The VGK may haveplayed their best back-to-back defensive games in a row this season in theselast two games against the Seattle Kraken. One key reason was Logan Thompson,who has been solid as one could ask for and is for sure making management thinklong hard about returning him to the Henderson Silver Knights once LaurentBrossoit and Robin Lehner are 100% healthy. Last night the VGK completed the two-gamesweep with a 5-2 victory, a score that may appear or suggest that this was aclose game even when you factor in that Jonathan Marchessault and WilliamKarlsson scored goals four and five into the empty net to end the game. Nothingcould be farther from the truth. Vegas completely dominated the game from startto finish keeping most of the Seattle attempted shots blocked, or deflected, orarrived on Logan’s equipment from a safe distance.  

Last night’sdominating win did come against a team that is struggling during their firstseason, but nothing should be taken away from this solid two-game performanceby the VGK. Even Shea Theodore, who has been struggling this season, lookedlike Seattle agrees with him. Shea played his minor league hockey with theSeattle Thunderbirds and his parents were in attendance. Shea had gone 27 gameswithout scoring a goal before notching two in these last two games.

Lots of positivethings came out of these games in the Pacific Northwest: 4 points, which wasimperative; the return of Brayden McNabb; and another opportunity for AlecMartinez to get reacclimated to the speed of the game. Coach Deboer was slowlyworking both Brayden and Alec back into the lineup by once again dressing sevendefenseman and 11 forwards, instead of the usual 6 and 12. 

When you adddefensive-minded players like Martinez and McNabb into the lineup, it clearlymakes the team more sound overall and it showed in the two-game sweep and (fora 4-0 season record) versus the Kraken. It also becomes more clear that whenthis team is healthy, it’s dangerous.

Jack Eichelhasn’t scored more than one goal in a game dating back to February 22, 2020,which is a long time, even when you factor in that he hadn’t played in over 13months before joining the VGK. Jack ended that streak with the first two VGKgoals last night and his second was a pure case of hustle. He beat the Krakenplayer to the puck to negate an icing call which would have brought the faceoffall the way back in the VGK defensive zone. His hustle was rewarded whenDadonov recovered the loose puck behind the net as Eichel slid over to the frontof Seattle netminder, Grubauer, who never had a chance once Eichel had the puckon his stick alone in front. Grubauer stopped 21 of the 24 shots he faced, butLogan Thompson was clearly better with a lot of help from his defensemen whohad 27 blocked shots. Logan stopped 26 of the 28 shots he faced for a .929 savepercentage. 

Logan has startedthe last eight games for the VGK and has a 6-2 record. In comparison, RobinLehner (due to a lot of circumstances) has never started more than six games ina row for the VGK. Unfortunately, even with picking up these 4 points, noreal ground was made in the Pacific Division as Edmonton has won four of itslast five games and the LA Kings have gotten points in five of their last six. 

In the runningfor the last two playoff spots via the Wild Card, Vegas has the second spottrailing Nashville by 2 points for the first wild card spot and leading Dallasby 1 point for the last wild card spot. Both Nashville and Dallas have played fewergames – Nashville has played 68 and Dallas 66, while Vegas has played 70. Inthe Pacific Division, Vegas trails LA by 4 points with the same number of gamesplayed and they trail Edmonton by 3 points with Edmonton having one game inhand.  

The VGK close outthis road trip with a Sunday-afternoon game at Vancouver. The team they willface on Sunday will be a lot quicker and have more offensive capabilities thanthe Seattle Kraken, so a solid performance by the VGK will be needed to sweepthe three-game road trip and keep their playoff hopes alive. 

Other Game Notesand Quotes 

“Winningis fun, right?” Vegas coach Peter DeBoer said. “We won three in arow, and [now] four in a row tonight, that leads to that fun environment. Andwhen you’ve lost four or five in a row, it’s tough to recreate that. … We tookcare of business, and we knew we needed to because of the teams around us. Wecame in here and did what we needed to do. And you know, it’s on to the nextjob.” 

“Everygame’s competitive in the league, it doesn’t matter where you’re playing,”Eichel said. “They have a lot of good players over there, so it’simportant, you have to take care of business every night. We know the positionthat we’re in, but we can only control so much and just get two points everynight.” 

“Ithink defensively we’ve been better, but I think that coincides with the returnof our veterans, and all those guys made a huge difference,” DeBoer said.“[Thompson] has played really well, but I think our team is benefited bythe return of those guys. That just solidifies things defensively. It alsohelps us on our breakouts which leads to speed to the neutral zone.” 

Dadonovhas scored 10 points (five goals, five assists) in his last six games.

Stephensonhas scored seven points (two goals, five assists) in his last four games.

Marchessaultextended his point streak to four games (two goals, six assists). 

Theodorehas scored at least 40 points (10 goals, 30 assists) for the third straight season.Only three NHL defensemen have longer active streaks: Victor Hedman of the Tampa BayLightning (7), Kris Letang of thePittsburgh Penguins (5), and John Carlson of theWashington Capitals (5).

My 3 Stars of the Game: Jack Eichel (2G, +3, 4 SOG, and a team high 22:04 of ice time), Logan Thompson (26 saves on 28 shots), Evgenii Dadonov (2 primary assists of Eichel and Theodore’s goals) 

One final note, Dadonov has been an excellent trade-day acquisition.

Next game is Sunday vs. Vancouver, 4 p.m. Pacific Time.

Your comments andopinions are welcome here at Las Vegas Advisor or you may contact me directlyat [email protected] or on my Facebook page or theFacebook 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.

Eichel goal from a pure hustle

Shea Theodore’s GWG