No, I’m not calling the VGK’s Saturdays afternoon performance vs. the L.A. Kings embarrassing or one that lacked emotion. Those were Drew Doughty words about himself, his team, and their season following their last game against the NJ Devils. But I wouldn’t get much pushback from anyone if I did use Drew’s words to describe the VGK and the lackluster performance in their disappointing 5-1 loss to the Kings.
The Knights took an early 1-0 lead on Oscar Lindberg’s first goal of the season just 4:23 in off an impressive forecheck by his linemates Ryan Carpenter and Tomas Nosek. Nosek’s initial wraparound shot was saved by Jonathan Quick, but the rebound came out to Lindberg, who found a tiny opening between Quick’s pads for their only lead and the only worthy thing that could be attached to yesterday’s performance. Otherwise, they were never in this game.
Did the VGK look past the L.A. Kings yesterday? Did they believe they could once again not play an entire 60 minutes and still win with an impressive third-period performance like they had in their last two come-from-behind victories? Was this the letdown game that was supposed to follow their dramatic and physically draining win vs. the Stanley Cup Champions on Tuesday night? Any of them could be the reason.
Coming into yesterday’s game, L.A. had only 21 points, the lowest in the entire league, with six players on their injured-reserve list. They ranked 31st in goals scored, 30th in goals against, and 30th in power-play scoring of the 31 teams.
L.A. had scored two goals or less in 20 of their 29 games, while Vegas in their last 10 games were scoring an average of 4.1 goals, which ranked them fifth overall. Sixteen different VGK players scored at least one goal in their last 10 games. In their first 20 games, Vegas couldn’t find the back of the net, averaging just 2.45 goals per game, forcing Fleury to be near perfect every night in order to hang a W in their win-loss column.
Fleury was making his ninth straight start in his 27th game of the season. Malcolm Subban has started only four games the entire season. Which brings me to this important aspect. Fleury will need to rest. He can’t play this many games and expect to be fresh come April and hopefully May and beyond.
The VGK are only one of two teams in the entire league whose backup goaltender hasn’t recorded a win. The NJ Devils are the other. Yesterday’s game, in my opinion, was going to be the last game Fleury played until facing the NY Islanders on Wednesday. This would have given the Flower a solid four nights’ rest and a chance to recharge his batteries.
But with yesterday’s loss and the importance of every two points earned in the Pacific Division these days, can Gallant under the advice of goaltender coach Dave Prior play Subban later today against Dallas, which is in the midst of its own playoff battle in the Central Division? I know it’s crazy to be thinking about playoff positions not even halfway through this season, but with the VGK stumbling out of the starting blocks in October, you don’t want to fall too far behind and be in a logjam trying to earn the last playoff spot in the Pacific or even worse, one of the two wildcards in the Western Conference. The slow start among all eight teams in the Pacific Division may actually favor both wildcard playoff spots coming from the Central Division. Only the top three teams from each division make the playoffs; the two wildcard teams will come from the remaining nine teams with the most points in the Western Conference.
So who’s in the net today? No one knows. Well, maybe four people do: Gallant, Prior, Fleury, and Subban. My guess is that Fleury gets the nod, as he’ll still have all day Monday and Tuesday to rest and not have to play again until Wednesday night. But Gallant relies on Prior when it comes to which goaltender starts. After conferring with Prior, Coach could roll the dice and try to give Subban a boost in his confidence, while the Flower gets some much needed rest. We’ll all know when the teams hit the ice at 5:30 for warm-ups.
Subban starting may also get the other 18 skaters’ attention, as the VGK have shown that they play for one another and as a team. They’d like nothing more than to get Subban a win. We do have 51 more games to be played and something has to give with the backup goaltending position.
The VGK penalty kill finally gave up a power-play goal after killing off 22 straight power plays. This alone says a lot about the mindset of the entire team, as L.A. with a 14.1% conversion rate was ranked 30th on the power play of the 31 teams. The VGK’s last opponent, the Chicago Blackhawks, are the 31st team overall in power-play goals with a 12% success rate. Vegas has a 19.4% overall conversion rate with a 21.7% rate on the road. Yesterday, Vegas was 0-3 on the power play, while the Kings converted their only power play into their second goal of the game, the game winner by Matt Luff, assisted by former VGK player Brenden Leipsic, who was acquired on Monday on waivers from Vancouver. It was Leipsic’s third game with the Kings since joining them. He has one goal and one assist in his three games with the Kings.
Gallant said post game that he thought the team looked tired. I think that was one of the reasons; looking beyond the Kings was another. Even in the pre-game show, Brad May, the color analyst for ATT Sports network, said Vegas would crush the Kings. Everyone, including one of the TV guys, was already moving on to the Dallas game today. As bad as the Kings have been so far 29 games into their season, these are professional athletes who have pride—even Drew Doughty, known for sticking his foot in his mouth as every VGK fan knows from last season, as he had to eat his words when the Knights swept his team in four straight with two Fleury shutouts in Game 1 and in the clinching game 4 win of 1-0.
After yesterday’s game, Doughty chose his words more carefully when speaking about the VGK. I guess having to eat your words sometimes will humble you. “We actually played a good team here in Vegas, a very good team.”
Drew, yesterday you did play a very good team, but unfortunately they looked past you. It won’t happen again, as this team has shown the ability to correct mistakes quickly and move forward. They’re well-coached and they play as a team.
My 3 Stars of the Game: Dekek Forbort (1 goal, 1 assist), Matt Luff (game-winning power-play goal), Jack Muzzin (2 assists). Sorry, I couldn’t justify giving a star to a single VGK player.
Next game is today at 6 p.m. vs. Dallas at T-Mobile.
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Comments from a reader
Insightful post. I love my team, but the play I saw yesterday was not the team I love to watch. Slow and tired were a good description. I was also surprised to see Fluery start yesterday. Yes it was a divisional game, but it was also against a badly struggling team and Fluery is going to have to have some rest. Subban also needs to rebuild his confidence before we have a real problem.