Knights on Ice —VGK Fails To Show Up, or Simply Put By Gallant, “We Weren’t Good Enough”

For only the second time in their brief franchise history, the VGK failed to win Game #1 of the five playoff series in which they’ve have played. The one they lost was against Winnipeg in last year’s Western Conference Final playoffs. Last night’s 5-2 loss to the San Jose Sharks was nothing more than the VGK that we know not showing up.

There was no forecheck to speak of and no determination whatsoever. They lacked passion and became undisciplined in responding to the after-the-whistle scrums that San Jose seemed to want to partake in. There was a parade to the penalty box and San Jose had five power-play chances, scoring on one of them.

The Sharks’ three second-period goals were the story of the game, as two of them were scored just 45 seconds apart. Mark Stone scored the first of his two goals last night less than a minute after the Sharks jumped to a 3-0 lead. Stone’s goal gave a glimmer of hope for Vegas to get back into the game, but then Evander Kane scored with just 18 seconds left in the second period to regain the three-goal lead headed into the third period. Vegas only managed 10 shots on goal through the first two periods.

With that lack of offense, they never challenged Martin Jones, the Sharks goaltender who has been shaky at times, especially against the VGK in both the regular season and the playoffs. He’s been pulled multiple times in games against the VGK. In last year’s second-round playoff against Vegas, he was pulled twice in the six games.

Gallant wasn’t happy about his team’s performance. He admitted post-game that they were outplayed and outskated by a better team. His exact words were, “They played hard and we weren’t good enough. Game Two on Friday has to be better man for man.”

The goal was to win at least one game in San Jose to reclaim home-ice advantage, so there’s no need to panic just yet. We all know that the VGK can play better than they played last night. We heard in the last few games of the season that these were meaningless games and there was no need to panic. Well, last night the VGK showed an effort that appeared to be from a team still playing in a meaningless game.

Friday must be better; Friday has to be better. Teams that win Game 1 of a seven-game series win the series 68.5% of the time. Home teams that win Game 1 of a seven-game series win the series 75.5% of the time. The Sharks are 13-7 all-time when taking a 1-0 lead in a best-of-7 Stanley Cup Playoff series.

Not one VGK player had a plus rating for the game and nine were either -1 or -2 for the game.

Every player needs to be better, including Fleury who gave up four goals on 32 shots for a very unFleury-like .875 save percentage. Last night, Martin Jones was the better goaltender, but a lot had to do with Vegas leaving their hockey sticks back in Las Vegas. They did manage 16 shots in the third period.

Mark Stone may have been the only VGK player who was engaged and focused. He scored both Vegas goals on three shots. One was a power-play goal.

It was a strange game, with a goal scored in a 3-on-3 situation, another in a 4-on-4, and two power-play goals. The first goal of the game was scored off the face of Joe Pavelski.

The Golden Knights and Sharks combined for 83 hits and 56 penalty minutes.

There were also a lot of post-whistle scrums and both Kane and Reaves were issued 10-minute misconducts with just seconds left in the game, but not before they both used their sticks to poke each other high in the chest area before leaving the ice. Kane was on the bench and Reaves had a few choice words for Kane as he was leaving, causing Kane to attempt to come back toward Reaves. As Kane attempted to get at Reaves he was met with the stick blade of Reaves up around his neck. Kane attempted to return the same treatment to Reaves, but was held back.

Expect to continue to see this type of physical engagement from the Sharks. They ran into and bumped Fleury multiple times last night. At the other end of the ice, Martin Jones was pretty much left alone with very little traffic in front of him.

Letting Jones see the shots with no traffic is not a good game plan. Friday night a few things have to change if the VGK have a vision of returning to T-Mobile for Game 3 with the series tied at 1-1.

The first is to establish a forecheck and not let Burns and Karlsson, or for that matter any of their defensemen, freely move the puck out of their defensive zone. The defensemen of the Sharks last night accounted for 6 points with two goals and four assists. Vegas needs to make them earn every inch of the ice.

The second is to take Jones’ eyes away from him by getting traffic in front. Goaltenders at this level and at this time of the year will pretty much stop any pucks they can see from 30 feet out. If the VGK are going to advance to Round 2, dirty greasy goals will be needed, along with keeping the Sharks off the power play.

My 3 Stars of the Game: Brent Burns (1 goal, 1 assist), Marc-Edouard Vlasic (game-winning goal, 1 assist), Mark Stone (2 goals and the only offense Vegas could muster).

Game 2 of the best of 7 is Friday night in San Jose at 7:30 p.m.

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