game in Toronto. The Maple Leafs are one of three teams the VGK have never beaten in a road game; Montreal and Boston are the other 2.

Losing Karlsson was the final straw in terms of not rolling out a set line of the same 3 forwards in a game this season. It’s not looking good for that to change anytime soon. Karlsson has a fractured foot, as does Max Pacioretty, and the projection is about 6 weeks for their return.

Post-game, Robin Lehner recited the quote in the title of this post. He added, “Probably the worst one we’ve had since I came to Vegas.”

Lehner made 29 saves for the Golden Knights, who dropped to 4-5-0. Robin is 3-5-0 with a .906 save percentage. Goaltending is not the problem here. It’s a team problem, exacerbated by all their injuries and players trying to do more than they should be doing, causing unforced defensive giveaways, especially in their defensive zone, which creates immediate scoring chances for the opposition.

Losing Zach Whitecloud on defense isn’t helping in their moving the puck out of the zone in a timely and clean fashion. Pietrangelo and Martinez can only do so much. Shea Theodore seems to be squeezing his stick, especially on the dreadful power play, which once again went scoreless in 3 attempts; they’re now 0-18 for the season and the only team in the league without a PPG. Sadly, Toronto had better chances to score while the VGK were on the power play. I know that’s hard to believe, but it’s the truth. Vegas mustered a mere 2 SOG in 3 power plays.

The trio of Mitch Marner, Auston Matthews and William Nylander was more than enough last night. Marner and Nylander each had a goal, while Matthews had 2, including a PPG.

Matthews and Nylander scored early in the second and third periods to officially put the game in the win column for the Leafs. But after watching the first period, Mitch Marner’s goal was going to be enough. These 3 players accounted for 15 of Toronto’s 33 SOG — impressive. Vegas had 21 shots on goal in the first period Friday vs. Anaheim and 26 total shots last night, making Jack Campbell look like a Vezina candidate.

The only news that may be encouraging is their next opponent. The Ottawa Senators are 1-5 in their last 6 games and will be playing their 3rd game in 4 nights when they play Vegas on Thursday.

My 3 Stars of the Game: Auston Matthews (2G and 6 SOG), Mitch Marner (1G, 2A, and 4 SOG), William Nylander (1G, 1A, and 5 SOG).

Next game is tomorrow at 4 p.m. Pacific Time vs. the Ottawa Senators.

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

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Marner’s sweet backhanded goal

Matthews’ PPG