The VGK played well last night, but not well enough to beat the defending Stanley Cup Champions Tampa Bay Lightning.

Considering the circumstances, you would not be wrong to give the VGK a pass on their 4-3 loss, but when you look at how Vegas held Tampa Bay to just 19 shots for the entire game while Vegas had more than double that with 39 shots on Andrei Vasilevskiy, you would expect a different result. I can tell you that the way Vegas played last night, the result would have been different against 28 of the other 31 NHL teams. But Tampa Bay is elite. You don’t win back-to-back Stanley Cups in this current NHL unless you’re a juggernaut and Tampa Bay is just that.

Vegas led by 3-1 with 2:53 left in the 2nd period and then the roof caved in. Tampa Bay scored 2 goals just 42 seconds apart to tie the game at 3-3.

Vegas controlled much of the action and seemed to have the puck all the time. Tampa Bay managed only 9 shots on goal in the first 35 minutes of the game They scored 2 goals on just 11 shots and wound up with 4 goals on 19 shots against Laurent Brossoit, who was in the net, replacing Robin Lehner, who didn’t even dress for the game. Coach DeBoer explained that Robin tweaked something in the NY Islander game on Sunday. Losing Robin Lehner for this game was crucial.

The other circumstances that added to the problem consisted of injuries. Both Alex Pietrangelo and Evgenii Dadonov were unavailable due to positive COVID results. Nicolas Hague was sidelined with an undisclosed injury and Mark Stone sat down after 2:45 in the second period. Stone scored 2 goals in just 7:47 of ice time. DeBoer stated in his post-game comments that they shut Stone down and didn’t want to risk any further injury, knowing the team had at least 5 days off for the Christmas break after the NHL canceled all games until Monday at the earliest. The VGK’s scheduled game against the LA Kings on Thursday has been postponed.

The winning goal was scored on the power play by Steven Stamkos from his office in the left faceoff circle on a one-timer off of a cross-ice pass from Victor Hedman. With Pietrangelo and Hague and Stone out, their long sticks could have prevented that pass or at least taken away Hedman’s passing lane, along with the shot that everyone in the building knew was coming. But with Whitecloud, McNabb, Roy, and Carrier on the ice, the long sticks that would have been key were missing.

Speaking of the power play, the VGK’s seems to have returned to some sense of normalcy. Mark Stone’s power-play goal that tied the game up at 1-1 was their 7th PPG in the last 7 games. Vegas has gone 7 for their last 19 power-play chances for a very respectful 36.8% conversion rate. If Vegas has any intentions of going deep in the playoffs, this will be a key. Their anemic power play was the main reason they didn’t advance to the Stanley Cup Final against Tampa Bay.

Other game notes and quotes

“That was tough. I thought we had a solid second period. We just let it slip in the final two minutes,” Theodore said. “We all know they’re going to play hard, and we have to be a little more ready for that.”

“It’s disappointing not to win. I thought we put a lot of effort and work in that game,” DeBoer said. “I’m proud of our group. We’ve been dealt adversity since day one. We haven’t made excuses.”

William Karlsson played his 300th game with the VGK last night. He joins Jonathan Marchessault with 307 games and Brayden McNabb with 301.

Speaking of original Misfits, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, a key part of the 2017-2018 VGK, returned to T-Mobile last night with another team. He played the last 2 seasons with the Colorado Avalanche and this season he’s with the Bay Lightning. Bellemare has 5 goals against the VGK in 11 games. What is it with former VGK players having a number of goals against the VGK? In 148 games with the VGK, Bellemare scored just 12 goals. The other former VGK who seems to score at will against the VGK is David Perron, who in the 16 games he has played against the VGK has scored 5 goals and has 7 assists.

My 3 stars of the game: Andrei Vasilevskiy (stopped 36 of the 39 shots he faced), Mark Stone (somehow found 2 goals in just 7:47 of ice time), Steven Stamkos (PPG and the GWG)

Next game is scheduled for Monday Dec 27th vs. Colorado at 7 p.m. Pacific Time.

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

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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.

Stone’s PPG that tied the game at 1-1
Stone’s goal for the 2-1 VGK lead
Stamkos PPG and the GWG