The VGK ended their 56-game season last night with a complete
60-minute domination of the San Jose Sharks. The final score was 6-0.

But the battle for the top spot in the Honda West Division is out of their hands. Yes, they still lead Colorado by 2 points and tonight’s final game for Colorado will determine if the VGK not only win the division, but also the President’s Trophy for the best record in the league. With a Colorado loss to the L.A. Kings, Vegas will accomplish these 2, which will assure them home ice for as long as they stay alive in this year’s playoffs. A win by Colorado will tie Vegas with 82 points apiece; Colorado owns the first tiebreaker with more regulation wins, which is currently at 34-30.

If that happens, and there’s a good chance that Colorado will beat the Kings tonight, you have to look back on the game in Minnesota that Vegas led 5-3 very late in the game, only to see Minnesota win 6-5. If Vegas had just gotten that game to OT, we wouldn’t be having this conversation.

The VGK dominated the bottom 5 teams in the Honda West Division and lost key games to Minnesota and Colorado, most likely the 2 teams they ‘ll have to beat to get to the final 4 teams in this year’s playoffs.

But don’t let regular-season results influence you. Vegas has a franchise record of 16-1-3 vs. San Jose, yet they have split their 2-playoff series. Vegas was 8-0 vs. San Jose this year.

Marc-Andre Fleury ends the season on a 9-game winning streak with his 6th shutout of the season and his 67th career shutout. In this 9-game winning streak, Fleury has given up 13 goals for a 1.44 GAA.
Some VGK players are getting hot just at the right time. Alex Pietrangelo scored the first goal last night, which turned out to be the winning goal of the game. Petro has 3 goals and 9 points in his last 10 games. Reilly Smith, who had 2 assists last night, has 8 points in the team’s final 7 games.

Alex Tuch did not return to the game after the 2nd period. In his post-game presser when he was asked about Tuch, DeBoer said it was just the team being cautious and based on the score, they decided to not let him return. If you remember correctly, that was the same wording DeBoer used when Mark Stone didn’t return for the 3rd period in a past game, stating the score played a role. Stone missed the next game. Trying to get accurate injury information from the VGK is next to impossible, to say the least. But with at least the next 3 days off, maybe that will be sufficient time for Tuch to recover from whatever caused him to miss the 3rd period.

Nothing is official on the exact dates for games 1 and 2 at T-Mobile, but I’m hearing Sunday and Tuesday — hopefully against St. Louis. But that’s just my wish, as I would like to see Colorado and Minnesota battle it out in a 7-game series, thus eliminating one of the two hurdles’ Vegas is facing to get to the final 4.

Forced to play with just 15 skaters on Monday vs. Colorado, the Knights got up to 17 skaters, still short by 1 player from the standard 18 which is usually composed of 12 forwards and 6 defensemen. Last night, Vegas had 11 forwards and 6 on the backend. Dylan Coghlan played along with HSK forward Dylan Sikura, who scored his first goal as a VGK 4:10 into the 3rd period and added another goal 8:06 later to close out the scoring. The VGK scored 2 goals in each period; it was also the 4th time this season that Vegas scored 6 goals in a game.

With the game determined early, DeBoer managed the ice time of 16 of the players with no player other than Nic Hague having more than 20 minutes. These are just the little things that coaches do that go pretty much unnoticed by most.

The PP continues to struggle and was 0-4 last night. San Jose had a grade A scoring chance on a VGK power play. I have said this before and I will say it again: For a deep run in these playoffs the power play has to contribute.

Five of the 6 goals came from the bottom 5 forwards and one from Pietrangelo. A key going forward is the 3rd and 4th lines contributing offensively. Remember, there is no salary cap in the playoffs, so playing short is no longer a problem. Getting Pacioretty, Nosek, Krebs, and Reaves back from injuries is what is most important.

With last night’s shutout, the goaltender tandem of Fleury and Lehner won the Jennings Trophy for the least number of goals given up: just 124 in 56 games at 2.21 GAA. The NY Islanders finished 2nd with 128 goals. As strange as this may seem, this is the first time that Fleury has won this award. Robin Lehner won it in the 2018-19 season with the Islanders. Under normal circumstances, a goaltender has to play at least 25 games to qualify for this award. This year with the reduced schedule, that was lowered to 7 games. Robin qualified because of this year’s game played adjustment. Robin played in 19 games of the 56 Vegas played.

My 3 Stars of the Game
1) Alex Pietrangelo (1G, the GWG, 7 SOG and +2)
2) William Carrier (1G, 1A and +3)
3) Marc-Andre Fleury (19 saves on 19 shots)

Next game is alleged to be Tuesday T-Mobile; time and team to be announced

If you want to hear and see more VGK content please check out the podcast I do with Eddie Rivkin on YouTube, “Hockey Knights on Ice.”

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

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.

Pietrangelo’s opening goal

Sikura’s second goal

Marchessault makes it 4-0