In a season that has been disappointing for the most part, something had to give. Last night was a good time to change it up, when Fleury broke out a brand new pair of pads, golden ones at that, along with a matching gold blocker and gold glove. It seemed to work as Vegas, playing in its third division game of the season out of 18, grabbed two valuable points in a resounding defeat of Anaheim 5-0 at T-Mobile.
Fleury and his new golden pads
It was Fleury’s league-leading third shutout of the season, the 51st in his career, and the second of back-to-back shutouts at T-Mobile (the first on November 3 vs. Carolina in a 3-0 win). Did someone say another free dozen donuts from Krispy Kreme?
Wins and accumulating points in the Pacific Division are important and will play a key role in determining playoff positions and home-ice advantage come April.
So far, the Knights have 5 out of a possible 6 points in their three games vs. Pacific Division foes, with two wins against Anaheim and a shoot-out loss to Vancouver.
In the unbalanced schedule that Vegas has had to traverse in the first 18 games, including two trips to the east coast, they’ve dug themselves a little bit of a hole. Prior to last night’s victory, they’d lost two in a row and five of their last seven.
In my last post, I pointed out that the team’s next 10 games, of which eight are in the Pacific Division, will most likely determine if Las Vegas will qualify for the playoffs. Teams not in playoff contention as soon as the beginning of December usually won’t qualify from the Western Conference.
There’s always an exception, of course, and my poker friend Eric Callner, who was an L.A. Kings fan, reminded me that during the 2014-2015 season, the Kings won nine of their first 10 games in December, scrambled to finish third in the Pacific Division, snuck into the playoffs just two points ahead of the wild-card team, lost the first three games of the opening round to San Jose, stormed back to win the remaining four games, and eventually won all three of their Game 7s on the road to grab their second Stanley Cup. In the Finals, three of their four wins came in overtime, two in double OT.
While last night’s win was good for the team’s morale and record (now 8-10-1), the Knights are still facing an uphill challenge: Seven of the next nine games have 4-point ramifications.
The offensive outburst against the Ducks was also good news for Fleury, who prior to the game had seen his team score more than 3 goals just 4 times in 18 games.
With Cody Eakins’ two goals, one shorthanded, he extended his five-game point streak (4 goals and 2 assists). It was also the fifth multi-goal game in his career.
“Cody has been excellent,” Coach Gallant stated after the game. “He has played real good hockey for us all season long. He’s been real consistent and he is playing his role. Now he has stepped up with Erik Haula and Paul Stastny being out and he has done great. Tonight was a great game — he scored two beautiful goals and had a chance for the hat trick late in the power play.”
Alex Tuch had a power-play goal late in the first period and assisted on Eakin’s first goal. Max Pacioretty, who’d been in a scoring slump with only 2 goals in 14 games, equaled his point total by picking up 2 assists on Tuch’s PPG and Eakin’s goal 25 seconds into the second period.
The usually reliable John Gibson, who often gives Vegas fits in the net, was off his game, giving up 3 goals on just 12 shots before being replaced by Ryan Miller immediately after Nick Holden’s goal 7:19 into the second. Holden’s original shot bounced off the end boards and came out front. His follow-up was actually put past Gibson by Anaheim forward Adam Henrique in his attempt to clear the puck. The hockey gods evened things up when Holden had virtually an open net to score his second goal of the game, along with his assist on Tomas Hyka’s third-period goal. But Ryan Miller dove across the open net and made a save on Holden’s shot with his head.
Between Gibson surrendering 3 goals and Miller letting in 2, Anaheim was in trouble, as like Vegas, their scoring output has been bleak. Anaheim has scored 2 goals or fewer in 10 of their past 13 games.
Vegas had six power-play chances on six minor Anaheim penalties, while the Knights were whistled for four minor penalties. Vegas’ first power play was cut short when Pacioretty took a penalty 48 seconds in. The Ducks returned the favor when they took a penalty 55 seconds after Merrill’s tripping penalty. Anaheim surrendered one power-play goal and gave up a shorthanded goal.
Fleury was perfect and acrobatic in his shutout, facing 29 Anaheim shots. Gibson and Miller surrendered 5 Vegas goals on just 25 shots.
It’s not often that Vegas is outshot in their games, but last night they were. In the previous 18 games, Vegas has been outshot in only three games and actually won two of them: a 1-0 victory vs. Philadelphia and a 3-0 win vs. Carolina. Their only loss while being outshot came against Nashville that they lost 4-1.
My 3 Stars of the Game: Cody Eakin (2 goals on just 3 shots), Marc-Andre Fleury (stopped all 29 shots — a few with no stick in hand), Alex Tuch (1 goal, 1 assist)
Next game is Friday vs. St Louis at 7 p.m., which also marks the return of David Perron to T-Mobile.
Your comments and opinions are welcome here at Las Vegas Advisor or you can contact me directly at [email protected]
And for the most comprehensive coverage of the Vegas Golden Knights’ historic inaugural season, take a look at our book Vegas Golden Knights—How a First-Year Expansion Team Healed Las Vegas and Shocked the Hockey World
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