LAS VEGAS — The Golden Knights dropped their penultimate pre-season match 4-2 to the Avalanche. As is the norm at this point of the exhibition season, both squads fielded close to A-level line-ups.
Despite the loss, Coach Gerard Gallant seemed pleased with his team's game.
"We created 40-some shots," said Gallant. "We made some mistakes on three of the four goals and that cost us the hockey game. I think their goalie played well too.
"I’m leaving here tonight not disappointed. We got a lot out of the game."
The underlying stats support his argument, as Vegas swept 5v5 Corsi (42-19), scoring chances (21-10), and high-danger opportunities (5-3). On top of that, the Golden Knights drew seven power plays to the Avalanche's four.
Most importantly, however, the home team came up empty on all of these man advantage bids, showing a general lack of cohesion.
Winning Play
This Mikko Rantanen strike would prove to be the game-winner.
The Golden Knights also gave up a goal earlier because of a slow line change, as Erik Johnson hit a wide-open Sven Andrighetto between four Golden Knights with a bullet stretch pass.
This late in the pre-season, is Gallant worried about these kind of unforced team errors?
"I just think that’s preseason and you make mistakes in the preseason," Gallant cautioned. "The more our team gets together, the better we’ll get.
Pluses
Vegas held serve on the penalty kill, keeping Colorado off the board. In fact, they even enjoyed the more dangerous scoring chances in these situations, as Reilly Smith roared in on two failed breakaways.
Along with Smith, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare represented the team's top penalty-killing forwards up front. Missed or not, a couple breakaway chances on the PK is nothing to sneeze at.
What's particularly remarkable about this?
"It's the first time I've played with him," noted Smith.
On his new-found partner in crime's penalty-killing prowess -- Bellemare led Flyers forwards in PK usage in the past two years -- Smith observed, "He just works hard. He's quick to pucks. A lot of being on the penalty kill is just getting in lanes. He does a good job doing that."
The 25-year-old forward summarized the unit's success so, "As a PK in general, up the pace a little bit, make it tough on power plays."
Smith, however, wouldn't take full credit for their outstanding work tonight. "Preseason, power plays aren't usually very sharp. That's an easy way to jump on them," he acknowledged.
A Smith-Bellemare first-unit PK, has Gallant happened upon the beginning of a beautiful friendship?
Gallant was also very pleased with Alex Tuch, "The last two or three games, he’s used his big body well and I think he’s getting more confidence every time he plays."
Work like this is eye-opening:
Tuch predator, Warsofsky prey pic.twitter.com/VsUkGZnmCp
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) September 29, 2017
Minuses
Obviously, the power play was less than ideal. Not a lot of chances were created, clean zone entries were seldom, and timing was off. Young pointmen Shea Theodore and Colin Miller were both victimized by dangerous pinches which led to Colorado SH chances.
Refreshingly, however, Gallant didn't seem phased by these mishaps. He said this about the 21-year-old Theodore, but may as well have been talking about the 24-year-old Miller too:
"[Theodore] made some mistakes tonight and he made some mistakes the other night. You’re going to see that from young players, especially young defenseman. We’ll live with that. We just want [them] to keep growing."
On the other hand, more might be expected from 30-year-old Vadim Shipachyov. When asked if he was the Golden Knights' best player tonight, the coach was quick to shoot that down.
"I wouldn’t say he’s the best player on the ice, for sure. I thought he was okay."
That may seem like a harsh condemnation of the Russian star, who set up a number of excellent chances, assisted on Theodore's goal, and showed off his elite vision time after time. But I imagine that Gallant might have been peeved by this play in particular:
Also earlier in the game, trying to advance the attack, Shipachyov finessed a couple neutral zone passes which were easily picked off. Nobody would argue with the playmaker's vision, but there are probably some plays which work in the KHL but not the NHL. If the Russian "rookie" adjusts -- it must be noted that he has less NHL experience than Theodore and Miller -- the league can be his oyster.
***
++++I AM CURRENTLY LOOKING FOR ADVERTISERS! If you, or anyone you know would be interested in placing an ad here at HockeyBuzz, then send me a PM!++++