Saturday, October 23, 2021
The last-place VGK — yes, the pre-season favorites to dominate the Pacific Division who now sit at bottom of the division — aren’t helping themselves with their continuous defensive and neutral-zone turnovers. Those resulted in Edmonton’s 5-3 win at T-Mobile last night.
Vegas has now lost 3 games in a row and their only victory was against the Seattle Krakens, who’d never played a game in the NHL prior to opening night on October 12.
After Wednesday’s game vs. St Louis, Coach DeBoer said you need to score at least 3 goals if you are going to win an NHL game. Well, last night VGK did score 3 goals; they’ve actually scored first in all 4 of their games so far this season. Scoring first is a huge theoretical advantage in the NHL: Teams that score first during the regular season win 68.8% of the games on average.
Still, Vegas has lost 3 of 4. They even had the lead in last night’s game twice. Nic Roy opened the scoring 3:34 into the first and then Nolan Patrick scored 1:25 into the second period to regain the lead by tipping Dylan Coghlan slap shot from the point for the 2-1 VGK lead. Unfortunately, Edmonton scored 2 goals just 1:12 apart to retake the lead again.
The power play continues to struggle and is 0-9 so far this season. Yes, I know that 4 players who are normally on the power play are injured. But these same 4 players were in the playoffs last season and even then, they struggled.
So the magic number of 3 goals for the VGK normally is more than enough, considering the defensive prowess of the team over the last 4 seasons. But this season, the turnovers and giveaways are happening way more than they should.
Wednesday night, the VGK’s best defensive player gave away the puck that led to a 3-on-0 for the game winner. Last night, Nic Hague, who scored a momentum-changing goal that tied the game at 3-3, gave away the puck on a dangerous cross-ice pass in the neutral zone, allowing Zach Kassian to skate in alone on Lehner. Kassian drew the puck right to left, forcing Lehner to open his pads. Kassian slipped the puck through Lehner’s 5 hole for the game-winning goal and in the process clearly diminished any momentum that Vegas had gained from Hague’s goal 2:07 into the 3rd period.
Once again, this is not to shine a light on Lehner who has
played well, considering his current record of 1-3 and giving up 13 goals in just 4 games. If you haven’t watched, he has been left out to dry by his defensemen and forwards.
Vegas even had a lengthy 5-on-3 power play, but Edmonton had the best scoring chance when they were short-handed by 2 players.
Speaking of shorthanded, the VGK started without Alec Martinez, who left Wednesday’s game against St. Louis when he was tripped up, went shoulder first into the boards, and hasn’t returned.
The infirmary list grows even longer, as Zach Whitecloud left the game 5 minutes into the second period and did not return. The normally tight-lipped Coach DeBoer shared with the media post-game that Whitecloud’s injury didn’t look good. Just hearing him say that is troublesome. We’re so used to hearing he has no update and the player will be evaluated in the morning.
The depth of the VGK is being tested in a big way just 4 games into an 82-game season. Injuries are part of the game, but having possibly 5 key players not available anytime soon is a scary thought.
My 4 Stars of the Game: Leon Draisati (2G, 1A, 7SOG), Zach Hyman (2G), Connor McDavid (2A on both Edmonton goals that tied the game after Vegas took the lead), Zack Kassian (GWG)
Things will not be any easier against the NY Islanders tomrrow at 7 p.m. The Islanders are a very defensive-minded team and with Vegas having scoring problems, the next game isn’t looking promising for the home team to snap out of this 3-game losing streak.
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.
Roy’s opening goal
Hague’s goal that tied the game at 3-3
Kassian’s GWG
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