Prior to last night’s game, the VGK hadn’t beaten the Edmonton Oilers. As a matter of fact, their record in the Pacific Division was 13-1-1 and the only two losses that Vegas had suffered in its own division were to the Oilers, once in regulation in Edmonton and once in overtime the last time these two teams played at T-Mobile.
But last night was different, which is why you should never say never. In his last game here on January 13, Conner McDavid was a one-man wrecking crew, causing all sorts of havoc with his incredible speed and scoring prowess.
In the VGK’s games against the Oilers, McDavid registered two goals and three assists. He scores 42% of Edmonton’s goals. So when you keep him out of the game and off the score sheet, the chances that you’ll beat his team greatly increase. Last night, the VGK limited him to just two shots on goal and a minus one point for the game — the correct recipe for beating the Edmonton Oilers.
The last two teams that came into T-Mobile were both riding losing streaks. The Blackhawks were on a six-gamer, Edmonton on four. T-Mobile is not the place to try to snap a losing streak, as the VGK’s home record is now 21-4-2. With this win, they’re a single home win shy of tying another multi-decade NHL record for an expansion team. The inaugural season for the Hartford Whalers was 1979-1980 and they won 22 home games out of 40. The VGK still have 17 home games left to once again shatter a long-standing NHL expansion-team record.
The VGK are the expansion-team version of Wayne Gretzky, who broke and/or set almost every NHL scoring record, most of which stand to this day. And most of the expansion records that Vegas has broken this season will remain for a long time.
The final score of the game, 4-1, makes it seem that this was a blowout for the VGK, but the Oilers played better for the first 10 minutes of the first period and if it hadn’t been for Marc Andre Fleury, it could have gotten ugly quickly. Vegas was without a shot on net for over seven minutes prior to scoring their first goal.
Speaking of that first goal, enough can’t be said about Ryan Carpenter last night as he might have been the game’s best player overall for the Knights. His goal opened the scoring and was his fourth goal in six games. Ryan also scored the first goal on Tuesday night vs. Chicago. Last night, he gave Edmonton fits as Milan Lucic was more interested in trying to cross-check Carpenter and run him through the boards than defend against him.
On the first goal, Lucic was cross-checking Carpenter in front of the net, which allowed Deryk Engelland to skate all the way in from the blue line and get an uncontested shot that Carpenter quickly put into the open net as Lucic tried to recover from overplaying Carpenter. That was probably the nail in Edmonton’s coffin as Vegas is 22-3 when scoring first. On this goal Engelland was credited with the primary assist, giving him 18 points on the season—a new career high for this stay-at-home defenseman.
This year Vegas has played nine different defensemen, another indication of the team effort up and down the lineup. It’s truly a team that has no real superstars, although there’s already consideration for post-season awards for William Karlsson as the most improved player in the NHL. He’s currently on a pace to score more than 40 goals this year if he stays healthy.
On the first VGK power play, Mike Cammalleri was stopped by Fleury on a quality scoring chance while shorthanded and it proved to be a huge save; when the play went back up the ice, Karlsson took a pass on his off wing from David Perron. Karlsson drove to the front of the net, moving the puck from his backhand to his forehand, and scored the power-play goal. This will be a goal you’ll see on the weekly NHL highlight’s replays. It was a beauty.
In Karlsson’s 183 games with the Columbus Bluejackets, he scored 18 goals total with 32 assists for a total of 50 points. Last night’s goal was his 30th goal in just 57 games with the VGK. With 20 assists, he’s tied his overall offensive output in three years with Columbus in just 57 games with Vegas. With Columbus, he had one power-play goal in 183 games and a +4 rating. Last night’s power play goal gives him five just this year, with a +32 rating. Overachieving or just a hidden gem discovered by George McPhee and his staff? I’m going with discovered by George, who not only did a masterful job with selecting Karlsson, but if you go down the lineup, player after player on the VGK are thumbing their noses at all of their former teams.
Fleury was not only strong in the first period when he had to be, but over the last two games, especially with Malcolm Subban, the number-two goaltender, injured. In the last two games, Fleury has stopped 57 of the 60 shots he’s faced. Last night, he stopped 28 of 29, increasing his record to 18-6-2. Fleury has started six consecutive games and 11 of the past 12. He’ll remain the workhorse in nets until Subban returns or Gallant finds a spot to put in Max Lagace, giving Fleury a well-deserved night off.
The VGK were one for two on the power play and have scored at least one PPG in 11 of their last 12 games.
Edmonton have been outscored 25-14 in their last five games and now appear to be on the outside looking in for a playoff position. How quickly things can change: They were one win away from going to the Western Conference Finals last year and they were pre-season favorites for another deep playoff run.
Erik Haula scored his 22nd goal last night; he’s scored 13 of his 22 in the third period.
Edmonton was pretty much toast after the VGK scored to make it 3-0 and once again solidifies my theory about the next team to score in a 2-0 game has a huge edge in winning. Plus, add in that Vegas is 22-1 when leading after two periods.
VGK scorers: Ryan Carpenter (4), Jonathan Marchessault (21), William Karlsson (30) PPG, Erik Haula (22); 11 different VGK contributed to last night’s score sheet with David Perron collecting two assists.
Our next game is Saturday vs. Montreal at 7 p.m. at T-Mobile. Expect a lot of Montreal fans—who don’t need much of an excuse to escape the cold weather of Canada for a weekend in the desert to see their team.
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