The VGK had never won a hockey game in Boston, prior to last night’s dominating win over the Boston Bruins at TD Arena by a score of 4-1.
The SPS Line — Stone, Pacioretty, and Stephenson — is just lighting it up and making it all but impossible for head coach Pete DeBoer to even think about replacing Chandler Stephenson at the center position with Jack Eichel when he’s cleared to play.
The SPS line has played only 54 games combined together this season because of injuries to Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty, but in those 54 games, they have scored 69 points among them. Max now is on a 7-game goal streak, establishing a new VGK franchise record and tying this season’s longest goal-scoring streak in the league with Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs.
Chandler Stephenson had a career-high 4 assists on Sunday night vs. Minnesota, then followed that up last night with 3 assists in the first game of this intense road trip, which continues with games against the NJ Devils on Thursday, the NY Rangers on Friday, and the NY Islanders on Sunday afternoon.
In addition to his goal-scoring streak, Pacioretty has now scored at least 2 goals in 4 of the 11 games he has played. Mark Stone also has a 9-game point streak; he picked up 2 assists in last night’s game and has accumulated 4 goals and 11 assists for 15 points in 9 games.
The maligned power play now has scored in 3 consecutive games and in the last 4 VGK road games they have scored 21 goals. Scoring an average of 5+ goals per game, especially on the road, dispels the theory that the first team to score 3 goals wins, because Vegas has had to score more in order to win this season, with some defensive issues and soft goals allowed. Robin Lehner spoke about that following Sunday’s win vs. Minnesota, saying he had to make more saves, after allowing 2 goals that should not have gotten by a goaltender of his skill and ability.
The only goal that got by him last night was a bang-bang play when Taylor Hall stripped the puck from Zach Whitecloud and skated behind the net, forcing Lehner to have to look behind him. Once Hall cleared the back of the net, he sent a tape-to-tape pass to Patrice Bergeron, positioned in front of Lehner. In one swift motion before Lehner could reposition himself, the puck was past Lehner just 21 seconds into the 3rd period. But by that time, the VGK were already leading 4-0 and had the game completely under control.
Vegas scored their first 3 goals on their first 9 shots and all were very different. Shea Theodore opened the scoring with just his 4th goal of the season; his slap shot from the point bounced off Bruin defenseman Derek Forbort’s back to get past Bruins goaltender Jeremy Swayman, who was playing in his 24th NHL game. Max Pacioretty had the second on a breakaway, taking a well-placed headman pass from Chandler Stephenson, Pacioretty had to stretch his left leg back on the blue line to keep from going offsides, then accelerated toward Swayman, slipping the puck between the young goaltender’s pads for the 2-0 lead and the eventual game-winning goal. The final goal of the first period was scored with less than 1 second to go on a shot the billiards legend Willie Mosconi would have admired. Jonathan Marchessault’s shot first hit former VGK player Tomas Nosek’s stick, then hit Bruin defenseman Brandon Carlos’ skate before crossing the goal line.
Max Pacioretty added his second goal that all but put the game away when he took a drop pass from Mark Stone along the right-wing board. Pacioretty drifted toward the middle of the ice as Shea Theodore headed directly toward the front of the net, taking away the eyes of Swayman, who never saw the shot from Pacioretty and VGK were ahead 4-0 after 40 minutes.
Other Game Notes and Quotes.
The SPS line had 10 points on Sunday night and 7 points last night.
Stone and Pacioretty have tied the longest point streak in Vegas history, a record set by Alex Tuch in 2018-19.
With Stephenson’s 7 assists over the last 2 games, he became the first Knight in franchise history with three or more assists in consecutive games.
“I liked our defensive game,” Golden Knights coach Peter DeBoer said. “It was a good start to a tough road trip in a tough building tonight. I liked our game. We’re getting healthy. We’re starting to score on the power play fairly regularly, which is adding about a goal a night, which we didn’t have early in the year.”
With last night’s win, Vegas’ record is now 17-11-0; the VGK have won five of the past six. Coupled with the loss by Edmonton last night to Toronto, the VGK now have sole possession of 3rd place in the Pacific Division and a playoff spot.
My 3 Stars of the Game: Max Pacioretty (2G and the GWG and added to his 7-game goal scoring streak), Chandler Stephenson (3A for 7 assists in his last 2 games a VGK franchise record), Mark Stone (2A and +3 for the game and added to his 9-game point scoring streak)
Next Game is tomorrow vs. NJ Devils at the Prudential Center 4 p.m. Pacific Time
Your comments and opinions are welcome here at Las Vegas Advisor or you may contact me directly at [email protected] or on my Facebook page or the Facebook page of Vegas Hockey Guy or on Twitter @TheRealJoePane
For more VGK content check out the (Hockey Knights in Vegas) Podcast that can be found on YouTube.com or on my Facebook page
One other note: If you’re reading this blog from Facebook or Twitter and would like to access it earlier in the morning before I share it on social media, it’s usually published by 8 a.m. the morning after a game on LasVegasAdvisor.com. What better way is there to enjoy your morning coffee than reading my take on last night’s VGK game.
Pacioretty GWG
Marchessault bank shot and a PPG
The only goal that beat Lehner last night
Pacioretty 2nd goal of the game
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Hey Joe,
I think I´ve seen the last game the VGK play in the rest of my life.😭
They always win when the game isn´t broadcasted in Sweden, just like the game against the Devils.
Against the Rangers they´ll broadcast but the jury is out there for discussing if I should watch it or not.
I don´t like it when I can´t see why they win or lose games.
Your recap is a complement to what I´ve seen on TV and it´s the best recap without a video to be found on the net.
Beating the Bruins away used to be hard but the´ve 7-5-1 at home this year.
DeBoer said the defence was good. How was Lehner playing?
Vegas lost the faceoffs by a big margin. They won 35% in the O-zone and 36% in the D-zone. Bergeron was 79%(!) on his faceoffs last night and the Boston total was 60%. Winning the faceoffs are a big factor in a win.
A reverse of “the luck of the Irish” happened twice. At first as the goal of Theodore went of the back of Forbort and in the goal.
That rising slapper should have hit the glass behind the goal. I´m happy for Theodore unless what I´ve said about him earlier at times.
I´m not a hater but I like it when Forbort is having a bad time. He tried to use Hoglander in Vancouver as a ragdoll, and that´s a bad match-up. Therefore he must be disliked.
The other time of luck was of course the goal Marchy scored. In the sport of “Three-cushion billiards” the swedish player Torbjorn Blomdahl is a real wizard so I know how hard it is to score a goal like Marchy did. It takes years to become as good as Marchy is.😂
Of what I´ve seen, the dividing moments in the game was the great play of Vegas first line.
If they continue their dominance on ice until the OG break, their line should be intact the rest of the season.
The other lines depends on which players the management is going to trade on the next window.
I´m not that good at understanding why players should be traded except for how they play. The maths is not my strong side.
As you´re good at it, I trust your opinion on trade numbers, Joe.
As I´m not watching the game against New Jersey, you can relax and look forward to another win.
I´ll be back watching an not so good old-school fight between Kolesar and Reeves when their teams meet each other on friday.😈😵😨
Kenneth as always, your analysis is good you could for sure take over this blog when I hang up my skates and pen. :).
As far as Lehner goes he has been off in the last few games, and he has even admitted to that. Last night the only goal that beat him was one that was a near perfect shot from a tape-to-tape pass from Taylor Hall. Other than that, shot Boston never really put up much of a fight on the offensive side of the puck as VGK had this game pretty much locked up with 3 goals on just 9 shots in the first period. Marchessault goal was a perfect storm of bounces that would have made Torbjorn Blomdahl proud.
I’m not so sure you will see Reaves fight on Thursday night but I could be wrong. He had a fight last night in the Colorado game and it was rare to see him not dominate in that fight So unless he needs to get his team fired up, I don’t see him going out of his way to drop the gloves.
Joe P.
Not that I wish you`ll have a quick retirement, but if you have a place in Las Vegas for me and Eva to live in, I´m all in on that.
I´ll have to go to some private lessons to learn the grammatics.
I even think and dream in english nowadays!
It´s weard when Eva asks me what you and I are writing about, I start telling her in english, not in swedish.
Life´s fun, Joe!
Joe, Mika Zibanejad needs to be fired up as scoring 5 goals in 27 games isn´t up to his standards.
I hope Reavo saves the best to hit Tom Wilson when they meet again on feb 24 2022.
In the 1st game of the SC final in 2018 wilson hit Marchy with a late blindsider.
Reaves gave Wilson the same treatment in december 2018. That gave me a feeling of what goes around comes around.
Well, how wrong can you be? Wilson, who is a good player, never stops hitting to the head. He jumps into all hits.
The NHL Department of Player Safety turns the other cheek to Wilson time after time. Never a big fine that makes his bank account a lot more accountable for his antics. I know a suspension means that the player isn´t payed any salary during suspension so suspend him at least for 10 games every time he makes those bad hits. He´s a repeat offender. Is chemical castration an option?🤐
I feel sorry for the players who been at the bad end of a hit to the head. A few of them has a life with constant headache in front of them, believe me, Im living with a person with chronical migrane. There´s no or little hope for a better life.
Mr. Bettman (Is he from Las Vegas? Sorry!) want´s to have a clean game without hits, but he doesn´t penalize the big stars enough for the blatant elbow-on-the-head hits like McDavid and MacKinnon did last season.
Fining them for a lousy 5000$ doesn´t hurt their wallets.
After taken away hits, (except for doing the “Kronwall” like McNabb) and sometimes penalizing for crosschecking, let the players hit again, not with sticks and elbows, only with their upper body.
Interference happens all the time on the O-zone entrance and it´s a very effective weapon against fast players.
Penalize that because if you can hit the player only during the time he´s shoots the puck from the blueline into the corner, which takes less than a second, we wouldn´t see the blueline trap or the “Great Wall of China” anymore.
If you take away hits to the head, crosschecking, interference and let guys hit with their bodies there´s gonna be a more competitive
game were small, skillful players like Garland and Hoglander in Vancouver would have been even more fun to watch.
Don´t make the game of hockey into a new version of the sport “Floorball”. My team was one of the clubs who built up Floorball in Sweden back in the 80`s. Fun to play but boring to watch. Nowadays Floorball is much bigger than hockey in active players.
Does Vegas have any small players at Henderson or in the juniors?
The only small player I can remember is Brad Hunt. There must have been someone else over the years.
Sorry, I couldn´t stop writing. Adding to this I saw a really good game on TV. Tampa beat LA in overtime.
Thanks Joe .Good article! Since I did get to watch onTV. ,Ienjoyed the game!🏒🥅🧡🐼🖤🍁🇨🇦##goKnightsgo #
Yes, Judy this year not all of the games can be seen with just your normal cable provider without paying and or subscribing to ESPN+. Here is a heads up, try streaming the games on NHL66.IR
Joe P.
Joe, can I stream the game against the Devils even if I`m in Sweden?
Bryan Sandrock wrote this comment.
We agree! 😉
Kenneth
Thank you for saying this about my recap
“Your recap is a complement to what I´ve seen on TV and it´s the best recap without a video to be found on the net”
My question to you is where I send the check?
Joe P.
Joe, first time is always for free! 😉
I concur about your great writeup. But can we use the moniker PS2 or would we get in trouble with the other company?