The primary role of a knight in medieval times was to fight battles for his king. Tonight, the Knights surrendered their historic role as protectors of the throne.
Their first-period quickness was a nightmare for the Los Angeles Kings, especially their goaltender Jonathan Quick, who was pulled from the game rather quickly. Quick faced only nine shots and gave up three goals, which was highly unusual for him.
Before the Kings even broke a sweat, William Karlsson put a goal between the Quick’s pads and the onslaught was under way. I’m sure Quick would like another shot at Karlsson’s first goal as that was one he stops 99 times out of 100 attempts. Karlsson added another goal in the first, making the score 3-0 and sending Quick, a world-class goaltender, to the showers.
Karlsson’s second goal turned out to be the winner in the 4-2 final score. It was his ninth goal in the last 13 games. This is a player who scored a total of six goals the entire 2016-2017 season with the Columbus Blue Jackets. Both of his goals were from passes from Reilly Smith. A Cody Eakin goal was sandwiched between Karlsson’s two and Alex Tuch added an empty-net goal to stretch the VGK lead back up to two goals after L.A. closed to within one.
The VGK’s speed in the first period was just too much for the Kings to handle. I’ve talked in previous blogs about the importance of the first goal and a strong first period, which help set the tone for the rest of the game. Last night, the VGK played a perfect first period, making the Kings chase the rest of the game.
Interestingly, Malcolm Subban the second-string goaltender, was activated for the game, but Coach Gallant stayed with Max Lagace, who has played well and was rewarded by Gallant with tonight’s start. Gallant has been spot on with his selection on who the game’s 20 skaters will be. I believe it will be Lagace in net for their next game on Wednesday in California against the Anaheim Ducks, a division opponent — and going forward, as long as he’s winning. You know what they say, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.” This is great news for the team, as there’s no indication on the return of the first-string goalie, Marc-André Fleury.
Lagace made 27 saves on the 29 shots he faced and he was especially good late in the third period, when the Kings were throwing shots at him from all angles.
Last night’s win brought the VGK’s home record to a very impressive 8-1-0.
They now trail their division-leading L.A. Kings by one point and they’ve played two less games than the Kings.
Last night’s two points were very important. It was really a four-point game, since the Kings and Golden Knights are in the same division and the two points that the Knights added to their standings were also two points that the Kings didn’t get.
The VGK are 7-1-0 when scoring the first goal.
The L.A. Kings also played on Saturday night, so this was a back-to-back game for them and their third in four nights. They’ve also lost five of the last six games. VGK certainly caught a tired team last night, especially considering the looks of the first period.
The Golden Knights may have surprised teams in the first few games, but take it from me: No one is overlooking the VGK now. They have the attention of the entire NHL.
There are no super stars on this team its a complete team effort.
As a long-time hockey fan, I hate the salary cap, which causes your favorite team to lose players. But this season, the VGK are fortunate that the other 30 teams had to expose players they normally wouldn’t have if the salary cap didn’t exist.
Also, no expansion team has entered the league since the year 2000. So the last 17 years of no new teams have made the rosters of the 30 teams very deep in talent and only the best of the best were playing in the NHL. A ton of talent was available for VGK to choose from and by the looks of things so far, George McPhee and his selection committee receive an A+ for their due diligence in their picks.
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