Recap: The Golden Knights traveled south of LA for the second game of a back-to-back against the Anaheim Ducks. Anaheim opened the scoring 3:27 into the game and doubled their lead nine minutes later. Mark Stone quickly cut the Ducks lead in half with a 1st period shorthanded goal. After the opening 20 minutes, Anaheim held a 2-1 advantage.
Anaheim continued to commit penalties and put Vegas on the power play in the middle frame. Altogether, the Ducks handed the Golden Knights five power plays in the first 27 minutes of the game. Unfortunately, VGK couldn’t take advantage of any of them but they were able to even the score 2-2 with a 5-on-5 goal from Ben Hutton.
The game slowed down in the final period with each offense struggling to get any momentum. The game needed overtime and eventually a shootout to settle a winner. Anaheim would score the first two and pick up the two points.
The Golden Knights’ record drops to (24-12-2) losing to the Ducks 3-2 in a shootout. Vegas will head back home for their last game of 2022 on Saturday against the Nashville Predators. Puck drop against the Predators is scheduled for 12 PM. (Recap by Jason)
Analysis: Lil Jon got his wish tonight as VGK fired shot after shot after shot on goal. What did not happen though was the goals part. VGK scored twice, once on a shorthanded breakaway and the other on a fluky own goal off a Ducks skate. Another game where finishing is the problem and this one hurts a bit because that has to be a free two points. (Analysis by Ken)
Upcoming stories from the Vegas Golden Knights vs. Anaheim Ducks at Honda Center.
- Gibson’s revenge
Ken’s Three VGK Stars
*** Mark Stone
** William Karlsson
* Ben Hutton
VGK deserved that for letting it get that far.Chances were there all night long. No one buried one.
(Heck, even the two goals. One shorthanded and one double doinked off two Ducks' skates.)
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) December 29, 2022
Logan Thompson has still never allowed a goal in overtime.
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) December 29, 2022
Since they went to the high-pressure PK, it's been a great unit.
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) December 29, 2022
knights fan in minny
top ten power play can’t score against bottom 5 penalty kill against the smucks what a joke
Emmanuel
The injuries and losing streak will be felt in May when they dont have home ice advantage. they struggle at home but the matchups will be WAY more important in the 2nd and 3 rd round. By then they will have picked up a scorer for the third line so thats not an issue.
Hdbiker7851
I hate to point out the obvious to you but the current situation has way to many similarities to this time last year. Just a suggestion l wouldn’t be to concerned about saving your money for play off tickets. You talked about round 2 and 3 they very easily could experience another long summer break. That’s the reality of the situation much to my dislike. The Road has been their strong suit and now that has taken a turn. Next inch of games are home except for a trip to Denver and home wins seem to be a huge issue. The next few weeks will be interesting hopefully positive but not a given by any means.
TS
You know the team is short- handed when the ” next men up” are 18 yr old kids with unrecognizable, unpronouncable names. What a time for multiple key injuries, Guess it’s better to be hurt NOW, rather than at playoff time.
Pulling Hill was a surprise, but the right move to stop the Duck scoring surge. Cassidy saw it, acted quickly. Coach is definitely not hesitant to change it up mid- game, if things go south. Better than PDB’S paralysis during past beat downs we have had to endure ….
THE hockey GOD
PDB beat down ?? PDB teams lost in shoot outs and in OT by one goal, the games were close.
Cassidy’s past is haunting him, he doesn’t know how to coach youngsters. He spins them around like they are on a merry go round, not good for their confidence.
TS
Thg, how many games did PDB watch passively as the game got away from us? He rarely called timeout to stop the damage, stop the bleeding. He stood silent, doing little to right the ship. At least Cassidy sees the ailing ship, and works to stop it’s sinking.
THE hockey GOD
how many did he watch passively? Hardly any, you are thinking of GG. The coach before PDB.
Hdbiker7851
Thg – your near sightlines is showing up again PDB seldom if ever did anything to right the situations when they were happening and yes GG made the huge error not calling a time out against the Sharks. Go back and check your posts about PDB his failing was not making the necessary corrections. Insanity doing nothing and expecting different results. Give cassidy credit when credit is do. Doing nothing is never a good solution when things are not going well.
TS
Thg, just to clarify, I was indeed referring to PDB, not Gallant.
THE hockey GOD
“Go back and check your posts about PDB his failing was not making the necessary corrections. ”
i was not a PDB basher, go back and check my posts ; you will see very little of PDB bashing.
Here were the scores from games last spring 2022
april 3rd VGK 2 canucks 2
april 9th VGK 6 yotes 1
april 12 canucks 5 -4 (OT)
april 14 vgk 6 flames 0
april 16 avs 4 vgk 0
april 18 devils 3 vgk 2
april 20 caps 4 vgk 3 (OT)
april 24 sharks 5 vgk 4 (OT)/SO
april 26 stars 3 vgk 2 (OT)/SO
april 27 blackhawks 4 vgk 3 (OT)/SO
last game vgk 7 blues 4
games hardly support the “he watched passively” comment, or “doing nothing” . OT and SOs are crap shoots, and VGK were winning them more frequently earlier in season, the odds were to turn. And they just missed the playoffs, so any one of those games would have put them.
Jailbird
Tuff to lose to that team. We made another goalie an all star. Injuries really showing impact now. Just frustrating right now. We must find a way to get through this until we get our real good players back!
THE hockey GOD
high close change opportunities , but very low quality shots on net, no. 16 got a case of TUCH, he should have had a goal if he roofed it
two very , very soft goals ; it is becoming an epidemic. Croissant will be called up sooner than later.
rookie goalie
rookie left d man
rookie right d man
rookie left winger
rookie center (no points)
rookie right winger
one third of team are AHL rookies, not getting job done; the schmucks youngster are better than VGK !
no 27 out
no 9 out
no 43 out
no 2 out
no 81 out
no 23 out
deju vu all over again
no sign of when they will return.
calling dr howard
calling dr fine
calling dr howard
to the ER NOW !!
dr HOWARD , DR Fine, DR HOWARD
cotton !!
Cotton !!!
more COTTON
oooooo waaaa ooooo waaaaa ooooo waahhhh
Ambulance running 24/ 7
Alex
The dumbest fans in the league… A point on the road and in first place this far into the season…
THE hockey GOD
Anaheim, second worst team in divisoin
36 games
10 wins
22 LOSSES
4 OT
26 points
it should have been a cake walk, an embarrassment.
team forte is on road this year up until now. One point out of possible four is
not going to get job done if their home woes continue.
Emmanuel Docazal
There haven’t been cakewalks in this league since the early 90s expansion teams and those Sabres tank teams about 10 years ago. The Ducks are 3 solid players from the playoffs……
Alex
One of the few fans that isnt a total moron here..well done…they are in first place, have more points this time of year than they did last year after this many games, and have a head coach who understands flexibility…
phantom major
on Feb 5, 2022 the VGK were in first place in the Pacific division.
they had a record of 27-16-3
they finished in 4th place in the division
they finished in 9th place in the Western conference, and out of a playoff spot
injuries were cited
sound familiar???
Frank
Gibson stole that game, he was the better netminder. Hill’s blunder in the first (first goal was ok, second should never go in from that far out) cost us the game. With so many top players out, I’m not pushing the panic button yet. A point is a point and we’re still in 1st place. Bottom line is we A. need our top players back and B. need timely saves.
Tim
One thing I learned in the Army never assume anything. Be it Anaheim or Boston with the team were fielding we will be the underdogs. We’ve got 2 &1/2 players who can score and that’s Stone, Smith and on occasion Stephenson after that it’s a crap shoot. If we don’t get players back soon last one out of the Arena shut off the lights. Cassidy like DeBoer doesn’t have a lot of options. Make no mistake John Gibson is an excellent goalie and has showed that game after game that we’ve played the Ducks. It looks like a long cold winter for the Knights unfortunately.
John W
I know it’s a tough call, but time to move on from Kessel and from Kolesar.
1- Early in the season, my take was that Kessel would be a cheaper replacement for Dadanov, but his game is clearly regressing. If we can’t find a combination of line mates to unlock some scoring, time to spend his 1.5 million elsewhere.
2- Kolesar has been the invisible man. We simply can’t waste 12-15 minutes per game on a guy who can’t put the puck in the net. We got rid of Reeves due to the lack of offense. Kolesar’s offensive game has regressed to the same level, with way less intimidation factor. Sorry, Keegan.
Danny
Kolesar also has only 1 assist in 36 games, and his 2 linemates have 15 goals. Thus, he contributes practically nothing on that line. an upgrade over Kolesar to a faster, more skilled player would be an upgrade to the Vgk team.
John W
Exactly
knights fan in minny
on vegas hockey now they suggested trading for jvr does that do anything for you
DL
3- Roy
JV
On Ducks 2nd shootout goal, Thompson was way too low, forcing his legs wide apart. You couldn’t see the logo on his chest. His 5-hole was so big, a bunch of 70’s porn stars couldn’t fill it. You think a goalie coach could work with him?
Bow- chicka- wow- wow!
Chuckles
Love the kids getting a chance to play. Funny us fan-atics. Nothing is good enough at times. My Ohio teams except Ohio St Buckeyes and recently Cavs. Not much to rave about. Be glad for a competitive organization All my teams back there from 60s moved folded NHL Barons which players picked up by then North Stars. NBA Royals never won, and the ‘DiansI call them same organization Name Games, that were scalped as a franchise name. Moved here for ten year run by Running Rebels. Only 1 titles 3 final 4s. Already 3 with Knights!!! We only had 1 title with Jim Brown to be a movie star and Lebron who can’t stay in one place. Talk about let downs! Go Knights Let’s hang in there!! Hope you print this last two left out!!
Richie-Rich
The Hockey God is in love with the McCriminal. He calls me out for negativity. I am not negative. I am realistic. You build a Stanley Cup winner with consistency in coaching and small smart roster rooms to make your team better. You don’t shuffle the entire deck every year and change head coaches like you do underwear and expect to win. Period. So ThG, you should take a look at the long term performance of this team and where it is obviously heading. There’s a lot of downside to come before this team hits bottom and it is going to take 3-5 years to right the ship after the front office is flushed.
I don’t believe it is the players. These players are being shuffled in and out of the lineup either due to trade or injuries. The problem with this team is the excessive roster churn, including 3 Head Coaches since year 1. The team has never had a chance to gel, never has had an opportunity to build chemistry. The wheels began coming off of this team when McCrimmon took over the GM spot. This team has slipped from the top 3 in years 1&2 to 15th today. The roster has gotten older and slower. Goaltending is going to be fine. This is Logan Thompson’s first full year at this level. Aiden Hill is a fine backup and we have several good ones in Henderson. In preseason I predicted a 4th place finish and it appears now that is where this team is headed. You cannot buy a Stanley Cup and that is exactly what McCrimmon has been trying to do. They’ve been shuffling this roster to see who might be the Robin to Batman, Draisaitl to McDavid. The problem is that those two are #1 and #2 in the NHL and have been for a long time. Is that really the answer? No. That formula hasn’t ended in a Cup for that team. Expecting any Head Coach to come in and immediately mold a team into a Cup contender is not a realistic expectation. Support the players and this Head Coach. McCrimmon has to go. This team needs a steady hand at GM, one who isn’t creating chaos and drama in the locker room.