Don’t let the headline to this blog post fool you. For just about all of their previous 32 home games (24 wins, 8 losses), that title was appropriate for the teams facing the VGK at T-Mobile. Unfortunately, last night this title refers to our guys.
Yes, what they’re noted for, especially at home, they suffered from last night. They were thoroughly out-skated and out-hustled, and only three Vegas players could call their efforts acceptable. The final score of 5-4 could not be any further from what it should have been.
Fleury gave up the five goals, though he was pretty much left to defend the constant waves of the Ottawa Senators’ forwards and defensemen, who just kept on coming like it was the American amphibious attack on Normandy Beach. The VGK goalie had little help from his defensemen and forwards who took the night off from back-checking.
The three skaters mentioned in Coach Gallant’s post-game presser were the line of Reilly Smith, William Karlsson, and Jonathan Marchessault. They combined for two goals and four assists. Coach Gallant, who rarely speaks negatively about his players, was visibly upset with the entire team, except for those three.
It’s pretty hard to be a -3 in a 5-4 final score. But four different VGK had that last night: Tomas Tatar, Erik Haula, David Perron, and Deryk Engelland.
Last night’s loss also stretched the VGK losing streak to three games, the first time they’ve lost two games in a row on home ice in 33 games.
Vegas only managed three shots on Ottawa’s goaltender Craig Anderson in the first period, who somehow managed to let two of them get by him. Amazingly, Vegas led 2-1 going into the second. It appeared Vegas dodged a bullet with two goals on only three shots. And the Knigths regrouped and came out for the second period with a better effort, managing to get 18 shots on net, but Anderson turned them all away and the Senators scored three goals on their 17 shots on Fleury, to take a commanding 4-2 lead going into the third period.
The third period was almost a carbon copy of the first period. Vegas took all of eight shots on goal in a period they entered trailing by two. Somehow they managed to tie the game at 4-4 when Ryan Carpenter scored a shorthanded goal 7:55 seconds into the period after William Karlsson cut the lead in half at the 3:35 mark.
The 4-4 tie didn’t last very long. Less than one minute after Carpenter’s goal, Alexander Burrows scored Ottawa fifth and final goal to seal the win. Vegas pulled Fleury with 1:49 left in the game and had some quality scoring chances, but were again denied by Craig Anderson, who had a strange game himself, surrendering four goals on only 11 shots in periods one and three.
The only bright spot on a poor performance from the majority of the VGK players was Reilly Smith, who continued his solid scoring pace with one goal and one assist last night. Smith earned 20 points in February. He also now has a five-game point streak and a point in 12 of his last 13 games. Smith’s recorded his 17th multi-point game this season with his assist on Karlsson’s goal.
VGK goal scorers: Reilly Smith (22), Colin Miller (8) PPG, William Karlsson (35), and Ryan Carpenter (7) SHG. Carpenter has seven goals in his last 14 games.
Were they underestimating Ottawa, which had won only three games wins in their previous 25 road games and had only seven road wins all season? Perhaps. But the VGK have played three consecutive stinkers in a row and now have a three-game losing streak staring them in the face as they head out on a five-game east coast road trip.
Still, the road trip could be a silver lining to the current dark cloud that sits over the VGK. Playing on the road can bring a team back to the style that has them still sitting on top of the Pacific Division, though but their losing streak has allowed Nashville to claim the top spot in the overall Western Conference by 4 points. Nashville has 91 points in 64 games, the VGK 87 points in their 64 games.
The VGK’s next game is tomorrow afternoon at 2 p.m. Pacific Time on the road vs. New Jersey.
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Well that pretty much sums it up perfectly.