Knights on Ice — A New Look, A New Beginning

Last night was the real beginning of the Pete DeBoer era as the head coach of the VGK. During the All Star Break and the off week, PDB had time to add a new assistant coach in Steve Spott, who spent time with PDB in San Jose. Before you lose your lunch with yet another member of the Sharks added to the VGK coaching staff, this move helps in getting the new message and a few new wrinkles to the players in an orderly fashion — one coach trying to get his game plan moving forward is easier with multiple voices on the roster. One of the new wrinkles paid dividends quickly: Paul Stastny centering a line with Reilly Smith and Jonathan Marchessault in the VGK 4-3 win over the Carolina Hurricanes.

The newly formed line of 19-26-81 combined for 6 points total with Smith having 2 assists and both Marchy and Stastny having 1 goal and 1 assist each. They also created a lot of offensive-zone time, which had Carolina on their heels, with 12 shots of the 37 that the VGK put on Petr Mrazek, the Carolina goaltender.

A few of the VGK referred to this break as a time to hit the reset button and focus on the 30 games left on the schedule. Well, including last night’s game, of the 30 teams the VGK will face to close out the season, only 4 have a winning percentage of less than .500.

So the sprint to the playoffs will not be an easy road, but considering the log jam in the Pacific Division, if the VGK take care of their own business and don’t rely on other teams to lose, they have enough talent to make one of the top 3 spots in the Pacific a reality and not a dream.

Even though it’s a very small sample (four games), the slow starts that toward the end of the Gallant era were a problem seem to be a thing of the past. The VGK have scored on their very first shot in 3 of the last 4 games.

The reset button seemed to help both Alex Tuch and Nate Schmidt. Tuch’s power-play goal was his first goal since Dec. 31; it was also the winning goal as it was scored just 1:11 after Carolina had tied the score with just 3:39 left in the game on a power-play goal also. Nate Schmidt’s goal, which extended the VGK lead to 3-1, was his first in the last 12 games.

The one point that needs to be addressed is Vegas blew a 2-goal lead twice last night at 2-0 and at 3-1. Just 16 seconds after Nate Schmidt’s goal, Carolina’s Brock McGinn scored to trim the lead to 3-2. Then Sebastian Aho scored late in the 3^rd period. But the game-winner for Tuch came off a pretty redirect from Paul Stastny just 70 seconds after Carolina scored to tie the game.

Part of the new look was Jon Merrill being inserted back into the lineup and playing with Deryk Engelland. Engelland and Merrill were on the ice for both of the 5-on-5 goals scored by Carolina. Merrill was a healthy scratch 4 games in a row and 7 of the last 8. The pair had a rough night on the back end, but the defensive duo of McNabb and Schmidt were lights out; they both were +3 for the night. McNabb was solid on defense and made a nice play late in the game against Jordan Staal, preventing him from getting a quality scoring chance against Subban.

Subban was making his first start since Jan. 9 vs. the L.A. Kings in a game he lost 5-2. Subban seems to play well if he’s getting playing time, but he was playing for the first time in 21 days. Still, he was solid in the net, making a point-blank save very early in the game, which he seemed to use in gaining confidence. Then he made a spectacular save on Sebastian Aho when he went post to post to deny Aho, who had a wide open net before Subban with cat-like reflexes slid from the right post to the left to deny Aho early in the 2^nd period while Carolina was on the power play.

Post-game Subban said, “I think I heard him call for it. “You don’t want to cheat, so I tried to stay square if Hurricane’s forward Justin Williams passed it and then made a move.”

A video of Subban’s save is included at the end of this blog.

Last night was the first time the VGK have faced former Misfit Erik Haula, who was traded to Carolina on June 27. Haula has gone 10 games without scoring a goal. In his 31 games played this year with Carolina, he has 11 goals and 8 assists. In his last full season with VGK in 2017-18, Haula had 29 goals and 26 assists in 76 games. We all know that Haula’s 2018-2019 season ended with a devastating leg injury against Toronto just 15 games in. Haula had 2 goals and 5 assists in the 15 games he played in before his career ended with the VGK.

Not sure what to make of this, but after the game, defenseman Zach Whitecloud was called up to join the team in Nashville. Does this mean Merrill returns to the press box? Or was there an injury to a defenseman last night? We’ll know in a few hours, as the VGK have a back-to-back game vs. Nashville tonight at 5 p.m.

My 3 (and-a-half) Stars of the Game: Stastny (1G, 1A), Marchessault (1G, 1A) Subban (even though he had to make only 22 saves on the 25 shots he faced, he made 2 saves that were spectacular) and Nate Schmidt (1G and +3).

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Subban’s save against Aho