Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Down 3 skaters, Golden Knights lose game, control of West Division to Avalanche

Vegas Golden Knights vs Colorado Avalanche

Wade Vandervort

Vegas Golden Knights right wing Reilly Smith (19) attempts to score past Colorado Avalanche goaltender Philipp Grubauer (31) during an NHL hockey game at T-Mobile Arena, Monday, May 10, 2021.

Knights Fall to Colorado Avalanche, 2-1

Colorado Avalanche left wing J.T. Compher (37) scores a goal against Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Robin Lehner (90) during the third period of an NHL hockey game Monday, May 10, 2021, in Las Vegas. Launch slideshow »

Colorado is hard enough to beat with a full roster. When you’re short three skaters because of injuries and salary-cap constraints, it’s darn near impossible.

Yet the Golden Knights almost pulled it off. They had a lead, they had momentum, and everything was going right, but eventually being understaffed was too much to overcome.

Vegas allowed the go-ahead goal in the last half of the third period and fell to the Avalanche 2-1 at T-Mobile Arena on Monday, putting a major dent in its chase for the West Division title.

“I thought we played pretty well,” defenseman Alex Pietrangelo said. “You’ve got to take a step back sometimes. Obviously we were disappointed in the result but you look at the effort and playing short-handed like that, you’ve got to be real proud sitting in the locker room.”

The Golden Knights were disadvantaged from the jump. Part of the downside of an offseason that brought them players like Pietrangelo was that Vegas was going to spend much of the season backed up against the salary cap. Monday was the ninth time this year the Golden Knights played with fewer than 18 skaters because a player was hurt and they lacked cap room to replace him. They are 3-5-1 in those games.

When a team is lacking cap space to ice a full roster, it is allowed to use an emergency recall to replace him, but only after the team has played a game with fewer than 18 skaters — a sort of punishment for being cap cramped.

Over the last four games, the Golden Knights intentionally skated with 17 to make cap room for rookie Peyton Krebs, who earns slightly more against the cap than the league minimum.

Then Krebs got hurt — he fractured his jaw Saturday and needed surgery that will keep him out indefinitely — and defenseman Alec Martinez got hurt and suddenly Vegas didn’t have cap room to ice more than 15. They played Monday with 10 forwards and five defensemen. They are expected to return to 17 skaters for the regular season finale on Wednesday.

“Our decisions are based on who gives us the best chance to win,” general manager Kelly McCrimmon said before the game. “We use the term sometimes, ‘salary-cap gymnastics,’ that go on over the course of the season, and I think over the NHL this year you’ve seen a number of teams in similar situations.”

Similar, but no one in a decade has had as bad of a situation as Vegas faced Monday. The last time an NHL team had 15 or fewer skaters was Oct. 11, 2010, when the New Jersey Devils did it, according to Sportsnet. The Devils lost that game 3-1.

“I’m just really proud of our group. They battled their (butts) off,” Vegas coach Pete DeBoer said. “That’s a great game if you've got 20 skaters. When you've got 15, that’s an exceptional effort by a group of men tonight. Unfortunately, they didn’t get the just reward that they deserved for what they put into it, but that’s hockey.”

DeBoer may have been proud, but his frustration was evident. He deflected a question about Vegas’ play in the final minutes — one shot in the last 10 minutes of the game — by saying he didn’t want to focus on “negatives” and cut off a question about a line change preceding Colorado’s goal.

It’s understandable. A victory would have given the Golden Knights the West Division title and the Presidents’ Trophy as the top point-earner in the NHL, guaranteeing home-ice advantage through the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

“Obviously it would have been nice to get that win and kind of reflect on the season knowing that the standings for us were set,” captain Mark Stone said. “But at the same time this group doesn’t sit back. We’ll be ready to play on Wednesday.”

Stone said the game itself wasn’t all that different, just that guys played a few more minutes. Stone played 22:28 of ice time, above his season average but below his season high. Pietrangelo played 28:33 and defenseman Shea Theodore led the team at 28:59.

And it really didn’t seem to matter for much of the game. They spent 50 minutes making the Avalanche look like they were the ones with 15 skaters, evidenced by the 36-14 lead Vegas had in shots on goal through the midpoint of the third before Colorado turned on the jets, though DeBoer and players disagreed that it was fatigue.

“I still think we were outplaying them for the majority of the game,” Stone said. “We doubled them in shots and I don’t think we gave up a ton of Grade-As. It’s just unfortunate. I think we gave up a couple of chances that ended up in the back of our net. Overall, I liked the way we played.”

If this were a seven-game series, the Golden Knights wouldn’t hate their position down 1-0 even if that series won’t come until the second round. Monday’s result did, however, increase the chances that a potential Game 7 would be played in Denver.

Colorado seized the ability to control its own destiny with a victory. Still two points back but with a game in hand, the Avalanche can clinch the West Division and the Presidents’ Trophy with wins on Wednesday and Thursday, regardless of the Golden Knights’ result against the Sharks. If they finished tied in the standings, Colorado has the tiebreaker by virtue of more regulation wins.

The Golden Knights will need to beat the Sharks and hope the Avalanche lose once to the Kings, or if they lose to the Sharks, hope the Avalanche lose twice. A first-place finish means a first-round series with the Blues, against whom Vegas finished this season 6-1-1. A second-place finish means the Wild, against whom Vegas finished 3-4-1.

Second place is still an accomplishment, considering it might also mean second place in the entire league. But the Golden Knights have talked all season about wanting to win the division and give themselves the easiest path in the playoffs.

There were factors outside the control of the players Monday that contributed to the loss, but there aren’t any moral victories in the NHL, especially this late in the season.

“I think we did a really good job eliminating their rush, we swarmed them in the ‘D’ zone, we frustrated them, but at the end of the day we just didn’t capitalize on our chances,” Stone said.

“We’ll be ready for Wednesday and whenever we open up the playoffs, we’ll have all hands on deck and we’ll be ready to rock.”

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