(USA Today Sports)
Last night, the Vegas Golden Knights beat the Pacific Division leading Calgary Flames 2-1 in the T-Mobile Arena. Vegas struck first, with a Shea Theodore power play goal in the first period. Calgary would eventually tie the game up in the second on a Travis Hamonic drive. Deryk Engelland snapped his 36-game goal-scoring drought, with the game-winner, 9:30 into the final period. Engelland sent a wrist shot on net, with heavy traffic, that found a way past the Flames' sharp goaltender, David Rittich. With the win, Vegas is now officially hot, on a five-game win streak, after suffering through a 3-6-1 stretch in the ten games prior to the trade deadline. So how did it all go down last night? Here are my five takeaways from the game.
1. Defensemen know how to offense.
All three goals in this game were scored by blueliners. Shea Theodore has a reputation as a solid offensive presence on the Golden Knights' blueline. Last night's tally was his franchise-record for d-men, 11th goal of the season. Engelland, on the other hand, is certainly not that kind of point producer. His game-winner was just his second goal of the season, albeit a big one. At the other end, Travis Hamonic scored his seventh goal of the season, for just his 16th point of the year. In a game between two teams, with tons of offensive firepower, it's odd that the forwards were held scoreless and a Deryk Engelland goal was the deciding factor.
Deryk Engelland (USA Today Sports)
2. Marc-Andre Fleury stays hot, despite ending his shutout streak.
Fleury came into the game with an active shutout streak of 168:43. The Flames thought they snapped that quickly, in first period, when Johnny Gaudreau buried a rebound past a flailing Fleury. Much to the ire of the Flames, Gerard Gallant naturally challenged the goal. After a prolonged look at the play, Gallant finally won a challenge, restoring the Vegas lead. Gallant himself admitted that even when they feel they deserve the call, they are "a tough call". Matthew Tkachuk got caught playing a bit too close to Fleury, when Fleury's stick got caught in his body, causing the goaltender to spin around, mid-save. Fleury's streak came to it's final end at 200:41, courtesy of Travis Hamonic. Speaking of Fleury and Tkachuk......
3. Matthew Tkachuk might be the one guy in the world that Marc-Andre Fleury does not like.
Nate Schmidt, Matthew Tkachuk (USA Today Sports)
Fleury is known as a friendly guy, a jokester, and a real bright spot in the Vegas locker room. Any given day at City National Arena, Fleury can be seen pranking teammates, playfully stopping their shot attempts, and having a generally good time whenever he is on the ice. Last night, Matthew Tkachuk's tenacity and unrelenting net pressure didn't sit well with the normally loose, cheerful Fleury. Tkachuk's presence came to a head toward the end of the second period, when he made contact with the goaltender, drawing the attention of defenseman Colin Miller. During their shoving match, Fleury took an ill-advised jab at Tkachuk with his paddle. Once Tkachuk and Miller were separated, Tkachuk took exception to Fleury's involvement and had words with the goalie. As you would expect, all hell broke loose within a split second of Tkachuk being face-to-face with Fleury. Eventually, Rittich, the Flames' goalie would head to his own blue line and signal Fleury with a banging of his goal stick.
4. Everyone's night would have been made by a Fleury vs Rittich fight at center ice.
As Rittich banged his stick from his own blue line, Fleury acknowledged the goaltender and laid his stick on the ice. Fleury then dangled his blocker while glaring at the stationary Rittich. With no officials in between the two, nothing ended up coming of the face-off, but boy were fans around the world ready to grab the popcorn! Following the game, Fleury played the exchange pretty cool. "Yeah, I don't know. He came to the blue line, so he felt a little challenged, but then didn't move. I didn't want to be chasing a goalie around. It was fine, I just thought he was going to come, and nothing happened". Personally, I think goalies need to stay out scrums, in turn avoiding these stare downs, but you'd be crazy to deny how great that fight would have been.
5. Sunday's rematch in Calgary is going to be epic.
Just as they did in late November, the Golden Knights and Flames will play two games against each other within a week. In their first set of games, the teams split games with Vegas losing a 7-2 road game, before winning the home rematch 2-0. Malcolm Subban started the first of those games, giving up seven goals, but that loss was a result of terrible team defense. Vegas had just gotten Nate Schmidt back into the lineup and were on the verge of finding their groove and erasing the losing record they compiled in the first 20 games of the season, in his absence.
This time around, Vegas was flying high, on a four-game win streak, while the Flames had dropped their previous two games against Toronto and Minnesota. Vegas General Manager George McPhee woke the team up when he sent them into the Stone Age. The trade deadline addition of Mark Stone has clearly broken the team out of their previous skid, as Stone has yet to lose a game as a member of the Golden Knights. Vegas may never lose again, for the rest of the season, and then for the eight years left on Stone's new contract. Take that to the sports book before it's too late!
In all seriousness, the rematch in Calgary will have a similar playoff game feel to last night's matchup. Following the game, Shea Theodore acknowledged the energy and intensity of the game. "Yeah, it was a tight playoff game. Those are the games it's going to be like the rest of the way leading into playoffs and we have to be ready to battle and play just like that." Shea also added that, "anytime you're looking up at teams in the standings you don't want to give them any free points. Tonight, I thought we played a good hard-fought game and definitely in our (aggressive/fast) style". With the bad blood created in the second period scuffle, the rematch on Sunday is sure to be a barn-burner.
**
Prior to the rematch in Calgary, the Golden Knights head to Vancouver to take on the Canucks. Vancouver is one of the two teams Fleury just shutout, but Subban may get that start, in the first game of the back-to-back. Utilizing Subban, allows Fleury more rest for the Flames game the following night. Between the abusing 7-2 loss earlier in the season and the higher degree of difficulty in opponents, conventional wisdom would say Subban gets the start in Vancouver, not Calgary.
Be sure to follow me on Twitter (@VGK_Buzz) for in-game updates, observations, and analysis.
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