Sam Bennett, Colin Miller (USA Today Sports)
Riding high on a five-game winning streak, the Golden Knights headed into Canada this weekend, for a back-to-back set of games against the Vancouver Canucks and Calgary Flames. Vancouver finds themselves outside of the playoff picture and the Flames’ own four-game losing streak, presented two very winnable games for Vegas. Their level of confidence should have been high, as this back-to-back was a rematch scenario. Vegas’ last two games came against these same opponents, with Vegas winning both home contests, on March 3rd against the Canucks and March 6th over the Flames. Vegas was set up for a smooth trip, but experienced a bit of turbulence in the Great White North.
First up for the Golden Knights were the Canucks on Saturday evening. Vancouver welcomed Vegas to town, with a 2-6-2 record in their last 10 games. Both wins came in extra time, a shootout win in Los Angeles and a shocking overtime defeat of the Toronto Maple Leafs. Despite their season-long struggles, the Canucks have been fortunate to acquire multiple flashy, young talents. Elias Pettersson (20), Bo Horvat (23), and Brock Boeser (21) lead the Canucks in scoring, with all three men compiling over 20 goals this season. That trio can create havoc for any team in the NHL, especially one that has gone through prolonged cold stretches, like the Golden Knights have at times this season.
Vegas wasted no time jumping on the Canucks, as Mark Stone beat Jacob Markstrom just 1:32 into the game, for his first goal as a Golden Knight. Stone’s 29th of the season was a greasy one, a backhander off of Paul Stastny’s rebound. In the buildup to the goal, Stastny collected his own broken-up pass and sent a quick shot off of the far post. Stone wasted no time jumping on the ensuing rebound in the slot and sending it into the open net behind Markstrom. Although his presence has been felt throughout the organization, to the tune of a 5-0-0 record following the trade deadline, Stone has been uncharacteristically quiet on the scoresheet since joining the Golden Knights (0 goals, 2 assists in five games). Saturday’s goal ended his five-game drought and his relief was clear to see, with an emphatic fist pump following the tally.
Vegas’ new-look third line finally hit their stride when Alex Tuch and Cody Eakin scored goals within 3:30 to give Vegas a 3-0 lead. With Brandon Pirri serving as the healthy scratch, Tomas Nosek played the wing opposite Tuch, as the third line shined in Vancouver. Brock Boeser scored for Vancouver at 10:58, but Nosek quickly erased it with a goal of his own 54 seconds later. Nosek’s seventh of the season was his first goal since January 10th, a span of 14 games played, with Nosek occasionally serving as a healthy scratch in that time frame. Vegas’ first period onslaught ended with Paul Stastny’s ninth of the season, assisted by Colin Miller and Stone, marking Stone’s first multi-point game with the team.
Both teams traded goals in the second period, exactly one minute apart, to wrap up the scoring on the evening in just 24:56 of game time. The 6-2 score would eventually go final, giving the Golden Knights their sixth straight win. Backed by a solid performance from Marc-Andre Fleury, the Golden Knights were on their way to Calgary, for a presumably much tougher game the next night. Fleury’s appearance against Vancouver, in the first game of the back-to-back, suggested that he would start both games. Calgary is the more difficult of the two opponents and Malcolm Subban had a rough go in Calgary on November 19th, during a 7-2 loss. Fleury was the goaltender of record in the previous game against the Flames, a 2-1 winning effort. The writing was on the wall, Fleury would be doing double-duty on the Canada trip, starting both games of a back-to-back for the fourth time this season.
Not so fast.
In a surprising turn of events on Sunday morning, an emergency recall of AHL goaltender Maxime Lagace was made. Fans and writers began speculating what the deal was. Did Fleury sustain an injury against the Canucks? Was Subban nursing an injury unbeknownst to the public? People wanted answers. Turns out that Fleury’s availability came into question due to a “close call”, according to Head Coach Gerard Gallant back home with his significant other, with whom he is expecting a child in the near future. Lagace was recalled in the event that Fleury became unavailable for Sunday’s contest. In an even more surprising turn, Fleury took the ice for warm-ups, as the back-up netminder. As reported by Jesse Granger of TheAthletic.com, Gallant planned to use Subban on Sunday, regardless of Fleury’s availability, which is a very interesting strategy. Subban is a solid back-up goaltender, but giving him the tougher of the two games on a back-to-back could be counterproductive for a team jockeying for playoff position, heading into a game against the formerly first-place Flames.
Subban playing against tough competition is nothing new under Gallant. Subban’s 2018-19 game log is full of starts against elite teams.
Subban’s Starts in 2018-19:
10/11/18: @ Pittsburgh (3rd Metro)
10/30/18: @ Nashville (2nd Central)
11/11/18: @ Boston (2nd Atlantic)
11/19/18: @ Calgary (2nd Pacific)
12/17/18: @ Columbus (2nd East WC)
12/29/18: @ Los Angeles
1/6/19: vs New Jersey
2/16/19: vs Nashville (2nd Central)
2/18/19: @ Colorado
2/28/19: vs Florida
3/10/19: @Calgary (2nd Pacific)
Most of Subban’s starts have come on the road, against a tough opponent, sitting in a playoff position. Most teams would go with their starting goaltender, especially one like Fleury, who is the bona fide face of the franchise. Fleury has started more games than any other goaltender in the NHL and Vegas has never been shy about their fondness for Fleury. In the second game of a back-to-back, against an elite team, the Golden Knights intended to use their extremely sporadically used back-up goaltender. His lack of game time suggests faltering confidence in Subban, but his deployment in tough match ups convolutes that notion. It is hard to predict what is going on with Vegas’ goaltending situation and it has truly become a head-scratching system with the newly-extended Fleury and pending-RFA Subban.
Calgary quickly jumped on Subban and the Golden Knights, getting out to a 2-0 lead in the first 7:37 of the game. Andrew Mangiapane and Mikael Backlund scored the respective goals for the Flames, effectively igniting the home crowd. Backlund’s goal was certainly one Subban would like to have back, as it was a seemingly harmless wrist shot from 25 feet out. Down by two, so quickly into the game, Vegas needed something to change and they got a goal from their third liners. Brandon Pirri, back in the lineup for an injured Nosek, broke the trend for Vegas with his 11th of the season, at 14:40 of the first, cutting the Flames’ lead to one. Pirri hammered home a one-timer, off a great behind-the-net pass from Tuch. Vegas’ comeback bid was short-lived as public enemy number one, Matthew Tkachuk, extended the Calgary lead back to two goals, with 1:02 left in the period. Tkachuk’s goal was his 27th of the season and shows that he is clearly following in the footsteps of his father, the long-time Coyote, Keith Tkachuk, who also played a very edgy game, mixed with high-level talent. Matthew got into a skirmish with Colin Miller in the previous meeting, after backing down into Fleury a tad too aggressively. Matthew’s brother, Brady, is also a rising star in the league, as one of the only notable players left on the Ottawa Senators, following the trade deadline.
Vegas got out to a great start in the second period, when Reilly Smith scored his 14th of the season, just 21 seconds into the middle period. William Karlsson was sprung by a great stretch pass from Shea Theodore, which sent he and Smith off to the races, on a 2-on-1 toward David Rittich’s net. Karlsson displayed nice hands and patience, hitting Smith with a perfect saucer pass around the lone Flames defenseman. Smith put a nice move on a sliding Rittich to bury the backhander. Stone would follow that up with his second goal in as many games, 59 seconds later. Stone was also the beneficiary of slick passing, when Stastny slid a last-second pass across the Flames’ crease, to a streaking Stone. The goal marked Stone’s second-straight 30-goal season, at the ripe age of 26.
Calgary took over the remainder of the game, shutting down Vegas’ offense for the remaining 38:40 of game clock. Just as they did in the opening period, Calgary effectively stole momentum back from the Golden Knights with a late goal, this time a Backlund power play goal, with 22 seconds left on the clock. Backlund made a very impressive redirection in front of Subban and inadvertently made contact with Subban’s glove hand. Immediately after the goal, Subban argued interference and it was subsequently challenged by Gallant. Gallant is not shy about his challenges, as they have challenged a total of 10 times, good for third in the league (ScoutingTheRefs.com). Upon further review, the goal was (correctly) upheld, clearly angering Subban. As the horn went off to end the period, Subban had words for referee Dan O’Halloran and emphatically argued his case, crossing a figurative and physical line, thereby earning a two-minute unsportsmanlike conduct penalty. Subban making chest contact with the official may have been what did him in. Former player, Daniel Carcillo was quick to add context for Subban on Twitter, describing O’Halloran as “unapproachable”, having “little man syndrome”, and as a guy who “likes to “big time” guys”. He also added that he may be admittedly biased due to nine years of experience, playing games officiated by O’Halloran.
Starting the third, up a man, was ideal for Calgary. Their top line of Johnny Gaudreau, Sean Monahan, and Elias Lindholm had been stifled through the first two periods and a power play could potentially wake the trio up. Vegas successfully killed the Subban penalty, but were unable to get much else going in the final frame. Rittich held up solidly, as he has most of the season, sealing the win for the Flames. Tkachuk also had a large role in the Flames’ win, adding his 28th and 29th goals of the season, completing the hat trick on an empty-netter and closing the door on the Golden Knights. Calgary was very strong on the puck and their transition work was impressive. Any time Calgary created a turnover, their forwards spaced out effectively, setting up nice, one-time looks. Vegas has shown that they can play with the Flames, but Calgary was up to the task on Sunday evening, taking first place back from the Sharks with their 6-3 win over Vegas.
Coming off of their first loss of the “Stone Age”, the Golden Knights remain comfortably in third place in the Pacific Division, with 81 points, eight points ahead of the fourth-place Arizona Coyotes. Vegas will have plenty of time to regroup, as they have four full days off before their next game, on Friday in Dallas. Heading down the stretch, the Golden Knights will play 12 more games, with an even home/road split of six games apiece. It would take a true freefall collapse for the Golden Knights to miss the playoffs. The next 12 games will be important for the team to keep integrating Stone into the offense, sorting out the lineup, and getting William Carrier and potentially Erik Haula back healthy, for the playoffs.
In the meantime, be sure to follow me on Twitter for Golden Knights news, analysis, and updates!
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