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Who's in Goal? Getting to Know Oscar Dansk + Fleury Sighting

October 22, 2017, 7:55 PM ET [8 Comments]
Sheng Peng
Vegas Golden Knights Blogger •Vegas Golden Knights Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT


There's a new comedy routine playing at Golden Knights' practice. It's called, "Who's in Goal?"

Two weeks ago, it was Marc-Andre Fleury, of three Stanley Cups. A week ago, it was Malcolm Subban, of two career NHL appearances. And today, it was Oscar Dansk, of zero NHL experience before last night.

The joke, however, has been on the NHL, as Vegas has managed to win six of their first seven contests.

While today's practice brought no further clarity to the netminding haze -- Head Coach Gerard Gallant stated that the results of Subban's MRI will be released later today -- there were other happy returns on the ice.

(Update: Vegas just announced that Subban will be out for about four weeks with a lower body injury. McPhee seems willing to roll with Dansk and Maxime Lagace as his goaltending duo, stating, “Injuries provide opportunities for others and that is the situation we have here. Our top two goaltenders are currently sidelined so we will now give our AHL goalies the chance to play in their absence.")

Jonathan Marchessault shed his red no-contact jersey; the forward believes that he'll be ready for Tuesday's tilt against the Blackhawks.

Erik Haula returned to practice for the first time since a low hit by Tomas Tatar last week. Accidentally, he revealed that it was a knee injury which had kept him out. He was sporting a red no-contact jersey, so his exact return to game action remains up in the air.

Finally, there was this promising sighting:




Marchessault's impending return will demand a change on the roster. I'm a big supporter of Vadim Shipachyov, but it's fair to say that Alex Tuch, the other waiver-exempt skater on the team, has soundly outplayed him.




This is speculation on my part, but it might benefit the KHL star to play some games in Chicago and get used to the smaller ice here.

Also, Nate Schmidt missed practice, but Gallant said it was a maintenance day. Schmidt did play in OT last night, but we'll check up on him at tomorrow's 10:30 AM practice.

Anyway, I caught up with Dansk today, asking why he got buried in the Columbus organization and what it was like to play with a 15-year-old Connor McDavid. Haula offered his thoughts about whether or not players consciously or sub-consciously defend differently in front of a back-up goalie. And Gallant tells us which Vegas skater is most likely to volunteer to play goal in a pinch; he also suggests that Dansk and likely call-up Lagace will be in an open competition for playing time.


Oscar Dansk

HockeyBuzz: Will your Dad make it out by Tuesday?

Oscar Dansk: We'll see. I'm going to talk to him after this.

HB: When you were 13, you came out to the US to play at Shattuck St. Mary's. What was that transition like, coming from Sweden?

OD: Yeah, that was a big transition for me. I was young. It was tough at first. But I made life-time friends there.

HB: Was it tough because of language? Why was it hard?

OD: Not really language. I spent a lot of summers in Canada for summer camps. My parents really forced my brothers and I to take in the culture here, to learn English. Both my brothers are also very good at English. That's one thing we're grateful for.

HB: Would you encourage other European goalies to come here at a young age and get used to it?

OD: I think it's all personal. Now, it's so competitive, the programs everywhere in the world. It's hard to say.

HB: You've talked in previous seasons about improving your consistency. Do you think, now that you're here, you've found that consistency in your game? Or you will find it here?

OD: That was the goal when coming here. I got this opportunity to sign with Vegas and I didn't hesitate one bit. It's a tremendous honor to get that opportunity.

HB: Can you talk about what happened with you and the Columbus organization? (HockeyBuzz note: Dansk was a Blue Jackets second-round pick in the 2012 draft.)

OD: There were some really good goalies there. Bobrovsky, McElhinney, obviously Korpisalo, and Forsberg is now in Chicago. It was a lot of competition.

HB: I have to ask, what was it like playing with Connor McDavid? (HB note: Dansk and McDavid were teammates for two seasons in Erie.)

OD: It was awesome. Connor's a great dude. I can't emphasize how great of a guy he is.

HB: From your perspective in goal, to see him pick up the puck behind the net, and just go, how breathtaking was that?

OD: It's unreal. It was cool to go against him when he was 15 and see him now where I thought he would be.


Erik Haula

HockeyBuzz: You're now onto your third starting goalie. Do you find that guys change their game a bit, perhaps sink down defensively more, to help the new goalie out?

Erik Haula: I don't think so. We feel pretty confident when Flower's back there. Subbie did an awesome job, so we felt comfortable with him. Let's hope the next guy who's up does a good job.

HB: Even sub-consciously, there's no change?

EK: Yeah, I don't care who's back there as long as he's making saves.


Gerard Gallant

Jesse Granger: Have you seen anything like this with goalies going down so fast?

Gerard Gallant: I was in Florida and we lost Luongo and Montoya in the same thing. It happens, but it doesn't happen very often. You battle through, you give somebody else the opportunity to get some NHL experience.

Gary Lawless: That night you lost Luongo and Montoya, Derek MacKenzie went into room and put the pads on. Tell us how that happened.

GG: It was unbelievable, really. Nobody knew what was going to happen. They said they would give us 20 minutes, the referees.

Derek MacKenzie went in there, put the pads on. The last thing we wanted to do was put Derek in the net.

By the time Derek got dressed, Luongo came back from hospital. He saw what was going on, so he decided that he would try it. But doctors wouldn't allow that. So our goalie coach Robb Tallas got dressed. And the NHL said that wasn't allowed.

It was a confusing situation.

(HB note: Eventually, Luongo went back out there and Tallas was allowed to back up during this March 3, 2015 contest between the Panthers and the Maple Leafs.)

GL: Who knew MacKenzie could do it?

GG: He volunteered. That's the type of guy he is. A character guy. Nobody wanted to do it.

JG: So if Dansk went out, we would have saw [61-year-old goaltending coach] Dave Prior in last night?

GG: Not a chance. (laughs) There was an emergency goalie here.

HockeyBuzz: A la MacKenzie, who do you think on the Golden Knights would've volunteered first?

GG: Bellemare. I would bet money on it.

HB: Going into the season, it was presumed that Dansk was third on the depth chart. Is that correct?

GG: You'll have to talk to Dave Prior about that.

I wouldn't say that [Dansk was third]. Seriously, we don't rank the goalies in the American League, we see how they play down there. Whoever goes down and plays the best will be the first one called up. That's the way we try to work things out.

Both [Dansk and Lagace], we want them to play some games. It's early in the season. So it's not fair to say who's three and four. Honestly, I couldn't tell you who's three and four right now.

(HB note: Lagace received the first call-up after Fleury's injury. It was assumed that he was recently sent down to play Chicago's two games this weekend. However, Dansk has the pedigree as a former second-rounder -- Lagace was undrafted -- and the big Swede acquitted himself well in relief of Subban last night.)

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