Last night, the Vegas Golden Knights returned to the ice after being off for eight days and it showed. In a very unKnight-like performance, their play was sloppy in all areas of the ice in the 5-2 loss to the Hurricanes in Carolina. It was also their third loss in a row and the fifth in the last seven games.
Vegas is still in a comfortable playoff position in the Pacific Division, but their lackluster effort last night wasted a golden opportunity to close the nine-point differential between the VGK and division-leading Calgary, who also lost last night to the Washington Capitals.
The Knights were guilty of not playing a full 60-minute game. Nate Schmidt wasn’t shy about making that point in his post-game interview. “We played pretty good for the first twenty minutes of the game and that’s about it.”
Even Coach Gallant, who doesn’t make a habit of pointing fingers toward his players, said, “We didn’t play good enough to win, bottom line. [The Hurricanes] were the better team.”
In their last three losses, the VGK actually led all three games 1-0 before the ice began to crack beneath them. It seems like a lack of focus is currently bogging down their mental state. After Shea Theodore opened the scoring with a power-play goal, his seventh, Vegas seemed to lose concentration and went more than 10 minutes without any additional shots on Petr Mrazek, Carolina’s goaltender, who saved 23 of the 25 shots that he faced.
Without making any excuses about last night’s loss, the Karlsson line saw Reilly Smith’s return to the lineup, which then left Coach Gallant with a decision as to what to do with Brandon Pirri, who was playing in Smith’s spot. Gallant created a new third line of Pirri, Eakin, and Zykov, which wasn’t effective at all; neither Eakin nor Zykov registered a shot on net. Pirri ended the night with 3 SOG. The reunited #1 line of Karlsson, Marchessault, and Smith was a -8 overall, with both Marchessault and Karlsson -3 each.
All 18 VGK skaters showed only one player with a + rating for the game and that was Deryk Engelland at +1.
Max Lagacé played last night in place of Fleury, who’s expected to play in today’s back-to-back game against the Panthers in Florida. Lagacé, who was shaky at best, gave up a few goals that I’m sure he wants back. One was early in the second period with the score tied at 1-1. When Max attempted to poke check the puck in front of his net, he wound up 15 feet out of the crease and on his knees. The mishandled poke check found three Carolina players behind him and standing in front of the unguarded net when the puck wound up on the stick of Brett Pesce. Pesce was 25 feet in front of the net with Max at his mercy; he quickly deposited the puck behind the VGK goalie to push Carolina ahead by a score of 2-1.
Shea Theodore scored his second goal of the game and his eighth of the year to tie the score at 2-2. It was Theodore’s second two-goal game of the season. He leads all VGK defensemen in goals.
That was as close as the VGK came to keeping this game close; Carolina scored the next three goals. The last was fired into an empty net from 190 feet away — almost the entire length of the ice.
Paul Stastny continued his six-game scoring streak when he picked up an assist on Theodore’s first goal. Stastny has one goal and seven assists during this streak.
Alex Tuch led the VGK last night with 5 SOG.
My 3 Stars of the Game: Justin Faulk (1 goal, 1 assist, and a +5), Justin Williams (2 assists and a +3), Shea Theodore (2 goals, his 7th and 8th)
Next game is today at 4 p.m. Pacific Time vs. Florida Panthers.
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Comment submitted by a reader
It looked like we gave the 2 points away before the game even started #uglyshow
Joe Pane, every time I read your comments I come away with some validation for the things I see our team do or more importantly not do on the ice. As compared to last year there seems to be a lack of constant urgency to win. The number of full 60 minute efforts is not that big. Once again sloppy play and being out played physically and mentally cost us. In goal I couldn’t agree with you more. Max did not look like and NHL goalie last night. Too many costly errors. And lastly if our first line doesn’t show up really strong really soon I predict one and out in the playoffs. I don’t see a coaching issue I see and team that needs to get an attitude in the room and carry it out on the ice
Dow you make valid points about what this years team is lacking. They have never had a complete healthy roster from their very first game and their injuries seem to overlay each other.tnat in my opinion is a big part of their current problem. I do believe that catching Calgary maybe a moot point now but staying ahead of Vancouver for the 3rd spot in the Pacific should be their focus right now.
Joe, do you travel at all while covering the team? My wife and I will be at the VGK@DET game on Feb 7 and would love to say hi. A real conundrum we have, our home-town team vs. our adopted team. Looks like we’ll be rooting for every goal and let the chips fall where they may.
Terry I have traveled with the team before but as of now I do not have plans to be in Detroit for that game . I do appreciate you taking the time to read my reports on the games. If you ever find yourself in Las Vegas please reach out to me. It would be my pleasure to meet you both. You can contact me at [email protected]