Last night, Connor Hellebuyck stopped all 42 shots he faced from the VGK. Then again it’s seemed like everyone has stopped most, if not all, of the VGK shots this season. The VGK, who are in a must-win mode, lost yet another critical game 4-0 to the Winnipeg Jets and their playoff hopes are disappearing as fast as a $20 bill in a Wheel Of Fortune slot machine.
The VGK were shut out for the second game in a row and they’ve now lost 7 road games in a row, a (dubious) franchise record. In past seasons, Vegas was mostly successful on the road and highly so at home. This year, the road record is 16-15-1 and have won only 18 of the 34 home games.
Last night was not the first time this season that Vegas has been shut out in two consecutive games. The first time was against Calgary 6-0 on February 9 and Colorado 2-0 on February 16.
Logan Thompson started his 4th game in a row and it sure seems like Pete DeBoer believes that LT is the goalie who gives his team the best chance to win. You might think that he had a bad game last night, giving up 4 goals on just 26 shots for a less than stellar .846 save percentage, but nothing could be further from the truth; he played well and was beaten on some well-placed and deflected goals. Even Jonathan Marchessault, never shy about telling it like it is, said so post game.
“Thompson is definitely not the problem. He’s giving us lots of chances to win every night. He’s been great, honestly, for us and he’s working hard. It’s disappointing to not get one in the past two games for him.”
It’s very disappointing when you look at the lack of goal production from the VGK this season. They’ve been shut out 5 times, scored 1 goal in 8 games, and scored just 2 goals in 11. They actually won a 1-goal game when they shut out Washington on Jan. 24 in D.C.
Moreover, it’s been a roller coaster of goals and emotions. They scored 8 goals in their last 2 games at T-Mobile for 2 important wins against Florida and L.A., then no goals in Minnesota and Winnipeg. The last goal the VGK scored with a goaltender in the net was 121:12 hockey minutes ago on March 19, when Michael Amadio scored the 5th and final goal in the win over the Kings.
The VGK have used 8 different lineups in their last 9 games and have dressed 39 different players this season. Zachary Hayes was the 39th player and wouldn’t you know it: Hayes broke his nose in the game when he took a shoulder square on the button and skated bent over to the bench leaving a trail of blood behind him — a perfect microcosm of this season.
In almost a carbon copy of the last game that VGK played in Winnipeg last Tuesday night, Vegas dominated the first period. The Jets didn’t register a shot on LT until 15:04 of the period was over. In the game last week, they didn’t register a shot for the first 13:24. In both of these games, Winnipeg scored the first 2 goals. Vegas has given up the first goal in 7 of their last 8 games. Constantly chasing the game saps your energy and puts a lot of pressure on the goaltender, who doesn’t want to fall behind by 2 or more goals, as well as the forwards, who start squeezing their sticks. And as the game goes on, the defensemen start pinching into the offensive zone, trying to create scoring chances, which often creates odd-man rushes going back into your defensive zone.
Other game notes and quotes
“Getting out of that first period without a goal really hurt us,” Coach DeBoer said. “I thought we did everything right, but you’ve got to score to win games in this league and we didn’t score on this trip.”
The Jets have won the past five games against the Golden Knights and are 7-1-0 in the past eight.
“I think Hellebuyck is always special,” DeBoer said. “Vezina [Trophy-winning] goalie, so he’s a good goalie. We had enough good looks there to score some goals, but he had the answers tonight.”
Next game is tomorrow vs. Nashville, 7 p.m. at T-Mobile
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
For more VGK content, check out the Hockey Knights in Vegas Podcast that can be found at this link or on my Facebook page.
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.
A goal LT had no chance on
Another goal that was tipped by LT
Another tipped goal
Never miss another post
Linda Ganz had this to say
I’m shaking my head. Kelley seems to be making decisions of no help to the coach or our players but of course when things aren’t going well it’s also easy to point blame. I’m still a VGK fan-love the core team
Crazee Chaingang wrote
You don’t say.
Crazee Chaingang actually I did say, what do you think the problem is?
Joe P.
Crazee Chaingang responded to my question
Joe Pane something or someone behind closed doors is throwing our guys’ mojos off. We know our guys are top notch. Lots of SOG. Lots of great chances. It’s like there’s a force shield that’s preventing the puck going past opposing goalies. Weirdest thing.
EVEN though we get lots of shots the goalie doesn’t move much. They are all shot at the bredbasket of the goalie.
Mike, they do hit the crest on the goalie’s jersey a LOT and a lot of their shots are from the perimeter.
Joe P.
Dave Schweiger has this opinion
LT is not the problem, PD aka THE CLOWN is the problem. Fire him already!
Dave Schweiger no leeway for PD because of the vast amount of injures and the fact that he is having to plug the open holes with AHL players?
Joe P.
Dave Schweiger responded
Joe Pane They should have never hired him, just like they shouldn’t have traded for Lehner. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.
Pat Jacoe responding to Dave
Dave Schweiger way too easy for some.
Keith Westergaard responding to Dave
Dave Schweiger, they traded for Lehner because Fleury was broken, understandably, after losing his father. They hired PDB after this same type of thing happening in regular season, difference being half of the team was not injured, and after the Game 7 versus San Jose, you know the one where Fleury gave up 4 goals in less than 5 minutes and Gallant didn’t think to call a timeout.
People like to reminisce about the good old days, and hoe all the people that came in suck. If you really look back and observe, maybe you can understand why people were brought in.
On a final note, how many cups did Fleury win here in Vegas, since he is always the answer?
Really the coach???? This is where ignorance comes in! VGK has dealt with injuries all season. Not an excuse it’s a fact! If you don’t think not having Stone, Patches, Smith, McNabb and Martinez in the lineup will affect our scoring then you know nothing about this team. Our top players are logging way too many minutes. Essentially we are playing half of the VGK roster and half the HSK. When we were even half healthy we were on top of the Pacific. Now with more injuries it’s coming back to bite us. 16 games are left and I’m not giving up on them! All I can say is they are playing their asses off! You think it’s the coach you know absolutely nothing.
Mike
It’s definitely not DeBoer he can only play the players that are available to him on any given night. But if there is one coach that should be looked at its the power play coach Steve Spott. His game plan for the power play is suspect.
Joe P.
Good article!! Not sure what to say this morning! Sure hope it can get better ❤️🩹!!🏒🥅🖤🧡🇨🇦🍁#goKnightsgo #🙏 Joe
Judy
I’m almost at a loss of words trying to offer my insight on what is going on with this team. I fully understand the injuries and the impact it has had but where has the scoring gone? These are still elite NHL players……..Shutout 2 games in a row when their playoff backs are to the wall
Joe P.
Drew Thrasher wrote this
LT definitely not the problem, been one of the few bright spots, they need to fire the coach, the system is broken
Rae Austin responded to Drew
Drew Thrasher right on Drew! When you have a prima donna in the clubhouse who gets some mysterious injury after playing bad, it is a negative affecting everyone! LB and LT will be fine!
Drew Thrasher also added this
Man, if they could just win the rest of the home games we should be set.
Drew Thrasher they are going to need to win some of their road games if they want to make the playoffs.
Joe P.
Pamela Guy-Harvey has this opinion
The way things are going for us, perhaps we need to just stop focusing on the playoffs and focus on getting healthy for next year and building a stronger team in the offseason.
Pamela Guy-Harvey it may in fact come down to this, no sense in rushing guys back if they are not 100%. It may have a negative effect on their health going forward. Like chasing good money after bad money.
Joe P.
Pamela Guy-Harvey responded
Joe Pane, agreed! Even if we were to limp into the playoffs, with all the injuries our top players have, how long might we last? At this point, we can’t even win against teams who will not get into the playoffs. Sad.
Bill Jenkins wrote this
Completely agree LT is not the problem. He can’t both defend and score goals.
Kristi Scott Smith sent this comment in
Goal tending is not the issue…. When we play defense first, we usually have a chance to win. The ugly truth now is we can’t finish.
Jon Misterek wrote
Conner has a high hockey IQ. Shooting pucks at his face – will always be stopped
Johnny Lawless
Dadanov had 3 goals in his last 2 games. VGK has scored 0 as a team since then and I don’t even know who he plays for anymore.
Douglas Carle sent this in
Joe -good article as usual.
However, there is one glaring point
that is constantly missed here. There is all of these “soccer mom “fans who quickly blurt out “awww the boys are OK, they’re just injured. Wait till everybody comes back “. But the simple fact firstly, is we will never have everybody back. Our genius of a GM succeeded in taking over the rest of the league’s injury prone players. Stone, Pacioretty and Lehner have been injured their whole life. Somebody nudges Pacioretty in the elevator and he’s out for three weeks. So, when exactly is everybody supposed to “be back and healthy“when they’ve never been healthy in their careers?
Secondly, and perhaps more importantly, is the problem with the Golden Knights is they simply cannot score. Everyone seems to forget last season and most importantly, last playoffs, when everybody was supposedly “healthy” and our forwards couldn’t put the puck in the net if it was the size of the Zamboni.
It’s not necessarily the players, because you said it right – “these are elite NHL caliber players“ that simply can’t score. The problem then is the system. This team started its circular motion down the toilet when McCrimmon goofily fired Gallant and hired Deboer. Since that date the high scoring, high flying golden knights have turned into a joke.
Certainly it hasn’t helped that McCrimmon has purposely ripped the heart and soul out of the Golden Knights by trading away anyone with any spark or chemistry (the list is massive but a few highlights are Fleury, Smitty, Stassney, Tuck, Reeves, McNabb, etc. etc. etc.) and not getting anyone of any value in return.
Any real golden knights fan knows what the problem is. It is management – both at the general manager level and at the coaching level (which frankly is just a symptom of the general manager issues).
The immediate problem is the coaching (our coach simply isn’t capable of coaching a professional level offense) but the real problem lies at the general manager – who is now proven he’s not even capable of reading a contract for a $5 million year player.
Joseph Wooten wrote this
No offense in bad defense. It doesn’t matter who is in Net with that combination.
Paul Anderson sent this in
Last night’s game was NOT LTs 4 straight start.
Paul Anderson, actually it was in fact his 4th straight start, and he has started 4 of the last 5 VGK games.
Joe P.
Paul Anderson responded
Joe Pane, I stand corrected. Ty
Paul Anderson no worries at all please always check my work I do make mistakes.
Joe P.
Brenda Hickman Darlow sent his opinion in
The problem is McCrimmon he is not using good judgement or good management
Barbara Gross responded to Brenda
Totally agree!!! time to fire him McCrimmon needs to go
John Edmond had this to add to the conversation about goaltending
The goalies were never the problem. But somehow this fan base can’t wrap it around their head that not scoring either Lehner and not scoring with Thompson are signs of the same problem.
John Edmond when the team stopped scoring is when their problems were magnified. Your goaltenders are not going to pitch shutouts every game.
Joe P.
John Edmond responded
Joe exactly. Just wish the fans here and some of the media understood that. Even if Thompson pitch a regulation shutout last night, the team didn’t score and hasn’t scored in the last two games.
John Edmond, I hear you some media are new to hockey so that can be expected.
Joe P.
Bill Dickerson wrote this
He isn’t, I’d like to think it is injures but I’m not sure. Reason is this is similar to past problems with scoring especially playoffs. I mean look at Montreal. That was not a very good hockey team. They went under .500 in the Canadian division last year and we couldn’t score. Vancouver did similar in a series and Dallas.
Here is the thing, it is the system and players are not a good fit. This is on DeBoer and front office imo. Reason is front office knows he runs this system and have to know we don’t have great shooters and guys who can scrape and get to the front of the net for deflections and rebounds, so why didn’t we get those type of players. Then DeBoer. As a coach you can’t just stack everything on one system he has to adapt. Obviously players can help and talent will make individual plays but it still isn’t a great fit
John Romeo sent this opinion in
So, what was the reason the Sharks fired Deboer? No production. Maybe the same reason his system isn’t working for VGK. Although injuries play a part but it still no excuse. My point is during the playoffs last year, our power play was not productive. Could it be Deboer system? Because we had Top player playing with no injuries.
Just my opinion.
Bill Dickerson responded to John’s opinions
John Romeo agree, the playoffs is what scares me. If this didn’t happen in the playoffs and we haven’t seen it as a trend with a healthy team it wouldn’t be so concerning
Even with Eichel on the ice the other teams do not fear our team. If we don’t get a quick setup close to the net everything
we are shooting is long distance, and that is easy to defend. Without scoring threat every night we will never score more
than 1-2 goals. Try Roy as the 3rd person instead of Marchessault. Both he and Stepheson are strong and digging the puck out
of the corners and then could get it to Eichel. Karlsson, Marchy and Janmark. Shake up the lines, try Whitecloud as a forward again.
It’s funny when Panda gave up 2 goals against Philly you all blamed him, even though Vegas only scored one against a bad Flyer team..Thompson gives up 4 but gets no blame against a mediocre Winnipeg team..The problem with Vegas is not the goaltending..It’s the non-existent offense..Bad angle shots and odd man rushes with no shot attempts are not going to win hockey games..Opponents goaltenders have a full view of every shot coming at them..Get someone in front who is not afraid of getting hit by a puck or the other team’s D-men..Watch Chris Kreider of the Rangers..He’s in front of the opponent’s goalies and has 15 deflections or tip-ins for goals this year..The Vegas forwards stand off to the side of the goalie..Make it hard for the goalies to see the puck..