Did you expect what you and the other 18,113 had to endure last night at T-Mobile? I know I wasn’t anticipating a team that is fighting for their playoff lives turn in an uninspiring, bordering on an embarrassing, effort in their 5-1 loss to the Vancouver Canucks.
Their playoff hopes seemed to take a turn for the better following a 5-game winning streak when they averaged 4.4 goals per game. In the previous 10 games, they’d won 2 and lost 8, while averaging only 2.8. Those losses put them on the brink of playoff elimination, which would be a first for this very successful franchise.
Some may take issue with me calling them a successful franchise considering they haven’t won anything. Yes, I know. They prevailed in 3 Western Conference finals in their first 4 years and won 7 playoff rounds in 4 years. But the ultimate prize is the Stanley Cup. Despite preseason expectations, they may not even get the chance at it this year. Injuries derailed them; that’s a given. But performances like we saw last night is not forgivable.
They currently sit 4 points behind the L.A. Kings for the last playoff spot in the Pacific Division. Prior to last night’s debacle, that seemed like the path of least resistance. A win would have put them just 2 points behind, with 10 games and 20 points up for grabs. L.A. has 3 difficult games on their schedule: Edmonton, Minnesota, and Colorado. The other 7 are against Chicago (2 games), Anaheim (2), Columbus, Seattle, and Vancouver. Even if L.A. loses the 3 games against Edmonton, Minnesota, and Colorado and picks up just 10 points in the other 7 games, Vegas will have to win 8 of their last remaining 10 games to pass them into the playoffs. And the Kings win any of their 3 tough games, Vegas can afford to lose only one of their remaining 10 games.
Meanwhile, the VGK’s 10-game schedule to close the season is no walk in the park. They have a game on Saturday against the hapless Arizona Coyotes at T-Mobile. The three games next week are in Western Canada against Vancouver, Calgary, and Edmonton. Following those are NJ, Washington, and San Jose at T-Mobile. They end the season with 3 road games against Dallas, Chicago, and St. Louis. Having to win 8 and maybe even 9 is daunting. Impossible? No. Unlikely, yes, especially if they play the way they did last night.
Elias Petterson pretty much beat the VGK all by himself last night with an impressive performance of 2 goals and 2 assists on Vancouver’s first 3 goals. After Jack Eichel opened the scoring with his 10th goal of the season to give the VGK a 1-0 lead, Vancouver scored twice within 17 seconds to take a 2-1 lead into the locker room after the first period.
Vancouver added 2 even-strength goals in the 2nd period and now Vegas headed into the 3rd trailing by 3, a familiar place for the VGK; on March 26 at T-Mobile, they trailed the Chicago Blackhawks by 3 goals with just 20 minutes left in the game.
In that game, reportedly, Alec Martinez stepped up, spoke with the team before the 3rd period, and they responded by scoring four goals and 1 in overtime for the come-from-behind 5-4 victory.
Last night, there was no speech from one of their leaders as far as we know and no response from what should have been a desperate team. The VGK came out for the final 20 minutes as flat as they were in the first 40. The lights on the Strip may be bright, but the lights on the Vegas Golden Knights playoff chances are flickering and they need a surge to keep them from going completely dark very soon.
Other game notes and quotes
“We knew that we weren’t going to win every game the rest of the way in,” DeBoer said. “We dropped an opportunity tonight. You just want to flush it. Nothing good to say; we got what we deserved. I don’t think we gave ourselves a chance to win that game right from the first period. It’s disappointing and we’ve got to rebound quickly.”
Last night’s game was the first time they lost in the regular season to Vancouver in regulation (10-1-2).
Eichel (three goals, one assist) and Vegas forward Chandler Stephenson (three assists) extended their point streaks to three games.
Eichel’s was his 10th goal in 24 games this season. If Eichel plays in the VGK’s last 10 games, he will have played in 34 games. Mark Stone has played in only 28 games this season and Max Pacioretty has played in only 29 games. In case you were wondering exactly when the wheels of the bus fell off this team.
NO VGK STARS FOR THE GAME
Next game is Saturday vs. Arizona @ 7 p.m. Pacific Time
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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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.
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Drew Thrasher wrote this
They were out coached. I bet Deboer will be gone if they miss the playoffs
Drew Thrasher, I think he survives because of the vast number of injuries. He has been forced to play AHL guys against NHL players.
Joe P.
Drew Thrasher responded
yeah, but last night was a coaching failure, the canucks had a game plan, the knights couldn’t find a way to get past the defense.
Drew
I cannot argue with you on this. No adjustments were made whatsoever.
Joe P.
Drew Thrasher responded
That’s why i think he’ll be fired, i never see adjustments or philosophy changes or much of anything for that matter, they need to bring someone in who can jumpstart the offense, not to mention we were shut out on the pp both games vs one of the worst pk units in the league
We can only hope the CLOWN finally gets fired and the GM too!
Jacqueline Claire wrote this opinion
I always admire and appreciate your honest journalism, Joe. No VGK stars…is that a first for you? I totally concur with that statement. May I add, and this is my personal opinion only…Lehner does not look like he’s having fun. I know it’s a job, but it really looks like WORK and zero joy for him. Usually, you see at least a glimmer of joy for most if not all of the players. Maybe he doesn’t like playing at T-Mobile? Just my lowly observations.
Jacqueline
He looks troubled and you are 100% correct he is not enjoying his time as a VGK especially at T-Mobile. He recently deleted his Twitter account. To me that’s a sign he is defeated, and his mind is not right. You have to feel sorry for him as he has a lot to deal with.
Joe P.
Jacqueline Claire responded
Joe Pane, I saw that he deleted his Twitter account. I feel bad for him. I Love Fleury and he may be the GOAT, but that doesn’t mean I dislike Lehner. So many people are rude to Lehner and that is not ok. Lacking synchronicity, sometimes we have it, sometimes we don’t. I blame the Business aka management. 😢
I absolutely hate a good majority of our fanbase for their hatred for Robin like it’s his fault he was brought in and ultimately replaced Fleury. They never have anything positive to say about him no matter what happens win or lose. So who can really blame him if he’s not having fun playing in front of those people, I know I wouldn’t enjoy it.
Chuck unfortunately the fan base has been almost split in half over the Fleury/Lehner saga. It’s counterproductive for the team and it appears to weigh heavily on Lehner who based upon his past history is fragile in dealing with the drama that seems to surround him because of a portion of the fan base reluctance to accept him as their starting goaltender.
Joe P.
Lola Bettridge sent this comment in
Slip sliding away…..
Lola Bettridge it may be too far gone at this point.
Joe P.
So, for all the people who know what’s better for this team. Let’s hear all your solutions to bring a Stanley Cup here. Fire GM and Coach don’t help injuries to your star players. Vegas is trying a Tampa Bay move from last year and keep star players on IR to keep under the salary cap until playoffs! Worked for Tampa Bay last year!
Matt
The difference is that Tampa Bay had the luxury of only 1 major injury to one of their star players. With the VGK they have had injuries upon injuries to key players and have not put a complete lineup on the ice since game 2 and they now have played 72 games total. That is a lot of game when you have to play AHL players in order to dress 18 players for a game.
Joe P.
Johnny Lawless had this opinion
Can only hope the 4/26 game with Dallas will be meaningful.
Johnny, I hope you are right, but my gut tells me it may be over before this game. They almost have to win 8 maybe 9 of their last 10 games.
Joe P.
Jarret Anderson responds to the game against Dallas
Dallas has 3 in hand i believe. It will be a tough road. Might not be a bad thing necessarily
Dave Schweiger sent this comment in
It was a NO BRAINER to start Logan Thompson last night. The Clown is a terrible coach, especially when it comes to GOALIES and how to play them. Logan EARNED the right to start last night, Lehner has proved NOTHING this year as a starter.
Dave
Starting Logan would be the VGK admitting they made a mistake on their goaltending choice. You just can’t sit your 5-million-dollar goaltender and start your AHL goaltender in a must win game. Plus, he just beat them on Sunday.
Joe P.
Carol Gotheim responded to my comment about sitting Lehner and why VGK could not and would not do this.
Joe Pane Lehner has dropped to 18th in goalie rankings since the beginning of the season. He has had an off year, struggled, or something but he hasn’t performed the way a cup contender needs. Maybe benching him would be a wake-up call.
Lars E Walther responding to Dave’s comment
Dave Schweiger the way the defense played last night; Thompson wouldn’t have stood a chance.
Lars E Walther I agree 100% with you. LT would have been hung out to dry last night also.
Joe P.
Lars E Walther responded
Joe Pane, I haven’t seen the defense take a night off like that since the collapse in game 7 against the Sharks. He may have fared (marginally) better, but realistically Vegas still loses badly and destroys Logan’s confidence after he gets shelled for 4-5 goals lol. A goalie is only as good as his defenseman in front of him
Paul Anderson responded to Lars comments about the VGK goaltending
Lars E Walther Unless he scores on himself like Fleury did.
No VGK stars this game? None deserving.
Marsha
I could not justify giving anyone from the VGK a mention concerning playing well enough to be recognized. So, I left it blank Intentionally, I did this so no one would think I forgot to list the 3 stars. There was no one last night.
Joe P.
Richard Santomauro sent this comment in to Vegas Hockey Guy Facebook Page
This team has no chemistry, no leadership, lack of loyalty, too many AHLers, and a very suspect and inconsistent goaltender. They have only 1 skater that is an actual 1st liner (Eichel), the rest of them are at best 2nd liners and only when they are playing at their very best. The heart and soul of this team got sent packing. There’s nothing left to see here other than watching Eichel skating around pounding his own chest as if he is some sort of gladiator out there. He’s not. Welcome to Buffalo 2.0.
Richard I usually see your point of view and most of the time agree with you. But on Eichel I have to agree to disagree he is all that we heard about. He sees the ice so well and his passes are tape to tape and the rumor that he doesn’t play defense is false as far as what I have seen from him so far. He plays all 200 feet of the ice.
Joe P.
Vickie Webb had this to say
All I can hope is last night was a wakeup call! I turned the game off in the 3rd it was late here and no reason to watch anymore, I had it taped just in case. I really think they need to do a rotation in goal. Lehner didn’t do bad with no defense playing last night but just coming back from injury he isn’t all that sharp.
Danna Gregory responded to Vickie
Omg does he ever do great in the third period? And have they ever pulled him?? Not.
We can only hope the CLOWN finally gets fired and the GM too!
Antonio C Amante sent this in
Not this year without Fleury
Laura Simone sent this comment in
Thanks for your insight
We have the wrong goalie for the situation. If you check Lehner’s over all stats, except for a couple of years, he’s nothing more than a back up goalie. He’s never really been starter material. I believe either the GM or the Coach fell in love with him, and now that his true ability is coming out, their afraid to pull the trigger and put a mistake in the rear view mirror. Around my house we call him “2fer”, because he’s good for giving up at least 2 goals most games.
It happens in every sport, but at some point you have to bite the bullet and move on.
Lehner looked sluggish especially side to side. He also in my opinion looks like he’s much heavier than he was at the start of the season. Is it my imagination?
Roger
You are not wrong I even mentioned to my podcast partner Eddie Rivkin last night at the game that he looks slow in recovering when he goes down. It seems like he has to roll over to get back up on his skates.
Joe P.
hi joe. this is dave from minnesota. i don’t know why you and many others are so worried about the vgk making the playoffs. they are only 1 point behind dallas for the number 8 seed and 2 points behind nashville for the 7th seed. maybe you know the exact year but about 10 or 12 years ago the la kings were the number 8 seed and they won the stanley cup.so maybe the vgk don’t have to win 8 or 9 games to make the playoffs. maybe if they win 6 or 7 games they can still make the playoffs. hang in there. go vgk go. go wild go. dave from minnesota
Dave
I do recall that year that LA won the cup as the 8th seed, they did not have home ice advantage in any of the 4 rounds, but they just kept on winning no matter where the game was played. The year was 2012 they won the first 2 games on the road in New Jersey and eventually won in game 6 in LA for their first Stanley Cup. As far as the VGK making the playoffs they are in a bad way their path via the Wild Card is more difficult than I think you realize. The Stars and Nashville have multiple games in hand over the VGK so I they were to win their games VGK cannot pass them even if they were to lose all of their games in hand VGK would have to win most of their last 10 games. A tall task considering their lack of players who are 100% healthy.
Joe P.
It was a very disappointing game last night. The defense seemed to fall apart. Rather sad but hopefully they can get their act together!!🏒🥅🤞🏾🧡🖤🇨🇦#goKnightsgo# thanks Joe💕
Marie Archuletta-Nabit sent this opinion in
I would say they absolutely got it unprepared, picking the wrong goaltender, McPhee for putting McCrimmon in charge!! Spending too much money on elite players instead of nurturing what they have Pacioretty in stone only played 29 and 28 games for the whole season I would say money got wasted all the way around!
Marie
They put themselves in Cap Hell when they rewarded players after their run to the Stanley Cup Final including the contract extension to Fleury at 7 million. That was the beginning of when and where it all started.
Joe P.
Marie Archuletta-Nabit added this
Lehner finally got off Twitter thank God the way he played last night he was flipping around like a fish out of water embarrassing and ridiculous!
Keith Westergaard sent this comment in
They did not play well last night. Need to tighten things up if they want to make the playoffs. I’m starting to think missing might not be a bad thing, gives everyone more time to heal before next season, and the higher ups more time to make important decisions that need to be made.
Kobe Hollenbeck had this opinion
Makes me wonder if letting go of Fleury, Reaves, Schmidt, Tuch, Krebs, even Gallant was really necessary…The original misfits didn’t have the best talent, but they had the teamwork and the heart and spirit. Knights kept wanting the next big player it seems like…they wanted to be better when really, they already had a great team…Now yes, I do believe that Stone, Martinez, maybe even Patches were great additions…but letting all those people go from the team, I wonder if that was really necessary…I believe I remember McCrimmon (probably spelled that wrong) saying the team has been struggling with chemistry…I wonder why
Ian Pimper responded to Kobe
Kobe Hollenbeck But, if that group stayed together and didn’t produce a Stanley Cup, you would have one group of “fans” saying yeah, we didn’t win, but these guys are great guys, and another group saying “we didn’t improve, why didn’t we move forward. It’s easy to be critical when we want to live in the hypothetical and say what if? I can appreciate a front office trying to go for it, that’s more than many others would do. It isn’t the end for this franchise if we don’t make it to the playoffs, and I’m really excited at the prospect of this team fully healthy for next year
Tom Robertson added this comment
I wonder if having a coach that took an expansion team to the final is why the Rangers are doing so well. Maybe we can get him.
Tom
Never say never but the chance of the VGK bringing back Gallant will NEVER happen. There was too much bad blood and water under the bridge between Gallant and the front office.
Joe P.
Christopher Couch sent this in
As the game was very late here i didn’t get to see it. But always check the scores when I wake up. So, this morning when I saw the score was 5-1, I knew Lehner was in net.
I really feel that the team does not trust Lehner. When. He gives up 2 goals in 17 seconds the teams just deflates because they can’t play aggressive, hence they play flat.
Release Lehner and save that money on the cap!
Christopher
They will not release Lehner plus if they did his salary would still apply to their salary cap issues. The only way to get out from under his 5-million-dollar contract would be thru a trade. Currently I don’t see any team willing to take on Lehner’s contract.
Joe P.
Christine Balz had this to say
Yup, they gave NOTHING – they got NOTHING- They definitely phoned that game in 🙄
Christine Balz they even called and reversed the charges. 🙂
Joe P.
Nicholas Roop wrote this
Elias Pettersson is a soft serve ice cream cone. Absolutely embarrassing.
Nicholas Roop not sure I agree with you on Pettersson he is a solid player who had a great game last night.
Joe P.
Ed Williams wrote this about the VGK performance
That was an embarrassing defensive effort. The Canucks did what they wanted in the offensive zone with absolutely no resistance. Two defensive giveaways led directly to Canuck goals. The Canucks should have had 6 or 7 goals.
Ed
You hit the nail right on the head here. The VGK stunk T-Mobile up last night
Joe P.
Connie Dallas sent this comment in
I can’t even bear to watch it. Just a thought…….have they ever won 6 games in a row? Anyway, let’s hope they have a win on Saturday. GO KNIGHTS, GOOOOO!!
Connie this season their longest win streak has been 5 games which ended with last night’s loss to Vancouver. They have won 9 in a row a franchise record in the 2020-2021 season.
Joe P.
Bill Dickerson sent this comment in
It was a bad game, and it happens, the biggest problem is that 5 game road trip killed them and put them in a position where they can’t have a game like this.
Jim Baxter added this to the conversation
Did it to themselves, traded away they’re strength for a pipe dream!!
Jim, are you saying that Eichel is the pipe dream?
Joe P.
Jim Baxter responded
Joe Pane not really a pipe dream, but not worth the price!
Jim I’m on the fence with Eichel’s salary, it is steep at 10 million, but he will be their best player even when Stone and Pacioretty return.
Joe P.
Jim Baxter responded
Joe Pane For the time being I’ll hold my breath; I think they are far from
jelled as a team. Even with Stone and Patch they are too inconsistent as a team!!
Scottie Maiello wrote this
I think we were cursed this year lol ok 🌸 stop it now
Dave Campoverde added this
Logan Thompson the rest of the way….. I remember another team dumping their veteran goalie to ride a rookie into the finals. Even if we don’t make it that far. It’s still better than the trash panda🐼.
Results speak for themselves……
Dave
Are you talking about the Pittsburgh Penguins when they put Fleury on the bench and used Matt Murray?
Joe P.
Dave Campoverde responded
Joe Pane
Nope. The blues and Binnington in the 18-19 season
Dave Campoverde well then there is 2 cases of this happening 🙂
Joe P.
Larry Loikadded this to the conversation
Yup… All started going downhill when GM Mcfly got rid of Gallant and Flower. GM Mcfly aka McPhee has to go. Zero personality, zero people skills. Never won in Washington, they got rid of him then beat us for the cup. 👎
Kevin Briggs sent this comment in
Its time…😒. Maybe if teams start losing… I’ve seen weirder thing happen… Injuries…Covid… … for a team that’s only 5 years old… Folks got to understand u can’t win them all … But its Vegas… the gambling. miracle town… who forgets about franchises as soon as adversity hits…