It’s difficult to find fault with the VGK, especially over the last 11 games in which they’ve won every one except for their loss in Calgary on March 10 by a score of 6-3. In their last 10 wins from Feb. 26 till March 21, they surrendered only 16 goals. In the same period of time, they put 47 goals behind opposing goaltenders, while sending two goalies to early showers.
When your goaltenders are playing as well as both Malcolm Subban and the injured/rested Marc-André Fleury have been, winning comes a little easier. Last night, Subban continued to play well, but the team in front of him could not claim the same.
Last night, the Vegas Golden Nights lost to the Detroit Red Wings 3-2 in overtime. They should have beaten the Red Wings, especially at this time of the year with what’s at stake. Detroit is already mathematically eliminated from the playoffs and the VGK had a golden chance to close the gap between themselves and the San Jose Sharks, who now lead the VGK by only 5 points. It would have and should have been just 4 points, with both the Sharks and the VGK having 7 games left. A critical match on March 30 against San Jose could have a significant effect on the final position that these team will occupy come April 6, the last day of this 2018-2019 season.
It’s also hard to find fault with Shea Theodore’s game, on both defense and offense; he leads all defensemen with 11 goals so far this season. But last night, Theodore had a grievous error when his attempted clearing pass out of the VGK zone was intercepted and after two bounces/deflections wound up behind Subban for Detroit’s first goal by Luke Glendening just 3:06 into the first period in front of a packed house of 18,437 at T-Mobile Arena.
It’s even harder to consider looking at Reilly Smith with one eyebrow raised, despite the blind behind-the-back pass he attempted just 19 seconds into overtime right in front of Malcolm Subban, which resulted in the winning goal scored by Anthony Mantha. Reilly’s pass was intercepted by Dylan Larkin, who also threw a blind behind-the-back pass that was much better than Smith’s.
Smith has been on a scoring heater with goals in three straight games and 9 points in his last four games. He scored the VGK’s second goal while Vegas was killing a penalty. It was the second shorthanded goal scored by Vegas in their last two games. Tomas Nosek had a shortie in Vegas’ 5-0 win over Winnipeg on Thursday night. But after last night, no one recalls Smith’s shorthanded goal or his 9 points in just 4 games. They just recall Mantha’s winning goal in overtime off of Reilly Smith’s giveaway.
The VGK had a chance to clinch a playoff spot last night with a win, coupled with a loss by Arizona in regulation. They failed on both counts as they left a valuable point on the ice at T-Mobile. Let’s hope come the evening of April 6, this point is not the difference between the VGK opening up with home-ice advantage vs. San Jose.
It’s not often — actually, it’s very rare — that another team outskates, outworks, and beats the VGK to loose pucks, but last night was a strange night, beginning with Detroit players who were hungrier than most if not all the VGK players.
The return of William Carrier to the lineup jazzed up the 4th line and the forechecking and havoc created by both Carrier and Reaves kept the Knights from being completely manhandled in the first period. Carrier wound up with 11 bone-crunching hits in his 11:10 minutes of ice time. Reaves had 4 hits.
Both Carrier and Reaves had grade-A scoring chances set up by each other, but they were stonewalled by Jimmy Howard, the Red Wing goaltender. Howard and Subban both played well enough to win, but only one would and that was Howard, who stopped all but 2 of the 30 shots he faced. Subban was once again amazing, stopping 27 shots of the 30 he faced. Subban has a record of 13-1-1 in games at T-Mobile. Pretty impressive numbers for a second-year player who has only played 15 games this year and a total of 39 games played in his NHL career. By comparison, Fleury has played in 762 regular season games.
Here’s what Detroit Red Wings head coach Jeff Blashill said about about Jimmy Howard and playing at T-Mobile. “Yeah, Jimmy played very well, but I thought both goalies were good tonight. Their guy was good too. But Jimmy was really solid and made big saves in big moments when we needed him.
“The game went back and forth. They’re certainly a real good team and this is a great building. Honestly, probably the best atmosphere in the league. So it’s a great building, they had chances, we had chances, and it was a real good hockey game.”
My 3 Stars of the Game: Anthony Mantha (2 goals and the game-winner in OT), Jimmy Howard (who had some high-quality saves, especially against Carrier and Reaves in the first period, and stopped 28 of the 30 shots he faced), and Malcolm Subban (who played well enough to win, but his team let him down with grievous giveaways).
The next game is tomorrow evening vs. St Louis at 5 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.
Here are the links to the videos:
Coach Gallant Part I, Part 2, and Part 3
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A comment I received
I like your writing. I read it all the time. You are fair and honest with your evaluation of the teams and very knowledgeable about the game. Thank you for your posts.
Feedback from a reader
Fair and honest. Excellent recap of the game. It’s safe to say we never know which team will show up; the same guys play very differently on any given night.
A comment I received
Good read.