Talk about timing.
Over the last 5 games, the VGK power play had been sluggish, scoring only 2 PPG in the last 12 attempts. Granted, some of the forwards on the power-play unit are injured and missing and this recent 2-for-12 is a good indication of how much James Neal and Reilly Smith mean to the power play. But tonight the power play unit powered its way to a victory to close out this 5-game east coast road trip with 4 wins and, in the process, also helped Marc Andre Fleury goaltend his 400th career win. He’s only the 13th player in NHL history to achieve this lofty honor and he did it in 728 games, second fastest to this mark.
Fleury was Pittsburgh’s first overall pick in the armature draft and averaged 34 wins per year in the years 2006-2016 that he played for Pittsburgh. He entered last night’s game with an impressive 24-9-3 record for Vegas with a 2.16 GAA and .930 save percentage. Not bad, considering he was out for almost two months with a concussion.
Entering this game, he’d surrendered only one goal on the last 60 shots he faced in the last two games. Last night, he stopped 38 of the 40 shots that Philadelphia had on him. That’s an impressive 3 goals allowed on 100 shots. Fleury’s record at Philadelphia is now 28 wins. He’s been a Philly slayer for so long that last night, even though he was clearly one of the stars of the game, the Flyer organization couldn’t bear to award him with one of its 3 stars. I’m not sure who’s worse: the Philadelphia Flyer fans who were a disgrace at T-Mobile when they were here last or the Flyer organization. How about I call it a tie?
The Flyers are in a battle for a playoff spot; they wanted nothing more than to beat Vegas and especially Fleury. But their woes in March continued and with last night’s loss, their record in March is 1-5-1 — compared to February, when they were 10-1-2, putting them right in the middle of the race for one of the 8 playoff spots that are up for grabs in the east.
With the absence of Reilly Smith, Coach Gallant tried Alex Tuch instead of Tomas Tatar on the top line and that seemed a better fit for Karlsson and Marchessault. Tomas Tatar was put on a line with Haula and Perron and they seemed to have some chemistry last night. Gallant is forced to continue to juggle the lines until everyone is healthy. James Neal has now missed the last 8 games and has only played in one of the last 12. Reilly Smith has missed the last 3 games and a portion of the game on March 6 vs. Columbus, the only loss Vegas suffered on this 5-game road trip.
But Coach Gallant was juggling lines as late as the third period when he put together a line of Bellemare, Eakin, and Carpenter. With just under 3 minutes to go in the game, he sent this line out and it paid immediate dividends. The relentless fore-check by Bellemare powered over two Flyers along the half boards, stripping the puck from Simmons and powering past Gudas to get the puck to Eakin. Eakin passed it from behind the net to Carpenter, who beat Flyer goalie Petr Mrazek with a wicked snap shot over his left shoulder. That gave Vegas its 3rd and final goal of the game.
Philly did pull the goaltender for an extra skater in their attempt to tie the game and send it to overtime, but Fleury was not going to be denied his 400th win. He was spectacular in the last 1:35 of the game with Mrazek pulled. He made an amazing stop on Wayne Simmons with just 6 seconds, who was at the top of the crease with the puck on his stick.
The VGK earned 8 points out of a possible 10 points further solidifying their lead atop of the Pacific Division over San Jose.
I must point out that Shea Theodore made a fundamental mistake once again.While attempting to clear the puck from his zone, two players were bearing down on him from the neutral zone. He had the entire left hand boards to easily clear the puck out of his zone. Instead, he tried to be fancy and put the puck between the 2 players bearing down on him. The puck not only never made it out of the zone, but two seconds later, it wound up behind Fleury. These mistakes are inexcusable and must be corrected ASAP.
VGK scorers: Haula (25), a PPG, his ninth of the season; Karlsson (36), was a PPG; Carpenter (8).
Pierre-Édouard Bellemare was playing against his old team and you could see his energy from the opening faceoff. And, in a class move that many probably didn’t notice, on his way off the ice after the game, Bellemare handed a young fan his gloves. The look on this young boy’s face was priceless. I can guarantee you this boy will never forget this gesture by a class guy who plays for a class organization.
The VGK’s next game is back at T-Mobile on Wednesday at 7 p.m. against the New Jersey Devils.
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