Knights on Ice — What’s Wrong? Where Do I Begin?

Is it injuries, the dismal power play, the lack of scoring contributions from the VGK defensemen? Is it the absence of Nate Schmidt and not having a shutdown defenseman? Is it the lack of scoring from the entire team? Is it that for the last two games, Vegas seemed interested in playing VGK hockey only in the third period?

All or some combination of this this sent Vegas to its second straight loss at T-Mobile by a score of 3-2 to the Tampa Bay LIghtning. Their record is now 4-5-1 after 10 games.

Marc-André Fleury can do only so much. As much as we might like to believe he’s superhuman, he’s a mere mortal like the rest of us. So when you score only 22 goals in the first 10 games, you’re requiring Fleury to be close to perfect every night.

Yesterday afternoon, Vegas scored only two goals for the seventh time in 10 games; one of those games, against the Flyers, ended on a score of 1-0 — a game that Fleury stole all by himself.

Last season is a long-forgotten memory, but just for comparison purposes, in the first 10 games of 2017-18, the VGK scored 37 goals, against 25 opposing goals. This season, the opposition has scored 27 goals, almost the same.

The VGK have scored 15 less goals in the first 10 games, an average of 1.5 goals less per game than last year.

Yesterday’s loss marked the third at home this season. Last year, the Knights didn’t lose their third home game until Dec. 12, 30 games into the season.

The lack of scoring also forced Coach Gallant to challenge an offsides call that happened while Tampa Bay was on the power play. If he’s wrong, the goal counts and Vegas is assessed another two-minute power play for delay of game. So when JT Miller scored to make it 3-1 on Tampa’s first power play, Gallant was forced to gamble. If not, his team would have to score at least four goals to win the game and that was with Fleury slamming the door on an impressive Tampa Bay offense for the rest of the game. Tampa entered the game with a record of 6-1-1. They have a record of 6-0-1 in their last seven games. They’re the only team in the entire NHL with just 1 loss with 9 games played so far.

The challenge by Gallant was risky and he knew it. Post-game he said, “I don’t think [the challenge] affected the [outcome of the game]. From what I saw, it was a tough call. They weren’t sure themselves. It was worth the gamble at that time.”

Vegas was fortunate to kill the ensuing delay-of-game penalty and only be down 3-1.

Andrei Vasilevskiy, Tampa Bay’s goaltender, was the wall that’s usually Fleury’s job as he stopped almost everything that Vegas fired at him in the third period. At the other end of the ice, Fleury faced a single shot that entire period, a clean breakaway for Ondrej Palat who was denied. The remaining 19:50 of the third seemed to be in front of Andrei Vasilevskiy, who stopped 12 of the Knight’s 13 shots. The only one he didn’t make was a perfect shot by William Karlsson off of a faceoff win for Alex Tuch to the left of Vasilevskiy. The power-play goal was just the VGK’s third PPG in 32 attempts.

We’re used to seeing the VGK’s speed cause other teams to scramble, along with having to chase the game right from the opening faceoff. So far in the first 10 games, that’s been missing. The stretch passes that the VGK defensemen were utilizing to drive opponents crazy are nowhere to be found. The opposition forwards aren’t being challenged and having to fight for ice in the offensive zone.

The line of Bellemare, Carrier, and Reaves has more hits than all the Vegas defensemen, who aren’t taking the body on opposing forwards. All seven defensemen combined for just 69 hits in the first nine games. The Bellemare line had a total of 84. In yesterday’s game, all six VGK defensemen combined for 10 hits on Tampa Bay, while the energy line had 17 hits. The skill of today’s NHL players requires some form of resistance, especially in their offensive zone. Fleury is good, sometimes he’s amazing, but he can only do so much.

To add injury to insult in yesterday’s loss, Max Pacioretty had to leave the ice 4:44 into the first period when he took a high hard hit from Braydon Coburn, who’s listed as six-five, while Max is listed as six-two. The difference in height may have contributed to Coburn’s shoulder smacking into Pacioretty’s face. Max didn’t return. He sustained a severe concussion when he was rammed into the glass by Boston Bruins Zdeno Chara on March 8, 2011. Here is a video clip of that hit.

After that hit, Max didn’t return to play until the following season. Head injuries can be very dangerous and career-threatening. As of now, Pacioretty is listed as day to day.

The entire second line for the VGK has been sidelined throughout these first 10 games. Yesterday was Tuch’s second game of the season. Paul Stastny has played in only three games and now Pacioretty is out. With the lack of scoring so far, this isn’t helping Vegas get the wheels back on the bus.

With Max’s injury, Gallant was forced to juggle lines for the remaining 55 minutes of the game. Ryan Reaves even saw some power-play time, which might have been a first for him.

My 3 Stars of the Game: Andrei Vasilevskiy (29 saves and 12 of 13 in the third period), Shea Theodore (first goal of the season, plus 5 takeaways and 2 blocked shots), and William Karlsson (power-play goal that seemed to spark the team and bring out the energy of the T-Mobile Crowd of 18,207).

Next game is tomorrow at T-Mobile vs. the Ottawa Senators at 5 p.m. Pacific Time
Your comments and opinions are welcome here on Las Vegas Advisor or you can contact me directly at [email protected]

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.