Valeri Nichushkin (13) of the Colorado Avalanche celebrates after scoring against the Golden Knights during the third period of their game at T-Mobile Arena, Monday Dec. 23, 2019.
Monday, Dec. 23, 2019 | 11:19 p.m.
Vegas Golden Podcast
Finishing off 2019
Justin Emerson and Case Keefer take a look at the Vegas Golden Knights' final five games of the calendar year, and whether they can use them to maintain their spot at the top of the Pacific Division.
Marc-Andre Fleury furiously slapped his stick against the post in the midst of tying his career high in goals allowed Monday night at T-Mobile Arena.
That might have been the Golden Knights’ only outwardly sign of frustration despite a humbling 7-3 loss to the Avalanche. Otherwise, Vegas stayed optimistic heading into a four-day holiday break between games.
“We’ve been playing some good hockey,” forward Mark Stone said. “Maybe some bad habits are creeping back in just because of the amount of hockey we’ve been playing. Guys need to recharge. This is a good time of year for guys to sit down, relax and breathe. I think this game couldn’t have come at a better time for us.”
In the 10 days before the Avalanche loss, the Golden Knights had won four of five games to wrest a share of the top of the Pacific Division. With the co-leading Arizona Coyotes having also lost on Tuesday — 3-2 in Nashville — the teams will go into the NHL’s annual holiday pause tied.
That was solace enough for the Golden Knights, even though the loss to the Avalanche showed they’re far from a finished product and perhaps quite a ways away from reaching their Stanley Cup aspirations.
The two teams ahead of the Golden Knights in points in the western conference are the Avalanche and St. Louis Blues, and they’ve now gone 0-3 against those two opponents. A pair of losses to Colorado have been particularly condemning, as both have come at home and not been remotely close.
The Avalanche also crushed the Golden Knights 6-1 on Oct. 25.
“We looked tired, mentally tired to me and we just didn’t look like we had the same jump,” Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant said of Monday’s loss. “We played good hockey for a long time lately and tonight was a game that I wanted to play a lot better for a team that beat us real good last time. It just didn’t happen.”
A big reason it didn’t happen was former Golden Knight Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, who’s gone from a fan favorite in Vegas to a first goal-scoring foe. In his first trip to Las Vegas as a member of the Avalanche in October, Bellemare scored 28 seconds into the game.
It took a little longer on Monday — 4 minutes and 37 seconds — but the center put his new team up 1-0 again.
“He sure likes to play against us, doesn’t he?” Gallant said. “Belly’s a good character guy, a hard player and he’s come in here and played really well.”
Bellemare went on to notch the first multi-score game of his career after he also beat Fleury stick-side late in the second period. He now has six goals on the season — half of them coming against the Golden Knights.
His former buddy was only part of Fleury’s trouble. Vegas' No. 1 goalie looked overmatched by Colorado’s high-powered offense all night.
Vegas had a number of high-quality chances of its own but Colorado goalie Pavel Francouz made 29 saves, including a number that were highlight-worthy. Fleury had nothing of the sort, though his teammates were quick to deflect blame away from him.
“Three goals in this league should give you a chance to win so that just shows our defense wasn’t there,” Stone said.
The defense certainly didn’t help Fleury’s cause. Carelessness by defenseman Shea Theodore directly preceded the Avalanche’s first two goal.
On their third, an unassisted score by Nazem Kadri, Stone uncharacteristically failed to clear a loose puck.
But Fleury, who didn’t speak to media, appeared to want a few opportunities for stops back. Fleury’s stick-slap came after a third-period power play goal from Mikko Rantanen that hit off his pads.
“They’re one of the top teams for a reason so we need to do a much better job of staying on top of their guys and not giving them grade-A chances,” Vegas forward Max Pacioretty said.
Pacioretty might have been the lone bright spot. He added to his team-lead in goals (16) and points (37) in the second period despite missing half of the first after taking an elbow to the head.
That made the score 3-2, but Colorado’s Gabriel Landeskog scored minutes later to revert Colorado’s lead back to two goals.
Vegas’ other goals came by William Carrier and Ryan Raves. Carrier’s third-period score came when the Golden Knights’ hopes for a comeback were already slim, as it only cut the deficit to 5-3. And Reaves’ was more of an own goal as he was only credited after replay showed the puck hit off of a Colorado player’ stick.
There wasn’t much positive for the Golden Knights to take out of the loss. That’s why they’re ready to forget about it.
“It’s a perfect time, a real good time for a break,” Gallant said. “Tonight’s a stinker but we’ll get by it and get back to good hockey.”
Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.
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