Knights on Ice — The Save

Last night, 18,292 were in attendance for the Vegas Golden Knights’ 4-2 victory over the Toronto Maple Leafs at T-Mobile.

Last night, many of the 18,292 witnessed the most incredible save they’ve ever seen or for that matter may ever see. I’m not sure exactly how many live NHL games I’ve attended, but I know it’s in excess of 2,000, and I can say that the save Marc-Andre Fleury made with just 3:43 left in the game with the score 3-2 was the best I’ve ever seen while in attendance at any hockey game at any level.

“Yeah, he’s pretty incredible when he makes saves like that,” Coach Gallant said in his post-game presser. “It was 3-2 at the time, it was a huge save obviously, but as a coach, you kind of expect that from him. He’s acrobatic and he never gives up on the puck.”

I’ve included a video and a picture of the save.

While covering a team, the proper protocol is to remain neutral and never show any emotion or even dare to have a rooting interest externally. But I literally jumped out of my seat in the press box in disbelief of what I just witnessed. I felt somewhat ashamed at not being able to contain my hockey emotions — until I looked over 3 seats to my right to see Lindsey Brown from CBS Sports radio 1140 standing with her hands on her head in amazement. For those who don’t know, Lindsey is a goaltender who played college hockey in Minnesota. She knows her hockey and knew what we all saw was a moment that will be special not only for her, but for all goaltenders past and present, along with all of the 18,292 fans in attendance.

Lindsey’s show can be heard from 3 to 6 p.m. Monday to Friday on CBS sports radio. If you get a chance, tune in; you won’t be disappointed. This lady knows her hockey. But like me, we seem to have a problem staying in our seats. 🙂

Back to the game, which saw 2 teams going in opposite directions. Vegas has had a few speed bumps during the previous few games, but has rebounded with 2 straight wins for the first time since Oct. 17-19. Toronto is now 0-5-1 in their last 6 games. Their last victory was back on Nov. 7 when they beat the VGK 2-1 in overtime with a goal by John Tavares after Max Pacioretty scored in the 3^rd period to give Vegas the lead. Auston Matthews scored a power-play goal to tie the score in the 3^rd period, which set the stage for Tavares’ winning goal in OT.

Last night was almost a carbon copy of that first game. The first period ended scoreless. The second period saw Cody Glass finally putting a puck past Frederik Anderson on the 20^th shot that Anderson faced. It was Cody’s 4^th goal of the season and his first power-play goal. It was just a tap-in; Max Pacioretty’s shot was stopped by Anderson, but it had enough force that it somehow slipped between his pads and came to a stop just shy of crossing the goal line. Glass scored the easiest and shortest goal of his NHL career.

The second period ended with Glass’ goal being the only one to beat either goaltender, despite the 44 shots taken through 2 periods from both teams.

How would Vegas handle the dreaded 3^rd period lead, which has been their Achilles’ heel this season? We knew that the VGK played an excellent game on Sunday vs. Calgary, who were in their own funk, having lost 3 games in a row and scoring only 3 goals in those games before Vegas hung a 6-0 blowout on them.

Well, Toronto turned it up a notch in the 3^rd period. While they had just 17 shots on Fleury in the first 2 periods, they peppered him with 16 shots in the 3^rd.

Toronto is in their own funk and rumors are swirling around about their head coach Mike Babcock’s tenure, but they didn’t roll over and when Jason Spezza scored 7:26 into the third to tie the game at 1-1, I wondered, are we headed for another OT game between these 2 teams?

Tomas Nosek has had a seat in the press box 3 of the last 6 games and totally miffed a breakaway in the first period when the puck slipped off his stick and he didn’t even get a shot off on Anderson. Well, Nosek had a reprieve when, just 42 seconds after Spezza’s tying goal, he headed off on another breakaway after stripping the puck from Tyson Barrie in the neutral zone. This time he went to his backhand to beat Anderson on his glove side. It was Nosek’s 4^th goal of the season and his first in 15 games, and it reestablished the lead for Vegas at 2-1.

Mark Stone, who broke his goal slump Sunday vs. Calgary, added a power-play goal 2:14 after Nosek’s goal to increase the lead to 3-1. But just 2:25 after Stone’s goal and Ryan Reaves in the penalty box for slashing, Zach Hyman scored a power-play goal to bring the score back to 3-2 and now we had a hockey game going.

The stage was set.

With just 3:43 left in the game, Fleury made a save that will be shown over and over again, just like William Karlsson’s between-the-legs shorthanded goal vs. San Jose on March 31, 2018, is shown to the fans at T-Mobile before every game. That goal was not only the winning goal of the game, but it just happened to be the game where the VGK clinched the Pacific Division in their inaugural season.

Fleury’s save would have been the perfect way for the game to end. But this is Vegas, baby, the Entertainment Capital of the World. Buckle up!

Toronto pulled Anderson 13 seconds later with 3:30 left in the game — a desperate move by a coach who’s maybe trying to save his job. And when Brayden McNabb took a slashing penalty just 10 seconds later, it appeared the VGK would be faced with a 6-on-4 for the next 2 minutes. Then, Mike Babcock put Anderson back in the vacated net to go with a 5-on-4 in an attempt to tie up the game. Toronto at that point had already scored 1 goal on their previous power play and Babcock thought he could roll the dice with 3:20 still left; he could pull Anderson if they didn’t score a PPG and still have 1:20 remaining.

Brayden McNabb is the defenseman who kills the penalties with Deryk Engelland, so things got interesting real quick as Brayden served out his 2-minute penalty. That may have played into Babcock’s decision to play it straight and not pull Anderson.

The VGK did kill the 2-minute penalty and Babcock did get the extra skater on after the penalty expired, but to no avail. Fleury not only stood tall, he was also airborne, along with looking like Spider Man, in keeping Toronto off the scoreboard and sealing a well-earned and much-needed win for the Knights, who seem to have regained the home-ice advantage they enjoyed the first 2 seasons.

Another save made at T-Mobile didn’t make me jump out of my seat, but it did make my head disappear into my hands in disbelief. It was the save made on Alex Tuch in game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final by Braden Holtby.

Cody Eakin, who didn’t score a goal in the first 21 games, scored with 21 seconds left— numerology, I guess. He’s now scored 2 goals in the last 2 games. Granted, his goal last night was an empty-netter to close the game at 4-2. But it’s still a goal and I’m sure 3 weeks from now, very few will remember that the net was vacant.

Speaking of numbers coming together, how about this for irony? On Sunday, the movie Valiant was shown before the game, which honored the 58 souls lost on Oct. 1, 2017. Fleury recorded his 58^th shutout. 58 Angels?

My 3 Stars of the Game: The Flower (The Save), Cody Glass (1 PPG, 1A), Tomas Nosek (timely goal to regain the lead just 42 seconds after Toronto tied the game).

Things will be interesting as the San Jose Sharks come to T-Mobile on Thursday at 7 p.m. Who will put their hands on Evander Kane first? Ryan Reaves or the marker-collection department for the Cosmopolitan?

Media credentials aren’t easy to obtain, but I want to thank Alyssa G. from the VGK communications department for issuing Eddie Rivkin’s credentials for last night’s game. Following are his thoughts and opinions from the game. We don’t compare posts before they’re submitted and they’re written separately. I hope you enjoy two different versions of what we observed.

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

Voices Inside My Head

by Eddie Rivkin                                                                                 

Normally, if you read a phrase like the one in the title, it has to do with mental illness or perhaps it’s your conscience trying to tell you something. In this case, it’s something completely different: an incredible memory I had at last night’s game thanks to my good friend Joe Pane.

If you’ve read anything I’ve written since the beginning of the season, you know that Joe covers the game from the press box and I write from the comfort of the recliner part of my couch. Well, last night Joe and I sat next to each other and watched the VGK defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs in front of a mixed bag of 18,292 fans at T-Mobile.

It was my first time ever as a credentialed member of the media and a night I will remember for the rest of my days.

Joe and I chatted throughout the game and both jumped out of our seats for “The Save,” but we didn’t discuss what we were going to write about.

A completely unexpected treat is the reason for the title of this article. Allow me to explain.

As a youngster growing up in Detroit and playing hockey, most of my Saturday nights were spent watching Hockey Night in Canada on Channel 9. I got spoiled by the incredibly knowledgeable Canadian announcers week after week, year after year. Well, last night the CBC, I mean TSN, announce team was literally right behind me calling the game. For the entire game, I was treated to an incredible trip down Memory Lane listening and remembering my youth.

Now onto the game. Here’s the recap and a few takeaways from last night’s win (in no particular order).

The first period was tight checking, choppy, and not very entertaining to watch. Exactly how Coach Gallant liked it. He said as much in the post-game presser. The VGK outshot the Leafs 10-9, but there weren’t any real 10 Bell scoring chances either way. The VGK seemed to find their legs in the last three minutes of the period when they started to carry the play to the Leafs.

The second period was all VGK. Their speed and forecheck forced the Leafs into repeated D-zone turnovers. One of those sloppy plays led to the first power play of the night, which the VGK capitalized on. Cody Glass, who has been struggling lately, tapped in the rebound after Max Pacioretty blasted a shot through Fredrick Anderson that dropped right into the crease. It was Glass’ first goal since Halloween. The VGK outshot the Leafs 17-8. Though it was a dominant period, there were still a couple or three troublesome lapses in the D zone that left the VGK scrambling and reeling. It was either a simple case of bad decision-making or bad coverage. The VGK will definitely be breaking down that film looking for ways to improve.

All of a sudden in the third period, the game went from tight checking to a wide-open freewheeling affair with the Leafs putting on a serious push to tie the game. They’d tied it up at 1-1 when Jason Spezza launched a rocket over the Flower’s glove from the right circle. Now we were faced with the Big Question: Will the VGK crumble and revert to the bad play during the losing streak and blow a lead in the third period or respond? The answer was, overwhelmingly, respond.

Tomas Nosek, who fanned on a clean breakaway earlier in the game, made no mistake with his second chance. After stripping the puck from a Toronto D man, Nosek skated alone and beat Anderson with a beautiful backhand to make it 2-1. The goal came 42 seconds after the Leafs tied it at one. Mark Stone extended the lead to 3-1 on the power play just over two minutes later, on a beautiful set up from Cody Glass. Stone’s wrister beat Anderson high glove just under the bar. The back and forth continued when Ryan Reaves took the first penalty of the night for the VGK and Zach Hyman scored his first of the year to cut the lead to 3-2.

With Toronto buzzing again to tie, then came THE SAVE. No words need be typed to describe it. Just watch the video below and see for yourself. It was such a sure goal that the scoreboard actually changed to 3-3. I guess the scoreboard operator figured it was going in. I’m sure most of the 18,292 thought so too.

With that crisis averted and an empty net, Cody Eakin closed the show with his second goal in two games. The VGK were outshot 16-10 in the period, but you don’t get points for winning the SOG.

Takeaway One
The VGK seem to have righted the ship after the losing streak.

Takeaway Two

There are still some real issues with the VGK D Corp. Last night, Derek Engelland was a warrior. He came up huge on the PK, blocking shots and breaking up passes on the very dangerous Maple Leaf PP. But he was also beaten by the sheer speed of the Leafs on numerous occasions that led to scoring chances.

Takeaway Three

The D Corp still needs to improve their decision-making on pinching in the offensive zone. As much as Coach Gallant wants them to be aggressive, their decision-making has caused a large number of transition opportunities and odd-man rushes against.

Takeaway Four
The Flower is one of four goalies in the NHL that has all of his team’s wins. This is a very bad sign. He cannot play 60+ games this year if the VGK have any hopes of a deep playoff run. Though the team line is that they have complete confidence in Malcolm Subban, I just don’t think they can, and I don’t think he’s a viable solution. I don’t know the answer, but I don’t think he’s going to get enough starts and earn enough wins.

My 3 Stars: Marc Andre Fleury, Tomas Nosek, Cody Glass

Next up: VGK enemy number one, Evander Kane and the Sharks visit the Fortress Thursday night.

My prediction: If the VGK get off to their usual fast start against the baby Sharks, Reavo and Kane will meet at center ice and justice will be meted out accordingly. If the game is tight, there won’t be a fight until and unless the game gets out of hand. The two points are more important than a Kane beatdown and Reavo and the VGK know it.

I cannot thank Joe enough for the opportunity to be a part of the media, watch the game with him from the press box, and do all the post-game interviews. It’s an experience I will never forget.

The link to The Save