The San Jose Sharks have been trying to lock up a playoff spot for the last three games. A win will do it. But they lost on Thursday night to the Florida Panthers at home by a score of 4-2. In their next game on Saturday, the playoff-clincher was right before their eyes and once again they failed to complete the mission by losing to Nashville by the same score of 4-2 at home. Last night, they played the team that many say is their arch rival/enemy, the Vegas Golden Knights. They failed once again, as Vegas exploded for 7 goals in their 7-3 victory, denying the Sharks the playoff spot they will eventually achieve, but just not against the VGK and not last night.
Clinching against Vegas would have erased the disappointment of failing to do so in their last two games. It would also have felt good, as the VGK eliminated the Sharks in six games in the second round of last year’s playoffs. It would also have felt good for the Sharks goaltender Martin Jones to play 60 minutes. Jones seems to be chased out of the net in just about every game that he faces Vegas. In his 12 starts against the Knights, Jones has done the shuffle to the showers five different times. Last night, he lasted only 12:24 into the first period, giving up 3 goals on just 11 shots.
The game didn’t start like it ended, as Logan Couture scored his 25th goal just 30 seconds into the game, when both Deryk Engelland and Nate Schmidt left Couture alone in front of Subban with the puck at his feet.
But William Karlsson scored 3:07 after Couture to tie the game at 1-1. Then Mark Stone continued his torrid scoring pace on a power-play goal just 2:11 after Karlsson. It was Stone’s fourth goal in his last five games. The VGK are 9-1 since Mark Stone arrived in Las Vegas. Joe Thornton scored for San Jose to even it up again at 2-2 in the first period.
Jonathan Marchessault, who wound up with two goals again last night to go along with his two against Edmonton, has now scored four goals in two games. Marchessault’s first goal broke the 2-2 tie and sent Jones shuffling off earlier than expected. Marchessault added two assists for a 4-point night.
After Marchessault’s first goal, Paul Stastny added a power-play goal and Vegas never looked back. Reilly Smith followed with his goal. Marchessault’s second went into an empty net for the VGK’s sixth goal. And they still weren’t done. With the clock winding down and Vegas on the power-play, Cody Eakin scored a third power-play goal to close the scoring for the 7-3 final.
It should be noted that in Malcolm Subban’s last two games, the VGK have scored 13 goals. In his first seven starts, the VGK scored 13 goals.
With Reilly Smith’s goal and three assists, it was the first time in his career that he scored 4 points in one game.
The so-called number-one line had a total of 10 points last night, after a similar offensive outburst against Edmonton on Sunday at T-Mobile.
With Vegas scoring three power-play goals last night, will Adam Kutner be on the VGK Ticket Exchange or Flash Seats looking for tickets for the winning VGK fans who won his Twitter power-play contest?
Subban was much busier than he was Sunday night, facing more than double the amount of shots. He stopped 36 of 39. He had a rocky start to the game and the second goal he gave up to Joe Thornton was a shot from just inside the blue line. That’s a goal he should have stopped. He did get much better as the game went on. It was the first time in his career that he has played in back-to-back games.
Every VGK registered a shot on goal except Colin Miller.
Reilly Smith and Marchessault both had five shots on goal.
Shea Theodore led all VGK players with 6 shots on goal.
Here is some food for thought.
If you were Gallant and goaltending coach David Prior and it appeared you were not going to catch either San Jose or Calgary and you wouldn’t lose third place to Arizona, would you give Fleury a week to 10 days off and just bring him back into the lineup for the last two or three games to get him ready for the playoffs? His workload has been immense. He has played in 59 games so far this season. Last season, he played in 46 games.
I’m not suggesting that this lower-body injury isn’t real, but with his wife’s overdue pregnancy, the number of games he’s had to play, and the position of the VGK in the standings, this seems like it would be a good time to give him some R&R and time with his family.
Vegas leads Arizona by 9 points for the last playoff spot in the Pacific.
Vegas trails San Jose by 7 points and Calgary by 8, with all teams having 9 games remaining.
We may never know, but it does sound like a good plan.
The next game is Thursday vs. Winnipeg at T-Mobile at 7 p.m.
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And for the most comprehensive coverage of the Vegas Golden Knights’ historic inaugural season, take a look at our book Vegas Golden Knights—How a First-Year Expansion Team Healed Las Vegas and Shocked the Hockey World.
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I agree with you on the possibility of Galant giving Flower time off for your reasons. I’m not that Hockey savvy, but thought about the same thing yesterday.