Knights on Ice — Anyone Ready for a Bag Skate?

Before I explain or get into the details of what a “bag skate” is, let me just say that after last night’s embarrassing performance by the VGK in the 5-2 loss to the last-place L.A. Kings at T-Mobile in front of 18,281, a bag skate may be considered by Coach Gallant and no one could question him, not even the 19 players who played last night.

Over the last 2-1/2 years, the VGK have played 211 regular-season games and 27 playoff games and I’ve seen them all. But I’ve never seen Coach Gallant as livid as he was last night. He came close to throwing his entire team under the bus. It was his use of the word (“embarrassing”) and not mine to describe last night’s unexplained and baffling performance.

How did a team with this much talent play the first 20 minutes of last night’s game as they did? Especially when you watch their performance in the last 40 minutes of the game, where the Kings were held to 5 shots on Malcolm Subban — the total shots for the 2^nd and 3^rd periods combined. Granted, L.A. might have sat back a bit with a 4-0 lead after 20 minutes. But when the VGK turned it up and played their game, they closed the 4-0 lead to 4-2 on goals in the 2^nd period by Reilly Smith and Max Pacioretty in a matter of 56 seconds. Pacioretty’s goal was his 20^th, which leads the team, while Smith’s 18 goals rank second.

These 2 goals teased the crowd into thinking they could once again overcome a no-show performance in the first 20 to play only the last 40. It worked miraculously against St. Louis, but they came up short vs. Pittsburgh on Tuesday and once again last night vs. the Kings.

This was a team that at one point in this season was blowing opponents away in the first periods and led the entire NHL in goals scored in the first period. They’ve now given up the first goal in 4 straight games and 10 first-period goals in the last 3 games. To quote Coach Gallant, “Same old story, isn’t it?”

Jack Campbell, the Kings’ goaltender, made a season-high 44 saves. Campbell is 2-1-0 with a goals-against-average of 1.33 against Vegas, with all of his starts on the road. He’s made at least 40 saves in each of those games, including 41 in his first NHL win on Feb. 27, 2018. When you hear goaltending and the L.A. Kings, you immediately think Jonathan Quick, the 2-time Stanley Cup winner, but Jack Campbell was the star of the game last night as he turned away 44 of the 46 VGK shots that he faced. He was the reason Vegas almost got away with only playing 40 minutes of the 60 minutes.

To say Campbell outplayed Subban is a no-brainer. Subban looked uncomfortable and appeared to have no confidence in his ability to stop the puck. The first 2 goals he gave up, 1:21 apart in the first period, were ones he should have stopped. The 5^th and final goal scored with 9 seconds left in the game was directly off a faceoff that any one of the 18,281 could have stopped; it literally rolled between his legs. If he had his stick on the ice like the 18,281 would have had, it does not go in. But truth be told, that was a poetic ending to this game.

Jack Campbell had this to say after the game. “You don’t have to get amped. You’re in Vegas. It’s showtime. It’s pretty fun to play here and be in this city, and the fans they have and the team they have. You don’t have to try to psyche yourself up. It’s just such a fun place to play.”

It may have been fun for the Kings and Campbell, but trust me, it was no fun for the VGK players and their coaching staff

Which brings us to the explanation of the title.

For years coaches have used the so-called “bag skate” as a method of punishing a team or getting the attention of the players when they suspect the team isn’t making a good effort in games or practices. It’s a special exercise in which players skate hard until the coach believes he has made his point. It might be a short lesson after a game or at the end of a practice. Or it might be the whole practice itself.

A bag skate can take many forms — skating laps, sprinting from one goal line to the other and back, or sprinting across the rink and back. But one of the most commonly used bag skates is what some might call “lines” or “suicides,” where the players skate to the blue line and back, followed by the red line, the far blue line, and the far goal line.

Bag skates are usually used only in the early portion of the season before a team’s legs are tired and the grind of the season has worn them down. Sometimes the coach will hold a bag skate to build unity among his players, impose discipline on a team that hasn’t been making a good effort, or help his team out of a funk. One thing’s for sure: Players hate bag skates and fewer coaches are using them.

It’s not clear exactly where the term came from, although one theory holds that it refers to the players skating off a piece of their male anatomy. But the explanation that gets the most support in online hockey communities and around rinks refers to players arriving at the rink, only to find the pucks still in the bag, suggesting their practice will be about skating, and lots of it.

In this day and age and at this level, I don’t really believe Gallant would use this method. He could lose the team if he did. These players are professionals. They know their last 3 first periods are unacceptable. But one would think it would only take one of these to shake up the core of this team. It’s now has happened 3 games in a row.

If you haven’t noticed, the line of Karlsson and Smith is really missing the heart and soul that Jonathan Marchessault brings game in and game out.

The once first-place VGK are not sitting so lofty at the top of the Pacific Division any longer and if you look at the current standings, they’re back to a fight for their playoff lives:

Arizona 54 points, 46 games played

VGK 54 points, 47 games played

Edmonton 53 points, 46 games played

Calgary 53 points, 46 games played

Vancouver 50 points, 44 games played

It’s very close and if Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver win their games in hand, Vegas is in trouble playoff wise.

To say that their next game, Saturday night at 7 p.m., vs. Columbus, is a must-win is not a stretch. The 4-game winning streak is now gone and the high expectations of the 7-game home stand is now a potential disaster if they were to lose the last 3 games.

Post game, I tried to get Gallant to say that he could take something positive out of last night’s game in the way the team turned up the tempo in the last 2 periods. He wasn’t having any of that. You can see his exact response to my question in Gallant Part 3 video at the very bottom end of this post.

My 3 Stars of the Game: Jack Campbell (43 saves on 45 shots), Adrian Kempe (2 goals), Tyler Toffoli (1 goal, 1 assist)

Your comments and opinions are welcome here at Las Vegas Advisor or you can contact me directly at [email protected] or at my Facebook Page or the Facebook Page of Vegas Hockey Guy.