Las night’s game featured a lot of things, some of what happened had never happened before and most if not all weren’t beneficial to the Vegas Golden Knights.
VGK lost at home to the Dallas Stars 3-0.
Malcolm Subban lost his first game as the VGK goaltender; he was 4-0-0 coming into the game.
Also for the first time as a VGK, Subban gave up 3 goals on only 30 shots. That works out to be a save percentage of only .900. That’s not good on any night,but it’s worse when you team doesn’t score even one goal in the game. Subban had only given up 8 goals in his 4 previous games and last night he gave up 3 in one game.
The VGK faced the tallest goalie in the league. Ben Bishop is six-seven and could easily play in the NBA. He gives teams fits, because he’s such a large presence in front of the net that there isn’t much to shoot at. VGK did get 34 shots on the net and Big Ben stopped them all.
The VGK came into the game leading the Western Conference in scoring with an average goal production of 3.68 per game, but they didn’t score at all last night.
The VGK were shut out for the first time in their franchise history.
Last night’s loss was their first home loss in 46 days. Their only previous loss at home was on October 13 vs. the Detroit Red Wings in a game they led by 3 goals going into the third period.
That was the game in which first-string goalie Marc-Andre Fleury was injured. He completed the game, but was diagnosed afterwards with a concussion that has kept him out of the lineup and on Injured Reserve ever since.
The VGK had the best home record in the league prior to tonight’s game: 9-1.
The Knights were in sole possession of first place in the Pacific Division. With this loss and the L.A. Kings’ win, there’s now a tie at the top of the Pacific Division. Vegas does have two games in hand on the Kings, at 15-7-1 and 31 points, versus 14-8-3 and 31 points for the Kings.
You don’t often see a hat trick (when one player scores 3 or more goals in a game) in the NHL. In the 1,230 games played last year, only 70 games contained a hat trick, which works out to be just a tad over 5%. (Wayne Gretzky holds the NHL record with 50 hat tricks in his career. Harry Hyland scored the league’s first hat trick in the league’s very first game on December 19, 1917, in which Hyland’s Montreal Wanderers defeated the Toronto Arenas 10-9.)
But you see a natural hat trick (when the player scores 3 goals in a row) even more rarely.
Dallas Stars forward Radek Faksa scored the natural hat trick in the second period in 6 minutes and 46 seconds. He scored his first while the teams were skating 4 on 4 at the 12:55 mark, then added goals two and three a mere 8 seconds apart at 19:33 and 19:41. (The NHL record for the fastest natural hat trick was 21 seconds, set by Bill Mosienko in 1952 for the Chicago Blackhawks.)
These two late goals pretty much crushed any hopes of a VGK third-period comeback.
Goals late in a period have a resounding effect on the momentum of the game, but two goals within the last minute of a period are devastating. Of course, a three-goal lead is almost insurmountable entering the third period—unless, of course, you’re the VGK who did allow the Detroit Red Wings that comeback. We will never know if Fleury’s injury had anything thing to do with the Red Wings comeback.
Prior to last night’s game, Dallas forward Faksa had 5 goals and 4 assists in 22 games. Last night, he increased his goal production by 60%.
Once again, the VGK came out flying in the first period as they have in their most recent home games, chasing opposing goaltenders from the game with their goal surges and overall speed. Ben Bishop, however, held his ground and stopped all 15 of the first-period shots fired at him.
Bishop has has stopped all of the last 53 shots he’s faced from the VGK in the two games these teams have played so far this season. They’re scoreless against Bishop for more than five periods and a total time of just shy of 105 minutes.
The VGK’s next game is Thursday night on the road vs. the Minnesota Wild at 5 p.m. Pacific Time.
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