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Vegas Has the Blues, Lose 4-1 to St. Louis |
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Wow, that was a tough one to digest. David Perron and the St. Louis Blues came into town and took a 4-1 decision that few could have expected. St. Louis received a good effort from goaltender Jake Allen on the way to their 7th win of the season. With the win, the Blues move into a tie with the Golden Knights, but with three less games played. Vegas dropped to 8-11-1 on the season, in 20 games.
Wait, 20 games! That’s an important milestone of the season. The #FreeNate Twitter following gets their salvation and Vegas will now have their number one defenseman back, following his suspension. Vegas has missed Schmidt on their defense corps and his return on Sunday in Edmonton will surely give the Golden Knights a lift. That morale boost will be much needed following tonight’s game.
Vegas actually opened up the scoring in the first period. Pierre-Edouard Bellemare flipped a long, high arcing lob pass from the Vegas blue line to William Carrier at the Blues’ blue line. Blues defenseman Carl Gunnarsson could not properly knock down the pass and Carrier shot past him, one-on-one with the goalie. Carrier made no mistake and fired a quick wrist shot, low to the blocker side, and past Allen to get Vegas a 1-0 lead. Carrier’s goal was his third of the season, with Shea Theodore picking up the secondary assist. Much to Vegas’ disappointment, that lead and feeling of joy would be short-lived as the Blues scored their first of four unanswered goals, just 38 seconds later.
Blues center Ryan O’Reilly, their big fish this offseason, coming in a trade with Buffalo, scored his ninth goal of the season on a nifty backhand past Vegas netminder Marc-Andre Fleury. O’Reilly pounced on a loose puck off of the stick of Vladimir Tarasenko, put a move on Fleury, and finished short-side with the backhand. The play showed just how talented O’Reilly is. Jaden Schwartz picked up the second assist. The first period would come to a close, at a score of 1-1, with Vegas failing to convert on their only power play.
O’Reilly added another goal, 7:02 into the second period on a deflection of Schwartz’s shot from the top of the right faceoff circle. Theodore was battling for position with O’Reilly out front, but failed to control his stick and O’Reilly managed a nice deflection, for his second goal of the game and 10th of the season. Blues center Brayden Schenn later followed suit with a deflection of his own, coming off an offensive zone faceoff win by Tyler Bozak. Bozak won the draw cleanly back to defenseman Joel Edmundson who immediately fired a slap shot on goal. Schenn was able to get his stick into the path, redirecting it past Fleury.
St. Louis’s fourth and final goal came 59 seconds after the Schenn tally and it came from the Blues’ hero from the last game against Vegas, Oskar Sundqvist. Sundqvist scored two goals in their last meeting and now has three in two games against the Golden Knights. Vegas defenseman Jon Merrill was slow getting to a rebound left out front by Fleury and Sundqvist beat his man, Nick Holden, to the punch. Sundqvist faked a shot, made a nice move, and beat Fleury to the far post, stuffing it in and essentially sealing the game for the Blues, with 2:48 left in the second period.
Following that onslaught, I expected to see backup goalie Malcolm Subban get some work in the third, but Vegas rolled with Fleury, seemingly hoping to get back into the game. Not much of significance came in the third period and it was generally uneventful. Vegas would go on to finish the game 0/4 on the power play, but also held St. Louis scoreless in their three attempts. The Blues outshot Vegas 35 to 33 which isn’t a significant margin, but is definitely a rare occurrence for a Golden Knights team that generally outshoots everyone, both in wins and in losses. Vegas had a number of quality chances to score and hit a post or two once again. The most glaring missed opportunity had to be 13 minutes into the second period. A loose puck made its way to Ryan Carpenter, who was all alone in the slot, but he whiffed on the shot attempt and watched the puck slide right on by. At that time, the score was still 2-1 and a goal could have given Vegas the push they needed to win the game. Just three minutes later, Schenn scored St. Louis’ third goal and they were off to the races.
On Sunday, the Golden Knights are back on the road, with a back-to-back. First up are the Edmonton Oilers and Monday night they’ve got James Neal and the Calgary Flames. Edmonton presents many threats, but none bigger than the duo of forwards Leon Draisaitl and Connor McDavid. Both men are highly skilled, young superstars. Draisaitl is the older of the two at 23 years old and McDavid a is ripe 21. These two men will be great for years to come and best believe Schmidt will be tasked with keeping their line in check. The Oilers’ second line is centered by Ryan Nugent-Hopkins who is no slouch himself. If teams are able to contain those three youngsters, they can certainly beat Edmonton. Following this defeat, the Golden Knights will have their work cut out for them, heading back on the road after a short two games at home. On the bright side, the Oilers will be on the second half of their own back-to-back, with a game in Calgary on Saturday evening. Sunday’s game in Edmonton is a 5pm start and will be broadcast in Vegas on AT&T Sportsnet.
Follow along on Twitter (@VGK_Buzz) for in-game commentary, observations, and analysis.
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