Knights on Ice — Not So Fast

Yes. Last night, the Knights won and salvaged their short three-game road trip by winning two of their three games with their 3-2 OT win over the Coyotes in Arizona. But until they start stringing together well-played games back to back and lose the Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde personality they’ve shown us 23 games into this season, I’m not convinced they’ve turned the corner just yet.

Granted, they’re fortunate enough to be playing in the Pacific Division, where it seems not one of the eight teams has any interest in breaking out of the pack. Only seven points separate the first-place Calgary Flames (27) and the seventh-place Arizona Coyotes (20). The VGK are extremely lucky that all eight teams in the Pacific Division have registered such a slow start.

Things have been so bad in this division that two coaches have already been fired. Last season, not one coach among the 31 lost their job throughout the entire 82-game season.

The L.A. Kings fired John Stevens after just 13 games with a record of 4-8-1. Since the firing of Stevens, L.A. has also traded two players, trying to turn things around.

Edmonton fired Todd McLellan after the Oilers lost to the VGK on Sunday. Was it losing to the Knights, with their record of 8-11-1 coming into the game, that resulted in his firing?

Two other NHL coaches have also been fired. St. Louis sacked Mike Yeo after his team lost to the last-place L.A. Kings 2-0 on Nov 19. Mike might have merely delayed his termination when his team scored four unanswered goals, which propelled them to victory against Vegas at T-Mobile on Friday November 16^.

Joel Quenneville, one of the most successful coaches in the NHL, was fired by Chicago just 15 games into this season. In the last nine years, Quenneville won three Stanley Cups and had the Chicago Blackhawks in the playoffs 9 of the 10 years that he was the head coach. They missed the playoffs only last season.

I’m not implying or suggesting that Gallant’s job is in jeopardy. A lot of different circumstances — injuries, the suspension, the first three lines failing to fire on all cylinders — have plagued the VGK in their first 22 games.

I bring up these terminations so that you can see that a coach’s job is never safe, not only in the NHL, but in every sport. You can’t fire the players. You can trade some of them, but even that’s not always easy. Trading a player who’s causing problems on a team is like trying to sell your used car with no tires. You’ll never get a fair return.

Last night, for maybe the first time since the line of Pacioretty, Tuch, and Eakin was put together, all three clicked. Tuch has played well and Eakin, filling in for Stastny and Haula, has been a beast, especially this month with five goals and three assists in nine games.

Against the Coyotes last night, Cody Eakin had a goal taken away after he scored off a smooth move by Alex Tuch. Tuch stole the puck from a defenseman and sent in Eakin alone on Kemper. The play was challenged by Arizona for being offside and the ruling was that Tuch did enter the zone while dragging the puck behind him. The puck must enter the zone before the player’s both skates have crossed the blue line. If a player has complete control of the puck, it may enter after his skates have crossed the line. The officials ruled that Tuch didn’t have complete control of the puck.

In the overtime, Eakin was denied the winning goal when Kemper stopped him on his semi breakaway. Eakin also set up Pacioretty on his first goal of the game that put Vegas up 2-1 with a nifty cross-ice pass

Tuch has two goals and six assists in the last eight games. Max Pacioretty has now scored four goals in the last three games. His second goal last night was the OT winner when he jumped on the ice and headed straight to the front of the net to pick up Shea Theodore’s rebound and slipped it past Coyotes’ goaltender Kemper.

Past history was on the side of the VGK. They’ve now beaten Arizona five out of the six games they’ve played so far in their history.

Also on their side was a record of 6-0 when Vegas entered the third period with a lead this season, while Arizona had a record of 0-8 entering the third period trailing. Arizona did tie the game when Derek Stephan scored his second goal of the game on the power play with just 6:49 left in the game. Vegas also had to kill a tripping penalty on Brayden McNabb with 1:55 left in the third period that carried over five seconds into OT.

Pacioretty’s goal in OT was his first game-winning goal for the VGK; it also marked his first multi-point game for Vegas. The OT goal was his 11^th since the 2008-2009 season, which has him in fourth place overall in the NHL in this category. Alex Ovechkin leads the league with 17 OT goals.

Tomas Nosek ended a 17-game scoreless streak with his goal in the second period.

Vegas didn’t register a shot on goal in the third period until 15:30 of the period had been played.

Coach Gallant said in his post-game comments that he thought his team played well the entire 63 minutes and 36 seconds. Sorry, but I don’t agree. Going shotless for more than 15 minutes of a game doesn’t indicate a complete effort to me.

My 3 Stars of the Game: Max Pacioretty (2 goals, including the OT game-winner), Cody Eakin (primary assist of Patches’ first goal and a complete 200-foot game), Derek Stephan (2 goals that kept Arizona in the game)

The next game is Friday at T-Mobile vs. the Calgary Flames. Note the starting time: 3 p.m. James Neal makes his return to T-Mobile on Friday.

Wishing you all a Happy Thanksgiving

Your comments and opinions are welcome here at Las Vegas Advisor or you can contact me directly at [email protected]