Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Analysis:

Ready to go in Montreal’: Golden Knights should move on from poor Game 2

0616_sun_VGKCanadiens2

Steve Marcus

Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Zach Whitecloud (2) falls near the goal during the second period in Game 2 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup semifinal playoff series against the Montreal Canadiens at T-Mobile Arena Wednesday, June 16, 2021. Montreal Canadiens defenseman Shea Weber (6) and right wing Joel Armia (40) defend.

Golden Knights Fall to Canadiens in Game 2

An official keeps Vegas Golden Knights left wing Max Pacioretty (67) away from celebrating Montreal Canadiens after the Golden Knights 3-2 loss in Game 2 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup semifinal playoff series against the Montreal Canadiens at T-Mobile Arena Wednesday, June 16, 2021. Launch slideshow »

Pete DeBoer doesn’t usually incorporate many theatrics into his coaching, but the Vegas Golden Knights’ 3-2 loss to the Montreal Canadiens Wednesday night provides a perfect opportunity for him to start.

Perhaps DeBoer should burn copies of the game onto CDs and toss them on the ice instead of a bag of pucks before Vegas’ next practice, letting the likes of Alex Pietrangelo and Shea Theodore blast them into pieces from the blue line. Or maybe DeBoer could really commit to the throwback theme and put the game on a VHS tape that Ryan Reaves can punch into two like a karate board. 

The best course of action for the Golden Knights in response to a Game 2 that saw them allow the Canadiens to tie the teams’ Stanley Cup playoff semifinal series at one win apiece is to forget about it.

The Golden Knights are better than the performance that started with a 3-0 deficit and ended up snapping their five-game win streak. They know they’re better than it and should be able to prove as much when the series resumes with Game 3 at 5 p.m. Friday in Montreal.   

“You get down 3-0, it’s a tough hole to climb out of,” team captain Mark Stone said, “but we’ll be ready to go in Montreal.”

There’s precedent here, as bouncing back from a poor showing is one of the biggest reasons Vegas is on the precipice of reaching its second Stanley Cup Final in four years. The Golden Knights managed it after a 7-1 Game 1 slaughter in Colorado last round and they pulled it off following a disastrous 3-0 Game 6 loss to the Wild in the first round.

Now they need to repeat their resilience after a sluggish, slow-starting Game 2 against Montreal. A one-goal loss may not sound as damaging as the aforementioned setbacks, but it’s on par considering the latest defeat came at home against a team that the Golden Knights should be able to overwhelm.

And it came in the exact style Vegas knew it needed to avoid — letting Montreal climb out to an early lead. The Canadiens’ unlikely advancement to the NHL’s final four has largely been a result of implementing a formula where it presses for a few early goals before packing it in and counting on goalie Carey Price to sustain the lead.

The Golden Knights have repeatedly referenced knowledge of the strategy, so no, it’s no solace that they were the far better team for the final 22 minutes on Wednesday. That was only after they were down 3-0; their ascent was more or less by the Canadiens’ design.

“We can’t fall behind that much that early,” DeBoer said. “It’s not even one goal; when you get down two, it’s just really hard to come back. We’ve done it before in the Colorado series but you’re playing with fire when you do that, and we got burned tonight.”

It seemed like the Golden Knights’ first-period performance couldn’t get any worse than in Monday’s Game 1 when the Canadiens tallied a 7-1 edge against them in high-danger chances per naturalstattrick.com. But on Wednesday, the first period produced a high-danger count of 8-1 in favor of Montreal and included two goals, the first by Joel Armia and the second by Tyler Toffoli. 

“I don’t think we had one good player out there,” Reaves said succinctly in an intermission interview on the radio broadcast. 

The shortcomings were truly a team effort. The Golden Knights’ forwards were lazy on the forecheck, their defensemen were careless clearing the puck to cause turnovers and goalie Marc-Andre Fleury allowed Toffoli’s dribbler of a shot past him.

They eventually got at least one good player, but arguably not much more than that. As he’s done throughout the playoffs, Pietrangelo led the Golden Knights once they finally got going.

He scored both of their goals and created late opportunities for teammates to tie the game. They just couldn’t quite finish.

The one-man-show nature of Wednesday night for the Golden Knights was atypical compared with the rest of the playoffs where they’ve gotten contributions up and down the roster. Vegas can learn more from looking back on those triumphs than overanalyzing what went wrong in Game 2 against Montreal.

Off-nights strike even in the postseason; the key is moving on from them.

“You don’t get to the final four without knowing this is going to be a battle,” DeBoer said. “We knew this wasn’t going to be easy and we have a tremendous amount of respect for their team.”    

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.

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