It’s safe to say that the return to T-Mobile was emotional for both Ryan Reaves and Gerard Gallant, but once the video tributes were shown to the 18,117 fans in attendance, the VGK got down to business and did not let anything derail their night with an impressive 5-1 victory over the New York Rangers, with the best record in the NHL when the night began. It was a battle of 2 first place teams in the standings, but it didn’t look like that on the ice.
Jonathan Marchessault scored the first goal of the game on a power play and closed the scoring with his team-leading 18th goal of the season. Kris Kreider drew the Rangers even with his team-leading 21st goal of the season on a shot that Robin Lehner completely fanned on. But that was as close as they came. Vegas scored the next 4 goals in a dominating performance that came after 2 uninspired games against the Winnipeg Jets and the Nashville Predators in which they earned just 1 point of a possible 4 on home ice.
But their win came with some emotional moments. Brett Howden, who was traded to the VGK from the Rangers last July, scored his 2nd goal in 2 games against his former team. Back on December 17, Howden had a goal and an assist in the VGK’s 3-2 shootout win. In that game, Jonathan Marchessault had the game-winning goal in the shootout. Last night was Howden’s 4th goal of the season, along with 6 assists in 26 games. Last year for the Rangers, Howden had 1 goal and 6 assists in 42 games. The duo of Howden and Marchessault have been a thorn in the side of Gallant and the NY Rangers in their 2 meetings.
The only way these 2 teams can play each other again this season is in the Stanley Cup Final. A long shot, but what a storyline that would be, especially for me. I grew up as a Rangers fan, having gone to my games at 9 years old. I suffered for a long time watching other teams lift the cup. I finally did see my dream come true on June 14, 1994. So a Stanley Cup Final with these 2 teams would be off the charts, not only for me but both cities.
Once again, the VGK outshot their opponent by a considerable margin, 45-17, and the Rangers didn’t register a shot on Lehner in the 3rd period until 14 minutes had been played with the score 5-1. You would have expected some sort of push back, but it never happened. The Rangers attempted to slow down the VGK with their physical play, a trademark of the coaching style of Gallant that was seen in just about every game during his tenure here as their head coach. New York had 45 hits in comparison to 17 for the VGK. Every Ranger forward except 2 had at least 1 hit.
The two players acquired by New York in the off-season in their attempt to play a heavy game against their division opponents were Barclay Goodrow and Ryan Reaves. Goodrow had a game-high 6 hits and Ryan Reaves had 3. Only 3 VGK forwards registered a hit last night: Kolesar, Carrier, and Stephenson.
Mark Stone returned to the lineup for his first game since Dec 21 vs. Tampa Bay and Robin Lehner returned after last playing on Long Island on Dec 19. Stone scored on a perfectly placed skate blade that he turned just enough to send it past the Ranger goaltender Georgiev, who didn’t stop that skate blade deflection, but he did stop 30 of the other 35 shots he faced. Stone’s goal was reviewed, and it was determined that there was no kicking motion. A lot of the Ranger fans in attendance and on social media had a different opinion. Georgiev also was waving no goal immediately after it crossed the goal line, but to no avail; referees St. Laurent and Halkidis conferred and with some help from the war room in Toronto, the call on the ice was upheld. Stone’s goal turned out to be his 7th of the season and his 2nd GWG.
In Robin Lehner’s return to the lineup, he stopped 18 of the 19 shots he faced and recorded his 15th win of the season and his 5th win in a row.
Other game notes and quotes
“We played against a good team tonight,” Gallant said. “Obviously, I would have liked to win tonight, coming back to this building.”
Reilly Smith had two assists last night.
The Golden Knights (23-13-1) are now 11-3-1 in their last 15.
When Ryan Reaves was asked about his video tribute, he said, “I’ll be honest, it kind of got to me a little bit. I wasn’t expecting that. I was a little flustered for the rest of the game.”
Marchessault said, “It was fun to see Gallant tonight and obviously it was a big game for him. But for us, it was business as usual, and we got the two points to get back in the win column here.”
Marchessault, who was selected from the Florida Panthers in the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft, played 22 games under Gallant with the Panthers in 2016-17.
“Turk has been great for my career, starting with my time in Florida. It was obviously really nice to see him,” Marchessault said. “He’s always a treat to be around and I was lucky enough to be coached by that guy for a couple of years. It’s unbelievable to have a quality coach like that.”
My 3 Stars of the game: Jonathan Marchessault (2G on just 2 SOG), Mattias Janmark (1G and his speed once again created his goal, almost an exact copy of his goal against Winnipeg that started the 2-goal 3rd period comeback), Mark Stone (not only his goal, but the team has a swagger when he’s on the ice or the bench; he’s the true leader of this team and is missed when he’s unable to play).
Next game is the one you’ve all been waiting for: the return of the Flower, tomorrow at 7 p.m.
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 at this link 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.
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Thanks again,Joe When one only listens to the game on my IPad to have it described mBy you is great. Take care.🧡🏒🥅🍁🇨🇦#you #
Hey Joe. As always a good recap that makes me appreciate the game in a different way.
I feel sorry for Lehner to let in a shot that he saves the next 99 times.
Otherwise he was at his best as Rangers tried to score on him close to the goal crease.
The defence was really good around the net but the play around the boards was a bit sloppy at times especially when the confidence grew over their heads in the third period.
When not stressed by Rangers forwards our D-men made a lot of good let out passes that lead to scoring chances.
Coghlan may have scored if he didn`t used the good old slapper. He could have asked Theodore how often he even hits the goal with this ancient type of shot. Ask Marchy instead how he use the wrister. It´s fast, it´s accurate and it´s hard for the goalie to know when and where Marchy´s going to shoot it.
Theodore deserves a shot at playing as a winger on the third line. He has the technique and the shot, and as long as he doesn´t have to be the first guy to get the puck along the boards, there´s nothing to be afraid of.
Offensively all four lines scored and that´s more than we can hope for. Many teams haven´t got a third line that scores regurarly.
All lines put pressure on Rangers and made them make mistakes and turnovers in the Rangers zone.
The only “odd” goal was the “kick” by Stone, but that was the fruit of a fine combination between Stevenson, Dadonov and Stone.
All lines did a great defensive job and Fox didn´t have the time with the puck as he´s used to have this season. He was pointless and -1 this game.
The Knights were lucky as Rangers seemed to miss “Breadman” Panarin way to much.
I wasn´t surprised as Panarin is the “Creator” on the Rangers offense. Without him, Zibanejad, Kreider, Goodrow and Fox are the only players who can make plays and create scoring chances by their own.
I follow Rangers games when I can. I`m curious about what kind of hockey Gallant want them to play. He´s using Reaves more than DeBoer did. Reavo has played 31 games so far for Rangers this season.
Strome is almost a “nobody” without Panarin. Kakko, a second overall draft pick 2019, and Lafreniere, a first overall draft pick 2020, doesn´t impress me at all. They can´t create plays in the O-zone, they just play the puck around the boards.
These guys made the Rangers fans drool with expectations when drafted, instead it´s tears that falling from their eyes. What went wrong?
This game gave me hope for VGK to play head to head against teams like Florida, Tampa or Carolina. These teams play fast, hard and they have 3 or 4 lines who can score more than a few goals. In addition they have two good goalies each. Maybe not Tampa as they´re not top notch without Vasilevski.
Sounds like VGK in my ears. Plus Eichel, Patchy and Martinez. Vegas have three good goalies as what we´ve seen or heard about Thompson in both NHL and AHL.
Looking forward to the playoffs!
Mark sent his in about the video tribute for both Gallant and Reaves
Classy move by Vegas and the response from the fans was awesome. I just wished the Rangers didn’t stop playing after the first period🤦🏻♂️
Mark
They still have a long way to go to make the VGK fans happy. There are a good portion of the fanbase that are not pleased with the recent handlings of Marc-Andre and Gallant.
Joe P.
Hey Joe. Do we know what happened with Fleury? His agent was kind of backstabbing his klient with his photoshopped attack at the VGK. If the relations weren´t good before it became worse after that.
The only thing the agent got from that was dividing fans in at least two groups.
There´s a lot of hate out there and when the haters gets some wind in their sails, the wound that they make among the fans takes along time to heal.
As the Vegas fanbase seems to be for or against players more than rooting for the team, I´m worried about if they going to back up Lehner during the game.
I´ll take for granted they´ll cheer for Fleury, but that has to stop as the puck´s dropped for the first time. Otherwise they aren´t VGK fans in my eyes.
A lot of hockey fans haven´t our experience as fans all the way back to the sixties. The most of them wasn´t even a glimmer in their fathers eyes back then, but that is maybe a proof of our old age. 🙄
But we know it´s the team that is the reason why we love the Vegas Golden Knights.
Eva and I always watch Florida Panthers when we can. They play a type of hockey Gallant would like to coach.
North-south and a relentless forechecking. Four lines and three pairs of D-men with good technique, speed and toughness in all players.
They play like a team but they found out this late last season when coach Quenneville must have pushed the right buttons.
After their game after Calgary, Eva asked me if Vegas should meet Florida in a SC final: “Which team would you root for?”.
“The VGK of course!”.
You can´t root for a team based by their latest win. It´ll make you bankrupt as you have buy new jerseys all the time.
It´s home, away, retro, Pride, all-black, all-white and all-you-can-think-of jerseys.
Stand by your team, not by your man!
Kenneth
Alan Walsh Fleury agent was unhappy about the lack of playing time he was getting under DeBoer in the playoffs in Edmonton. I do not know this as a fact, but Walsh would never post the picture of the sword going thru Fleury’s back with the blood dripping with DeBoer name on the sword without first running it by Fleury. That was the beginning of the end for his tenure in Las Vegas. Funny thing is that Max Pacioretty has the same agent, and he is not loved by the VGK organization to say the least. When they were attempting to trade Fleury, Walsh was spreading the word that if he was traded, he would not play and just retire. When the VGK heard this, they cut off all communications with Fleury and his agent. Which was why Fleury found out he was traded on social media.
Joe P.
Thank you for this insight
Damien Garrett wrote
Both nice tributes to Turk and Reavo
Stephanie sent this in
He will always be our coach! ❤️
Lynda Israel wrote
A terrific, energized game last night. 🤠❤️🏒