The last two games for the VGK really showed how strong and deep they are in the goaltending department. After Malcolm Subban’s stellar performance on Thursday in San Jose, yesterday Marc Andre Fleury was back in the lineup after missing one game due to an undisclosed injury. He looked so sharp that like Subban, Fleury kept the VGK in the game.
With a win yesterday, the VGK would have clinched a playoff spot. That didn’t happen, but with the results of other games last night, they might be there. Either way, it’s impossible to imagine that they won’t take their rightful place in the post-season.
Yesterday’s game once again went to overtime and once again the VGK came up short. They did earn one point, getting them to 101 points for the season. They’re the quickest expansion team to reach 100 points. It took the 1981-82 Edmonton Oilers three three to break 100 points with 111 points in their third season and the 1975-76 New York Islanders reached 101 points in their fourth season.
Only two expansion teams have ever made the playoffs in their first year and they weren’t really new teams that were put together just three months before the season started, like Vegas Golden Knights were.
The 1968-69 Hartford Whalers and the 1979-80 Edmonton Oilers were established teams from the WHA when they joined the NHL. Also, since the first six expansion teams that joined the original six NHL teams were all put in the same division, that allowed four of them to make the playoffs. So that really doesn’t count. Vegas, for all intents and purposes, is the only real expansion team having to compete against established teams to make the playoffs in its first try.
Fleury had a record of 27-11-3 with a 2.18 Goals Against Average and a .930 Save percentage coming into yesterday’s game.
The first 30 seconds of the game were almost a carbon copy of the San Jose game, as the Colorado Avalanche looked liked they’d been shot out of a cannon. Fleury was up to the task and held the fort. Like Subban in Thursday’s San Jose game, Fleury was the main reason this game even got to overtime. The Avs controlled most of the first half of the game and scored on one of their four power plays. Vegas, ranked 29th in taking penalties, has now taken 10 minor penalties in their last two games.
The Colorado team that Vegas soundly beat 7-0 way back on October 27 is totally different than the one Vegas faced yesterday. They’ve come together as a team after getting past the huge distraction that Matt Duchene caused by demanding to be traded. Matt was traded to Ottawa 14 games into the season. Since then, Colorado has gone 33-20-8, putting them right in the battle for a playoff spot. Yesterday’s game could very well have been the opening round for Vegas. There won’t be any more 7-0 VGK victories over this team.
Indeed, the first two periods of the game were playoff-like, with tight checking and the Avs having control of the puck and the tempo. The third period, however, was wide open game and our guys were very aggressive with the puck and getting their defenseman into the play. Vegas had 40 shots total, 22 of which came from the defense. Shea Theodore was really joining in on the rush and he had a season team high of eight shots on net.
Vegas’ lone goal of the game that tied it up at 1-1 was scored by Jonathan Marchessault 1:15 into the third period; it was his 24th. He took a Shea Theodore pass just inside of his defensive blue line, skated the length of the ice, and made a nice shoulder drop fake that allowed him to skate around the defenseman and snap a high shot over Semyon Varlamov, the Avs’ goalie, for the only shot of the 34 he faced that Varlamov let in.
What made Marchessault’s goal even larger was that just 20 seconds into the third period, Gabriel Landeskog broke in alone on Fleury; a goal there would have made the score 2-0 and a VGK comeback even more difficult as they were not getting a lot of quality chances on Varlamov. Fleury stoned Landeskog and 55 seconds later, Vegas tied the score.
Marchessault with that goal has a four-game point streak going with 2 goals in 3 games and 2 assists.
Colorado was 32-2-2 when entering the 3rd period with a lead and 33-7-3 when scoring first.
Colorado has been one of the league’s surprises and they’re being overlooked because of the success with the VGK. Last year, Colorado registered a mere 22 wins for the entire season; this year they already have 41 with 6 games remaining. Last season they were outscored by 111 goals; this year they are +21 in goal differential.
If, in fact, Vegas draws Colorado during the first round or in a later round, the series will be anything but a cake walk. Of course, no one has ever said that winning the Stanley Cup is a cake walk.
There was no scoring in the 5-minute OT period and the only goal scored in the shootout came on Colorado’s final attempt of the 3 that each team is allotted. It was scored by Landeskog, whom Fleury had robbed early in the 3rd period.
These two teams are back at it again in a back-to back-matchup on Monday at T-Mobile, 7 p.m. Pacific Time.
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