Juuse Saroys is currently the backup goaltender for the Nashville Predators, but you’d never know it watching him play against the VGK. Last night he saved the game for Nashville and was the best goaltender on the ice at T-Mobile. It’s a cold day in Las Vegas when your game storyline is about a goaltender and it doesn’t include a word about Marc-André Fleury. Saroys was near perfect last night, surrendering only one goal on 48 shots in Nashville’s 2-1 victory.
In addition to stopping 47 of the 48 shots VGK directed at Saroys, his teammates played a perfect road game, taking the crowd out of the game while blocking 20 shots that were intended for him. Saroys is in a unique position: He’s played the VGK three times in his career and won all three games, including a shutout.
Juuse is a Knights slayer. Back on Oct. 30, he was in net when Nashville beat Vegas 4-1, credited with stopping 23 of the 24 shots he faced. Last season he beat Vegas 1-0 on Jan. 16, 2018, facing all 43 shots. So including last night’s game, Saroys has faced 115 VGK shots and saved 113 of them. That’s an amazing .982 save percentage.
Vegas has picked the wrong time to lose two games in a row at home in regulation for the first time this season. They’ve also lost 4 of the last 6 games. They now have nine days before they play another game, plus they’re in the middle of chasing both San Jose and Calgary in the Pacific Division for home-ice advantage come playoff time. Sitting around for the next nine days and having these last two games, not to mention four of the last six, rolling around in your head, isn’t a good thing for the team. This recent downswing has widened the gap between Vegas and Calgary by 9 points and 3 points with San Jose.
Still, Vegas sits comfortably in third place in the Pacific leading Vancouver by 10 points. And the time off will give somewhat of a silver lining to this dark cloud as multiple key players are on injured reserve.
The Marchessault line is really missing Reilly Smith. Even though both Marchessault and Karlsson scored on Saturday against Pittsburgh, neither is the same player without Smith getting them the puck.
In addition, Brandon Pirri, who is playing in place of Reilly Smith, has had a few rough games back to back. Last night the line of Pirri, Marchessault, and Karlsson was on the ice for both of Nashville’s goals that came within 3:01 of each other early in the second period, which negated the first-period goal by Max Pacioretty, his 15th, on a pretty set-up from Stastny and Tuch for the only goal that Saros gave up. The Pacioretty, Stastny, and Tuch line is playing well and Patches has scored in three straight games.
When Reilly Smith does return to the lineup, which may be for their first game back from the break on Feb. 1 in Carolina, Pirri will have to be moved down and won’t return to the second line; coach Gallant would not be willing to break up his most consistent scoring line. Does Pirri go down with Cody Eakin and if so, who comes off that line, Carpenter or Lindberg?
The next order of business is the 23-man-roster rule. With the Hunt trade on Monday night, that currently leaves the VGK with a roster of 22. Smith’s return doesn’t force George McPhee’s hand just yet. But when William Carrier returns, things will get interesting for McPhee and he’s well aware of it. It will either force a roster reduction through waivers or a single- or multi-player trade.
Max Lagacé was returned to the Chicago Wolves and Oscar Dansk was called up. In my opinion, it’s a good move to keep both backup goaltenders sharp and on their toes.
The VGK power play continues to suffer, going 0-5 last night. They once again had a brief two-man advantage that never materialized into a real threat. Their passes on the power play were off and they seemed out of sync, along with their entry into their zone.
Nashville was content with their one-goal lead and virtually abandoned their offense, registering a total of two shots in the third period. Vegas did step it up in the period, peppering Saros with 14 shots on net in a futile attempt to tie the score.
My 3 Stars of the Game: Juuse Saros (stopped 47 of 48 shots), Nick Bonino (game-winning goal), Ryan Johansen (1 goal).
The VGK’s next games are Friday, Feb. 1 vs. Carolina at 4:30 p.m., followed by a Saturday Feb. 2 against Florida at 4 p.m.
Your comments and opinions are welcome and appreciated here at Las Vegas Advisor (to comment, you just have to register on the site, which takes all of 30 seconds and is free, of course). You can also contact me directly at [email protected] or visit my Facebook page, Vegas Hockey Guy.
And for the most comprehensive coverage of the Vegas Golden Knights’ historic inaugural season, take a look at our book Vegas Golden Knights—How a First-Year Expansion Team Healed Las Vegas and Shocked the Hockey World.
The videos:
VGK Assistant Coach Mike Kelly
Never miss another post
A submitted comment
The knights seem to be taking to many wild slap shots from the blue line that either hit someone before the goal or miss the goal completely. They used to work the puck in closer and pass it to the open guy with the open net
A comment received
Spot on.