All of the above played significant roles in Thursday night’s game between the number-one team in the entire Western Conference, your Vegas Golden Knights, and the second-place team in the Pacific Division, the L.A. Kings. The Kings are chasing the VGK for a superior playoff position. Yes, we’re now, as early as December, talking about playoff seeding. Believe me, no one is thinking this is just an anomaly.
The Vegas Golden Knights are now breaking records of the entire 100-year NHL history and not just records previously held by expansion teams. Between Oct. 15 and Oct. 27, 2017, the VGK won five in a row, which tied the 90-year-old record held by the NY Rangers, an original-six team in the first year they played in the NHL (1927-1927) and the 1979-1980 Edmonton Oilers when they were added to the league from the WHL. Then, between Nov 16. and Nov. 25, Vegas tied their own record when they again won five games in a row.
Not wanting to share this record, with Thursday’s win against the L.A. Kings, the VGK now own the record all by themselves. They’re the first team in its inaugural season in the NHL to have a six-game winning streak. They’re now 11-1-0 in games against Pacific Division teams and they’re 10-0-1 in their last 11 games. They improved their perfect record in overtime to 6-0 and their overall record in the shootout, which occurs if no team scores in the five minutes of 3 on 3 during the OT period. Their overall OT record is an amazing 8-2-0.
They’re now up three points on the L.A. Kings in the Pacific Division, while still having played two less games than L.A. They lead the entire Western Conference by two points over the Winnipeg Jets and have played three games less than the Jets.
Goalie Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 26 of 28 shots that he faced and the first goal was no fault of his own, as the slap shot from the point was deflected off Jonathan Marchessault’s stick when he was attempting to get in front of it from the point. The goal was credited to Marion Gaborik, but I watched the replay six times in slow motion and I just do not see the puck hitting Gaborik. My feeling is that in an attempt to get Marion going as his normal goal production is way down, Derek Forbort, who took the shot may have claimed that he saw it go off of Gaborik. Hockey players are unselfish like that; they’d rather see a goal scorer get out of a slump and help their team than take credit for the goal. This is especially true for defensemen, who aren’t paid to score goals, but to prevent them from being scored against their team.
Jonathan Marchessault made up for the unfortunate deflection off his stick by scoring late in the second period to tie the game. On that goal, Colin Miller picked up his 20th point, which leads all the defensemen on the VGK.
To be honest, the L.A. Kings didn’t deserve even to be in this game with Vegas. They were not only dominated, but at two different points of the game, they went without a shot on net for more than 11 minutes one time and 12 minutes another; that’s more than an entire period of play. In the third period, the chances at net were 47-22 in favor of the Knights.
Now to tie in the header to this story, the two goaltenders last night have won five Stanley Cups between them. So you knew it was going to be a defensive game.
The French Christmas gift was one point given to L.A. by Knights’ forward Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, who was born in Le Blanc-Mesnil, France. Bellemare’s stick was broken when a slap shot hit it. With no stick late in the third period and while the puck was deep in the Knights zone, for some unknown boneheaded reason, he vacated the zone to go get a stick from the bench.
The best way to defend against a goal is when a defending player is between the puck and the goaltender, with his stick taking away passing lanes and shooting angles. The second-best way is when a player without a stick uses his body, his four limbs, and his skates to impede the path of the puck toward the net. The worst way to defend is just to leave the zone to go get a new stick. This is taught on the first day of hockey.
I don’t speak French, but Marc-Andre Fleury and Pierre-Edouard do and I’m pretty sure Fleury was spewing some Gallic curses when he saw his French friend have some sort of croissant brain fart. This blunder led to Drew Doughty’s late goal, which forced the critical divisional game, which L.A. had no business being in, to steal one point. I hope this one point doesn’t decide the difference in home-ice advantage come playoff time. Yep, still talking about the playoffs barely halfway through the season.
After the game, Drew Doughty, a veteran who knows what you say about opposing teams should be well-put, as you don’t want to give them anything to hang up in their locker room, providing any additional incentive to beat you in a future game, didn’t practice those skills. I don’t know in which order these were said, but one should have never been said and the other one is what’s expected to be said when you’re dominated and lose. “In some ways, I don’t even think we deserved a point, so we’re obviously kind of lucky and happy now that we got it, but that wasn’t a very good performance by us.”
But then he proceeded to put his hockey stick in his mouth by saying, “There’s no way they are going to be a better team than us by the end of the season.
Wow, Drew. Thank you for these words that I can assure you will be on the locker room wall of the VGK.
Goal scorers for the VGK: Jonathan Marchessault (13), Brendan Leipsic (1), and David Perron (9) in overtime.
Fleury is 4-0-1 since returning from missing 25 games with an .952 save percentage and overall is 7-1-1 for the season.
The VGK close out an amazing 2017 with a game vs. Toronto Maple Leafs at T-Mobile on New Year’s Eve. Please note the starting time of Sunday’s, game which is 12:30 p.m., to prevent any major traffic issues for those attending the game, as the Strip will be shut to traffic later that night.
Have a safe New Year’s Eve and may your 2018 be as successful as the first three months of the VGK season.
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