In their previous game Saturday night at T-Mobile against Edmonton, the Knights stole a point in their OT loss. They just weren’t in sync and I’m sure some will attribute that to the fact that they had a week off and needed a game to get their legs back under them.
In last night’s game, they clearly deserved to win, but they didn’t even get a point. That is how the hockey gods work sometimes. They reward you when you don’t deserve it and deny you when you play well enough to win a road game in a tough building. Nashville and Vegas may have the most passionate fans in the NHL and the noise in both arenas has an effect on the road team. VGK played an excellent road game and kept the crowd from becoming the sixth skater on the ice for the Predators. But not scoring limits your chances of taking down two points on the road.
VGK outshot Nashville and clearly had plenty of chances out of the 43 shots that backup goaltender Juuse Saros faced. Granted, Nashville was coming off of their off week and maybe weren’t quite in sync themselves. But Saros was the difference in sending Vegas to their second loss in a row. He This isn’t your normal backup goaltender, but when you have Pekka Rinne as your number one, you don’t get too many chances to shine. Nashville’s win, by a score of 1-0, was Saros’s third shutout of the season and improved his record to 5-0-3 in his last eight starts. He makes the most of the limited chances he receives, as Rinne plays most of the games for Nashville.
Fleury was amazing in the nets and was unfortunate to have Saros on the other end of the ice. He continued his stellar performances since returning from his injury. He only allowed one goal and stopped the other 26 shots he faced. Some of those were not just your normal saves that goaltenders around the league face night after night. They were high-quality scoring chances. But when you team doesn’t score at all, the best you can hope for is to get the game into OT, then hope for the opportunity to steal a point or two, which Vegas did against Edmonton.
I was incorrect with the prediction in my last blog that Coach Gallant would play Subban. But can you blame him for going with the hot goalie? Fleury has been amazing; even last night in defeat he was a force for the VGK.
The VGK power play unit continues to struggle and once again was denied, going 0-4. Their power-play unit is 0-10 since Jan. 2 and has only scored one power play goal since December 19, one ppg in 23 attempts. On top of the lack of scoring with the man advantage, the VGK have only scored four goals in their last three games. They were lucky enough to grab three points in the three games with a 1-1-1 record.
Games like this are par for the course as we move toward the remaining 39 games of the season. If you thought defense was tight now, wait till the last few games of the season and into the playoffs. Goals will be hidden treasures. Power-play goals will feel like you struck a goal mind (pun intended). They’ll decide the outcome of the best-of-seven-game series that will be required to move deeper into the playoffs.
One thing is still performing well: the VGK Penalty Kill, which remains perfect, killing off both Nashville power plays. An impressive streak to say the least.
This was only the second time the VGK have been shut out this season. The only other time was against the Dallas Stars with Ben Bishop in nets.
Nashville has an excellent home record of 14-4-2, while the VGK’s overall record stands at 29-11-3 and they remain the top team in the Western Conference.
Jonathan Marchessault had 10 shots on net tonight of the 43 VGK fired at Saros.
The VGK have a good opportunity to right the sinking ship of their power-play unit as their next game is against the number-one overall team in the league, Tampa Bay. In their last game vs. TB, the VGK scored four power play goals on five attempts.
Thursday’s game will be in Tampa Bay with a 4:30 p.m. Pacific Time start.
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