Recap: Jonathan Marchessault got Vegas going early with his 9th goal of the year. Marchessault took a quick snap shot off the draw and gave his team a 1-0 lead. St. Louis built some offensive pressure but goaltender Robin Lehner stopped all six shots on net.
St. Louis tied the game 6:52 into the 2nd period on a weird angled shot passed a screened Lehner. Both teams battled for possession but neither could controlled it long enough to take the lead. After 40 minutes the game was locked at one apiece.
Mark Stone broke the tie with his 11th of the season early in the final period. Keegan Kolesar stretched Vegas’ lead to 3-1 scoring his first NHL goal. William Karlsson and Stone both added power play goals to make it a four-score advantage. St. Louis made several pushes but Lehner was outstanding down the stretch.
The Golden Knights improve their record to 22-7-1 with their 5-1 victory against the Blues. Vegas hits the road to take on the Colorado Avalanche for two consecutive games. Thursday night’s game is scheduled for 6 PM PT. (Recap by Jason)
Analysis: For two periods it looked like another one of those games we came to hate during the playoffs last year where VGK has the majority of possession but can’t seem to put one home. Then, in the 3rd, the flood gates opened and the Golden Knights completely took over the game. The St. Louis demons appear to be a thing of the past, which is a good thing considering they remain the most likely 1st round matchup. (Analysis by Ken)
Upcoming stories from the Vegas Golden Knights vs St. Louis Blues at T-Mobile Arena
- Jason tracks down lucky VGK card collector
Ken’s Three VGK Stars
*** William Karlsson
** Mark Stone
* Jonathan Marchessault
Let's talk about the best defensive effort of the season. https://t.co/m0TEIdWUZA
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) March 23, 2021
Marchessault, Karlsson, Smith, Theodore, and Martinez have drawn the majority of the minutes against Perron and O'Reilly. The VGK group has absolutely dominated that matchup not allowing a single shot on goal while the STL pair was on the ice.
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) March 23, 2021
VGK and STL are about equal in the first 2 periods of games.
VGK are far superior to STL in the 3rd periods of games.
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) March 23, 2021
Keegan Kolesar right now. pic.twitter.com/s6kAISM9BD
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) March 23, 2021
Mark Stone is so good he doesn't even have to shoot to score. He can just slide the puck anywhere near the goal and it'll find its way into the net.
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) March 23, 2021
Henderson Knights
Stone is magic with that stick. The Knights played a great game defensively, totally shutting down their top line. and guess what, the PP finally started to look good too.
Glad I wrote that post earlier today about the power play problems. But tonight they actually got in front of the net, screened the goalie, got rebounds, passed to the slot from the goal line, and scored 2 big goals. that was Karlsson’s first PP goal all season.
now let’s do it against Colorado.
Pistol Pete
Outstanding back-to-back performance following a loss and against a team that had never lost in regulation at T-Mobile. So happy for Kolesar and hope it’s just the beginning for him being a driver of bottom six scoring.
knights fan from minny
Goalesar…… !! So good to see him get the monkey off his back with his first.
Great game. SUPER nice to see on the back end of back to back with the not so good results yesterday. Mark Stone is a hockey GOD. Unreal !!
Daryl
What is wrong with STL, they are 16-16 this season. Did they really lose that much from last season? Either way I’m not a fan of them so any time we can beat them it’s a great win
Ken Boehlke
They weren’t that good last season. They lost their captain. Their best D is out. They just aren’t very good.
knights fan in minny
wow your positive we sure did not need a number 1 center tonight remember anyone can play club hockey chump
Daryl
Any team can beat any team on a given night. And as Ken said STL isn’t a very good team to begin with. Once again, showing you know nothing about hockey. Remember, this is the internet and we can be anything or anyone we want Mr. Badass hockey stud who won the championship in HS as the waterboy
knights fan in minny
hey moron learn how to read it was state bantam champ and national champ i never said i was a bad ass hockey stud follow along fool you need to get out and get some air remember anyone can play club hockey all you have to do is show up did you get a ribbon for club hockey is for girls
Daryl
Again, you are proving you don’t actually know anything. I’ll say it again a little slower for you. Not everyone can play club hockey. They have a roster limit and follow ncaa hockey rules. I think you are getting intramural hockey and club hockey confused. That’s OK, I know you are a senile old man. Please, use punctuation so the rest of us can actually follow what you are saying. It’s not my fault I can follow what you are saying.
Sounds like I got your goat since you like to use the name calling
DOC (Go Knights Go)
Total Domination !!!
Panda is back, and part of the best goalie tandem in the league!
Eventually, the naysayers on here will have to admit just how good our boys are!
Daryl
Doc, nobody has denied how good they are or that Panda isn’t good…. for most of us it’s the issue of the money being spent by having both when there are more pressing needs. I prefer MAF but would be OK if it was just Panda
DOC (Go Knights Go)
We keep winning, yet STILL have “pressing needs”?
Don’t see that, or any needs more important than having a great pair of goalies, that can spell each other, be fresher come playoffs!
Still playing good hockey with a couple important players out. Patch of course, but also Petro. Come playoffs he will show why the Knights got him!
sb
Winning because VGK are playing in the weakest NHL Division. Our fans all want the Knights to win and win the Cup. What is the concern is being complacent with a first place Team where talent is imbalanced and comes back to haunt in the Playoffs ……….. like last year ………. do you remember mediocre Dallas knocking this Team out? Stastny was not The Answer. But with his departure, the Team has even less forward depth. What happens when you remove a 40 point player and don’t replace him? Think this Team can beat Tampa? No one in their right mind believes that today.
Ken Boehlke
SB is spot on here.
I’ll never understand why people don’t want to see the team improve.
Daryl
Agree with both you and Ken
knights fan in minny
keep up the positivity DOC
Pistol Pete
Fleury, Lehner et. al. head to Colorado. Will be interesting to see how the goaltending goes.
THE hockey GOD
the walrus is back !! yes (walruses play on ice with other walruses ! Pandas play in (bamboo ) trees- well with themselves which explains a lot of things !)
81 had some zip tonight
71 found some legs
and 55 scored a garbage Esposito like goal collecting trash on rebound. Remember ‘Jesus Saves and Esposito scores on the rebound”. Good for the kid, finally got first goal, a streak is starting !
Pistol Pete
Presumably it will be Fleury Thursday/Lehner Saturday.
For those who weight goaltender stats I have compiled a Fleury/Lehner composite:
Fleury:
Career: SV% .913 GAA 2.55 SA/game 28.33
Vegas: SV% .917 GAA 2.41 SA/game 28.82
Lehner;
Career: SV% .918 GAA 2.71 SA/game 30.89
Vegas: SV% .91 GAA 2.30 SA/game 26.00
Comments:
* Fleury’s performance in Vegas supasses the career average for both SV% and
GAA while facing .5 more SA/game.
* Lehner’s Vegas sample is a tiny 10 games, however thus far the SV% has slipped
below the career average and the GAA has markedly improved while facing 4.89
fewer shots/game (anybody else notice how with many of his Vegas wins the SA
tends to have been a little skimpy?).
* Lehner’s career SA/game has averaged 2.07/game more than Fleury albeit across
far fewer GS (289 vs. 844).
Fleury has done well here and so has Lehner.
Tim
Last nights game was what is known as a good old fashion ass kicking.
Pistol Pete
Pretty sure it won’t be in Colorado. For either team.
hdbiker7851
Tim – obviously describing the third period – up to that point it could have gone either way – Vegas had something to prove after the Sunday afternoon game and once they got started did very well. It was a great start to the week in prep for the up coming trip to Colorado, I hope Patch is back with the boys they can use is goal scoring ability. Here’s to a win Thursday night.
A VGK Fan
we need an article about how Glass isnt really meeting expectations and due to lack of center depth we may be better off trading him and a pick for a decent veteran center (not named Statsny, and less expensive). obviously one that can fit in whatever salary cap, if its even possible
You reading this Ken, this type of article is right up your alley, you number crunching fool.
Ken Boehlke
We plan on talking about it pretty in depth on the Podcast today.
THE hockey GOD
pretty obvious VGK fan, same with RR, and another 4th liner. It is about as obvious as nicknaming a big goalie “walrus” rather than “panda”. At least a polar bear is closer to ice than a stupid panda.
PS Trump won bigly.
B-Rad-Lee
Free Agent Centers with at least 20 points with a cap hit under $3M:
https://www.capfriendly.com/browse/free-agents/2022/caphit/all/center?limits=caphit-0-3000000,points-15-130
A VGK Fan
Nice work B-Rad. Copp and Lowry are definitely worth trading for… the others are also worth it but I know their respective clubs wont let them go (and we dont want spezza).
Tim
Ken, your the GM tell me your thoughts on improving the team to the point where we can beat Colorado and Tampa.
knights fan in minny
keep up the positivity DOC
knights fan in minny
not a puck question if your a raider fan why did they let agholor go was it a money thing
Pistol Pete
Avs blow a third period two goal lead losing @ Coyotes in OT (SO), the Coyotes surviving an Avs OT PP in the process.
Pistol Pete
Cody Glass:
AHL: 8 games 7 pts (4 G/3 A/.88 pts/game)
VGK: 63 games 22 pts (9 G/13 A/.35 pts/game) -3
2019-2020: 39 games 12 pts (5 G/7 A/.31 pts/game) -7
2020-2021: 24 games 10 pts (4 G/6 A/.42 pts/game) +4
Is he still transitioning following the injury and after bulking up? In any case, the stats have improved over last season in pts/game and +/-.
Pistol Pete
In descending order of points, the Glass 2020-2021 stats (10 pts/+4) are higher than Nosek (8 pts/+1), Kolesar (5 pts/-3), Roy (4 pts/+4), Carrier 3 pts/-3) and Reaves (3 pts/-3).
I realize pts and +/- are not the whole picture, however Glass does appear to provide the strongest performance in the group, the recent Nosek surge notwithstanding. The four PP goals reign supreme in the Glass 2020-2021 stats, however I think a prospective 5-on-5 ramp up is feasible given his hands, vision and developing speed in the framework of a play.
Still I cheerlead Glass lol.