Knights on Ice — Theodore Part Deux, Produced by Fleury

Last night, the VGK once again beat the Chicago Blackhawks. The final score was 2-1 in a shootout. It was the seventh win over the Blackhawks in seven tries. Yes, the Blackhawks remain the only team in the NHL that have never beaten the VGK. They’ve managed to get to the OT and shootout portion in two of the 7 games. In both of the games that took more than 60 minutes to complete, Shea Theodore scored the goals to end them.

On Jan. 12, 2019, Theodore scored on his backhand at the 1:19 mark during overtime to win the game 4-3, allowing VGK to come back from 2 goals behind twice, once at 2-0 and again at 3-1.

https://www.nhl.com/news/vegas-golden-knights-chicago-blackhawks-game-recap/c-303812200

Last night’s winning goal was also off of the stick of Shea Theodore, but unlike last season, this game went to a shootout. Once again, Theodore scored on his backhand to beat Robin Lehner, who was a beast in the net for the Blackhawks, stopping 33 of the 34 shots he faced. On any other night against any other goaltender, Lehner is rewarded with a well-deserved win. Except the goalie 180 feet away was Marc-André Fleury, who once again made you rub your eyes in disbelief; he’s the best I’ve ever seen him play — and remember, I saw a lot of his games as a Penguin when he played in the east where I earned my bones in watching hockey games from October till June every year.

Fleury was the only reason this game remained close and after allowing the lone Blackhawk goal by Kirby Dach, the first of his career, with 3:45 left in the first period, that was the end of goals that got behind Fleury; he stopped the other 31 shots he faced. A few were spectacular and once again, some were made while Fleury was missing parts of his equipment. Fleury was the reason that Shea Theodore scored the winning goal in the shootout.

As VGK fans, you’re being treated to watching a future Hockey Hall of Fame inductee, who is now playing the best he has ever played and this is at the age of 34. It really is a treat, but it comes with a red flag: There currently isn’t a reliable backup for the Flower. We had the same situation last season when the coaching staff had no choice but to rest Fleury toward the end of the season and settling for 3^rd place in the Pacific, which came into play as Game 7 vs. San Jose was on the road because of finishing 3^rd instead of 2^nd.

I don’t see a solution to this problem anytime soon. Fleury has played in 10 of the VGK’s first 11 games. He’s faced the most shots of any goaltender in the league. The only positive side is that he has the most wins in the league. But that’s not the ultimate goal of this team. Yes, wins are, but at what cost? No team is going to part with a goaltender to help the Knights become an even stronger team than they already are. If Subban can’t stay healthy, who does the team turn to?

I was of the opinion in the past that if there’s a weak link on this team, it’s on defense after the first pair of defensemen, but now I’m concerned that Fleury’s lack of a backup is the real weak link here.

The return of Schmidt and Tuch, which may be sooner than expected, will solidify the current problem of moving the puck out of danger, especially in their defensive zone, and re-establishing a strong forecheck beyond the 4^th line. The current workload is showing up big time with Brayden McNabb, who has taken 11 penalties in the team’s first 11 games. There’s a rumor that they will be considering changing the Ed Bernstein Penalty Kill announcement at T-Mobile to the Brayden McNabb Penalty Kill. Defensemen take penalties; I understand that. But the ones McNabb is being whistled for are lazy-stick penalties, which are caused when he’s being beaten by the opposing forward’s speed.

The line juggling was once again in place last night, as the offense of the VGK is in a stall mode currently. Gallant continues to tinker with the forwards. He moved Pirri down to the 4^th line and Carrier up to the 3^rd. He’s even tinkered with the 1A and 1B lines. Even though Marchy (2G) and Karlsson (1G) aren’t scoring goals as they were expected to, their play away from the puck has been strong. Reilly Smith is on fire, with a team-leading 7 goals, and his newfound speed is creating a lot of odd-man rushes, with at least 4 breakaways in the last 2 games.

Mark Stone extended his 7-game point streak by setting up Nick Holden’s goal with just 1:33 left in the 3^rd period with Fleury on the bench for the extra skater. Stone has 8 points in this 7-game point streak (4G, 4A). Paul Stastny quietly has registered 8 points in the past 7 games (4G, 4A)

Kudos to Coach Gallant for going with his gut feeling on picking the players for the shootout. Vegas has 2 victories in the shootouts this season and prior to the Ottawa game, Marchessault was 1 for 10 in shootouts before he won the game. Last night, he went back to Marchessault, even though he was just 2 for 11, and Marchy rewarded him with scoring a wicked snap shot over Lehner’s shoulder, which allowed Theodore’s goal to end the shootout.

Gallant, who normally rolls 4 lines all game, has been using 7 forwards a lot more over the last 2 games: Stone had 23 minutes of ice time; Karlsson, Pacioretty, and Marchessault 21; Smith 20; Eakin and Stastny 17.

My 3 Stars of the Game: the Flower, Robin Lehner, Coach Gallant (for his flexibility in moving his lines around to try to create energy and offense, and having a crystal ball with his shootout selections).

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

Consistently Inconsistent

by Eddie Rivkin                                                                    

“I thought tonight was the best game we played all year.”

“Tonight was the worst defensive game this year for sure, and last year.”

“I didn’t like the way we started again tonight, but after that, we played a pretty good hockey game.”

With no context, you’d think these are quotes by someone suffering from Bi-Polar Disorder.

In fact, all three are quotes from Coach Gallant. One from each game of the road trip: Pittsburgh, Philadelphia, and Chicago, in that order.

If you’re a VGK fan, you would say this pretty much sums up the 3-game road trip just completed by stealing two points in Chicago with a 2-1 shootout win.

The VGK improved to 7-0-0 all-time against the Blackhawks, outscoring them 31-18.

For the second year in a row, Shea Theodore was the dagger that ended the Blackhawks. Seems the Hawks didn’t do their film study, as Theodore beat Robin Lehner with the exact same move in the shootout that he used last week against Ottawa.

It’s very hard to argue with two points, but there were a lot of issues for the VGK in the first two periods. And in what’s becoming a Department of Redundancy Department regular event, the Flower absolutely kept the VGK in the game with far too many 10-bell saves.

On the offensive side of the puck, the VGK were outshot, out-chanced, out just about everything. On the defensive side of the puck, in a rarity, the Hawks blocked a boatload more shots than the VGK, making Robin Lehner’s evening much easier than Flower’s.

In the 3^rd, the VGK get their legs moving and got back to playing VGK hockey, totally dominating the Hawks. This time, it was Lehner keeping his team in the game and the VGK off the score sheet. Well, until the 18:27 mark, when, with Flower on the bench for the extra attacker, Nic Holden found Lehner’s five hole on a perfect cross-seam pass from Mark Stone. And off to OT we went.

The VGK landed the only two shots in a pretty entertaining OT.

In the shootout, Jonathan Toews opened the scoring. Marchessault evened it up in the bottom of the second and Theodore closed show in the bottom of the third.

My 3 Stars: the Flower (31 saves on 32 shots), Robin Lehner (33 saves on 34 shots), Nic Holden (GWG/3 hits)

From the couch:

Coach Gallant broke out the Line Blender again to start the game, juggling all four lines. Not sure if he was sending a message of displeasure over the Flyer game or he liked something he saw; other than the four goals they gave up in the second period? The Blender was turned down to half speed in the second when Coach returned the top 2 lines to normal.

Last night’s game was a lot like running in deep mud. It looked like the VGK just couldn’t get going for the first two periods. It wasn’t anything the Hawks did. It was more that nothing the VGK did was crisp. Could be three games in four nights or the second night of a back-to-back. Whatever it was, it wasn’t easy to watch.

Next up: a Nevada Day matinee against the Colorado Avalanche this Friday. Puck drop is at 3 pm.

Your thoughts and comments are appreciated. Let Joe and me know what you think!

Here’s the link the video of the game recap.