Lawless & Order: The Blog | 2/23
VGK Wins "Must-Win" Against Colorado
By
Gary Lawless
VegasGoldenKnights.com
Tuesday, February 23, 2 p.m.
Any talk of keeping inter-divisional play only beyond this season should surely be abating by now. The fact we're not seeing the best teams in the NHL play one another in the regular season has to be disappointing to fans and players alike.
Who wouldn't like to see the Golden Knights lock up with the Maple Leafs, Bruins, Lightning, Panthers, Oilers etc.?
Early on this season there was lots of discussion, mostly from media up in Canada, about the benefit of the format being used right now which only sees teams play within their division.
For lots of people up North, the prospect of watching all-Canadian matchups every night was rewarding. I'll admit to being glued to a number of North Division games this season but not in an exclusive manner.
But it's already getting old. And the concept of having the best teams in a given division beat up on the bottom feeders of said grouping.
It seems as if every night there is a new candidate for best player in the world. In Toronto they like Auston Matthews as they should. In Edmonton it's Connor McDavid and don't waste your breath on anyone else. The case for Lightning defenseman Victor Hedmen gets made as well. On Saturday during NBC's broadcast of the Golden Knights and Avalanche game, Ed Olczyk claimed Nathan MacKinnon to be the best player in the world.
Listening to Sportsnet's Chris Johnston on radio the other day and he admitted to the challenges of applying context to what teams and players are doing within their own division vs. the rest of the league.
"I think it's hard to measure. And I think it's going to be hard to vote on awards when it comes time to do that," said Johnston. "I don't know how you weigh a great season by someone in the North vs. someone in the East. I've never dealt with anything like this."
Divisional play only is a necessary evil this season but any talk of it extending beyond should stop right now.
Monday, February 22, 10:30 p.m.
Game 16 of a 56 game regular season is a little early for must-win, but Monday's match with the Colorado Avalanche was the first most important game of the season. Others will follow, but for now the 3-0 win against the Avs was the weightiest outing of this Covid campaign for the Vegas Golden Knights.
The first sign of the game's importance was flashed as the team's took rushes in the warmup and it became clear Vegas coach Pete DeBoer had made drastic changes to his lineup. All four forward lines were jumbled as were all three defense pairings. Veteran blueliner Nick Holden was taken out and replaced by rookie Dylan Coghlan.
Alex Tuch was promoted to the top line with Mark Stone and center Chandler Stephenson. Max Pacioretty and Riley Smith flanked Cody Glass while center William Karlsson skated with wingers Jonathan Marchessault and Nick Roy.
The fourth line featured three bruisers, Keegan Kolesar, Ryan Reaves and William Carrier.
On defense, DeBoer ran with Alex Pietrangelo and Shea Theodore as a pair, Zach Whitecloud was matched with Alec Martinez and while rookies Coghlan and Nic Hague formed a duo.
Vegas had dropped two straight to Colorado and were on the verge of falling behind their West Division rivals in points percentage. The win, however, earned the Golden Knights a 2-2 split in the four-game in-season series with the Avalanche. The teams will meet four times more before the end of the regular season. Vegas remains first in the division with the Avalanche right behind them.
DeBoer and his coaching staff won't find themselves on the scoresheet but the line juggling was likely the most impactful stroke of the day. Vegas had struggled to generate offense in its last two outings which subsequently were losses.
Tuch scored a pair of goals and effectively used his speed to help contain Colorado superstar Nathan MacKinnon. Theodore, who had looked a touch off in his first two games since returning from injury, looked much better while paired with Pietrangelo.
Marc-Andre Fleury earned his third shutout of the season and was brilliant in the doing. Fleury beat the Avs to the spot all night. Every time Colorado appeared to have an open lane for a shot on the Vegas goal, Fleury was able to face the shot squarely and within the area of his two posts. He's been inside the iron and the blue ice all season and right now he's the best goalie in the NHL. Fleury's goals-against average of 1.55 and his save percentage of .942 are tops among all goalies with five starts or more.
The post-game on Monday featured some hilarity with most of it centering around Marchessault.
During a post-game radio interview with Dan D'Uva and myself, Hague started laughing as Marchessault barked at him, "Way to go, Wagyu. Good job, Wagyu." When asked about the nickname, Hague couldn't control his mirth.
"He started calling my Hague-er, then it was Hagyu and now it's Wagyu," laughed Hague.
Later, when Marchessault joined Theodore on the podium for a post-game zoom call with media, he opened with: "Welcome to the gun show," referring to his own biceps which were prevelant in the t-shirt he was wearing.
When asked by a media member about the comment he looked at Theodore and popped, "it definitely wasn't about Shea."
