Knights on Ice — 6 For 5 Equals Zero

In Las Vegas, you should always avoid any blackjack tables that pay 6-5 for natural blackjacks; you’ll eventually go broke playing at these tables. And If you’re the backup goaltender for the Vegas Golden Knights and your team has scored just six goals in the five games you’ve started, you’ll have zero wins. It’s just that plain and simple.

Last night, the VGK stayed consistent in offering no offensive support for Malcolm Subban in their 1-0 loss against Columbus Blue Jackets.

In Subban’s first start this season back on Oct. 11, the VGK scored two goals against Pittsburgh. In his next start on Oct. 30, they scored one goal versus Nashville. In Subban’s third game, Vegas managed just one goal against Boston on Nov. 11. The last game Subban played before last night was the disaster in Calgary, where the Knights were embarrassed by a score of 7-2. Subban hadn’t played since that game on Nov. 19.

That’s 28 days between starts. Unfair to Subban? Some would say yes. But what transpired for the Knights in their first 22 games of the season tied the hands of Coach Gallant and VGK goaltending Coach David Prior. They needed to call on Fleury to get the team back to the winning ways we’ve grown to know. Call on him they did and Fleury responded in playing a key role in helping the VGK go 10-2-1 in the 13 games following the Calgary disaster.

In those 13 games, four were played on back-to-back nights, which in the past has been a sure start for the backup goaltender. But with our team’s slow start in terms of wins, plus injuries to key players, not to mention missing their number-one defenseman for the first 20 games due to a suspension, Fleury was the starting goaltender for 31 of the VGK’s first 35 games. It’s a torrid pace to ask of Fleury, but as I said, the team’s position in the Pacific Division put the coaching staff in a pickle.

Last night was the second of back-to-back games, the sixth time this season that the team has played two days in a row. Subban played the second game of the first three back-to-backers. The other two were played by Fleury on Nov. 23-24 (he won both) and Dec. 8-9 (he won the second against Dallas, but lost the first to the last-place L.A. Kings).

Last night, Subban might have made coaches Gallant and Prior’s future decisions a little easier going forward in getting valuable time off for Fleury, whom they’ll need come playoff time. Subban played well enough to win — and he would have if his teammates had played the first two periods the way they did in the third. They took 14 shots on Sergei Bobrovsky in the third period and in the first and second combined.

The Knights didn’t step it up until Nick Foligno scored the only goal of the game 40 seconds into the third. Foligno’s goal came after Subban had stopped Seth Jones’ shot from the blue line, but Jonathan Marchessault lost his check on Foligno, allowing him to slip in behind and get face to face with Subban. That was the only blemish on Subban last night and it came at the expense of one missed check and no offensive help from his teammates.

I speak of playoffs and I know 46 games are yet to come, but I firmly believe this team is the best in the Pacific, even though their record says otherwise. They’ve had an extremely difficult travel schedule: 22 out of their 36 games this season have been on the road.

By contrast, their record at T-Mobile is impressive at 10-3-1 so far.

In January and February, the VGK will play only eight games away from T-Mobile, which in my opinion will be key to the success of this season. They’ll need to keep up their dominance at T-Mobile and there’s no doubt that the 18,000-plus who rock the arena every home game play a factor in their record.

After traveling with the team for the three games in the New York City area, it’s clear to me how much the fan base means to the Golden Knights. Other than the Rangers game, it seemed like the games were being played at neutral sites. A large number of VGK fans attended all three games — and they rocked the anthem with their “KNIGHTS!” chant, which continued throughout the games to the dismay of the home teams’ fans.

The road trip could have been better than the 2-1-1 result, but picking up five points out of eight was crucial, considering what the other teams in the Pacific have done.

Calgary: 12-2-1 in their last 15 games

Anaheim: 10-2-1 in their last 13 games

Edmonton: 8-2-1 in their last 11 games

Vegas stays within reach of a playoff spot and is currently in the number-one wild-card position with their 10-2-1 record in their last 13 games. They haven’t lost two games in a row since Nov. 10-11 and last night was the first time they’ve been shut out all season.

Their current wild-card spot assures that they won’t have home-ice advantage in any of the playoff rounds. With their dominance at T-Mobile, home ice will be a huge factor in their playoff results, so there are more fish to fry beyond just the wild card.

But first things first. They still have a lot of hockey to play.

The USA line of Paccioretty, Tuch, and Stastny, which took 35 games to materialize, looks like it only got to play one game together, as Paccioretty was injured halfway through last night’s game with what appears to be a lower-body issue. From my observation, he seemed to put himself in an awkward position that resulted in some impact on the inside of his knee while attempting to check a Blue Jacket from leaving his defensive zone. This would be a big blow to a team that has already had their share of injuries so far this season.

My 3 Stars of the Game: Nick Foligno (game-winning goal), Segei Bobrovsky (shutout with 28 saves), Malcom Subban (30 saves on 31 shots faced)

The next game is Thursday (Dec 20) against the New York Islanders at T-Mobile at 7 p.m.

Your opinions and comments are welcome here at Las Vegas Advisor or you may contact me directly at [email protected] Or you can visit my Vegas Hockey Guy page on Facebook

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.