VEGAS GOLDEN KNIGHTS 4 MONTREAL CANADIENS 3 (24-15-2 50 PTS)

In 2019-20, Marc Andre Fluery was very bad. He was killing them with a .905 save percentage in 49 games. They figured they couldn’t trust him in the playoffs which is what precipitated the Robin Lehner trade.

I’ve been defending Robin Lehner because of the poor play of the defence in front of him but his performance tonight excluding the overtime was horrible. So what are the options? I’m thinking the only one is Robin Lehner himself to get his game back. The trading for a goalie option isn’t there like it was two years ago as we are going to have to shed salary just to make room for Eichel. I think Brossoit’s ceiling is as a back up.

Glass half full is that we are in the Pacific division and we have time to not panic and let Lehner figure this out.

Can’t win a cup with one trade or player acquisition but we’re seeing how one bad management decision sure can guarantee you won’t win it….How many more years will RL be the goalie here, 4 more? Ughhhhhhh,…

OT performance:

no 27 A ++
no 90 A+ (no 90 is the goalie, btw)
no 10 A+

The team defense was poor , again, allowing the HABS to crash the net for 2 of 3 their goals. The VGK did not get going until half way through the final period. Finally got their legs and timing after long layoff. Good wake up call for send off to road trip.

No. 7 was slow on power play to cover a man in front of net (didn’t figure out where to go until it was too late) and he ran into linesman leading to another goal. On that goal no. 17 was clueless in front of his own net letting puck bang off his skate instead of taking the man in front of net. Other defensive missed assignments led PDB to bench no. 17 after misplay for most of one of the rest of that period. Funny how people only look at one player on ice without seeing what rest of the team is doing. No 46, the call up, hardly got any playing time.

There is no depth on defense in the VGK organization from AHL of big d men as Kayden , one of their top draft picks hasn’t played since November. Bischoff hasn’t been seen in nearly a year. And Hayes hasn’t played in awhile either.

Those are the real stories. Deal with it.

People, you are taking a too simplistic approach to this goalie situation and how we got here. This “we chose the wrong goalie”, thinking is flawed. Two years ago we brought in Robin Lehner because Fleury was playing very badly and couldn’t stop a beach ball. Sadly I’m sure his father‘s passing had something to do with that. They knew they could not go anywhere with the way he was playing and made the right decision to go with Lehner who had a strong playoff run. Last year they made the right decision yet again to go with Fleury who also had a decent enough playoff run. Other than that gaffe he wasn’t losing games for us. In both years it wasn’t goaltending from Fluery or Lehner that knocked us out it was lack of scoring. I’m sure we can agree on that.

The definition of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result is insanity. We could have gone status quo and probably would make it as far as The final four before dropping out again because of lack of scoring.

NOW, this is where the “ they chose the wrong goalie“ thinking is flawed. If Fleury and Lehner had the exact same contract and cap hit I am pretty sure they would have kept Fluery especially coming off a Vezina trophy. However, if they deal Fluery the extra money saved allowed them to add additional scoring punch. There is no Dadonov if Fleury is still here. And perhaps it might not even be that quite that simple. I also think they were entertaining offers for Lehner. The interest may not have been there because of the term on his contract. I think what they definitely did not want to do was keep both and have $12 million in goaltending. SO THIS WASN’T A CHOOSING LEHNER OVER FLUERY thing. In fact, I’m sure they prefer Reilly Smith over Dadonov because he is a better all-around player but it might not play out that way because of contractual situation’s. They may have to deal Smith instead of Dadonov.

Up here in Toronto they do the same exact thing every year. They keep saying that they believe in their core and don’t make meaningful changes and they keep losing in the first round. it is insanity, doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.

So, I believe the logic around moving Fleury rather then Lehner was because then they would be able to add scoring and again change it up so they don’t just do the same thing again and lose in the semifinals. If they had the same cap hit I’m sure they would’ve kept Fluery.

Obviously this procedure has made the team worse because Lehner is not playing very well. If your goalie is a sieve then you have no chance. That’s obvious. I have never preferred one over the other. All I’ve ever said is that over their entire careers their numbers have been similar. That’s a fact.

I couldn’t predict that Fleury would be a sieve in 2019-20 and elite in 2020-21 much like I couldn’t predict that Lehner would be better in 2019-20 but a sieve this year.

I love long playoff runs and it has been a blast but I think going status quo would not have got us over the hump. Unfortunately unless Lehner turns it around we are screwed. In hindsight, if I knew Lehner would struggle like this I’m probably keeping Fleury and not adding Dadonov. It’s possible that Jack Eichel doesn’t happen either if they don’t move Fleury.

Did you guys know that Robin Lehner would have the worst year of his 10 year career this year?

So my long-winded point is that they didn’t prefer or choose Lehner over Fluery. What they and I thought is that they would both provide similar performances (based on their career sample sizes) and that Lehner would be doing it at a smaller cap hit.

In essence, at this point in time it appears that they may be wrong.

Fair enough. I hope and pray he turns it around. Will be good for all of us. I will buy you the jersey..