In a game played in a glass-enclosed rink on an ice surface 200 feet long and 85 feet wide, with at least 10 players whose average height is 6’ 1″ and average weight is 204 pounds, these big guys are skating around at speeds in excess of 20 miles per hour.
And that’s to say nothing of the knife edge on the hockey skate blade, which has a uniform thickness of approximately 2.9 mm (0.115 inches), and the puck traveling in excess of 100 miles an hour.
In short, when you’re out there under those conditions, you should never blink.
Last night, the Calgary Flames blinked. With just 1 minute and 46 seconds left in a game that Calgary should have won and deserved to win, they lost in a blink of an eye.
Flames player Michael Frolik had the puck on his stick near his own blue line and passed it back toward his net to a defenesman instead of getting the puck safely out of their defensive zone. Not only did the pass never get to Frolik’s teammate, but it became an unexpected shot by a Calgary player on his own net.
Calgary goaltender Mike Smith wasn’t prepared for that. Before he could blink, the puck hit him and came right out to the Golden Knights Erik Haula. Haula’s eyes were wide open and he quickly deposited the misplaced pass/shot into the net for his 18th goal of the season to tie up the game.
And we didn’t have to wait long to learn the ramifications of this misplaced pass. A mere 10 seconds later, Jonathan Marchessault scored and a 2-1 deficit was now a 3-2 VGK lead. David Perron’s empty-net goal closed out the VGK’s incredible last-minute heroics.
The Golden Knights continue to send shock waves through the entire NHL and with last night’s 4-2 win, they tied another NHL record for the most wins by a first-year team. In 1993-1994, both Florida and Anaheim won 33 games in an 84-game season. Just 49 games into an 82-game season, the VGK have tied the record, which they’ll clearly break with 33 games remaining. Their current record is 33-12-4.
Marchessault has 11 points in his last 10 games and has amassed 22 points in his last 18 games with 8 goals and 14 assists.
William Karlsson, the team’s leading scorer, picked up 2 assists last night and has 15 points in his last 13 games, with 10 goals and 5 assists.
In just the blink of an eye, the VGK’s putrid power play has been rendered no longer a problem. The power play has scored six times in the last four games and has scored at least one goal in all four previous games. In tonight’s game, the power play unit went 1 for 2 and their penalty-kill unit, which has been the shining star of the VGK specialty teams, continued to shine, stopping all three of the Flames’ power-play chances.
Marc-Andre Fleury, who was one of the All Stars representing the VGK this past weekend in Tampa, was the only reason the VGK were still in this game late into the third period. He stopped 31 of 33 shots, including all 12 Calgary shots in the first period.
Reilly Smith opened the scoring with a VGK PP goal late in the first period. Calgary scored two goals in the second period to have a lead going into the third period.
Vegas scored first and has an outstanding record of 22-1 when scoring first that leads the entire NHL so far this season.
VGK goal scorers: Smith PPG (13), Haula (18), Marchessault (18), Perron (13) empty net goal.
This was the first game after the All Star break and the first of a six-game road trip. The next VGK game will be tomorrow night against the Central Division leading Winnipeg Jets at 5 p.m. Pacific Time.
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