GOLDEN MISFITS MISFIRING EARLY
Mediocre start to season in sharp contrast to red-hot October from last year’s squad
We didn’t have a good start to that season and our coach got fired, so it’s tough to get back (to the final).
MARC-ANDRE FLEURY, referring to the 200809 Penguins, who won a Cup after losing the 2008 final
“We’ve got to win now.”
It was early September and Marc-Andre Fleury was talking about the magical season that saw a first-year expansion team shatter expectations by winning its division and reaching the Stanley Cup final.
It was a heck of a run. But as the Vegas Golden Knights goalie said, the problem with doing something special is that everyone expects you to do it again. Which brings us to Year 2. A year ago, the Golden Knights went 8-1-0 to start the season. This year, they have lost five of their first nine games.
The same things that had worked in their favour last season — catching opponents by surprise, the somewhat unfair home-ice advantage and the us-versus-them mentality of the Golden Misfits — has not entirely been there. On some nights, the Golden Knights look ordinary. On others, they sort of resemble an expansion team.
“I think we’re like any other team. We have to start from scratch,” Fleury told Postmedia News in September, adding the Pittsburgh Penguins went through a similar challenge after losing in the final in 2008. “We didn’t have a good start to that season and our coach got fired, so it’s tough to get back (to the final). But I think for some reason it worked out in the end.”
With so much of the season remaining, here are five reasons why the Golden Knights haven’t looked all that golden:
1. Shoddy goaltending
Fleury has allowed four goals in his last four games with the Golden Knights going 3-0-1, but his save percentage remains .904, a steep decline from the .927 he posted a year ago.
Part of that is because he was so shaky at the start of the season.
Fleury was pulled after allowing five goals on 16 shots to the Flyers in the season opener and gave up nine goals in the next three games. Some of those early problems were equipment related and have since been remedied. Fleury has been one of the loudest critics of the NHL’s new chest protectors, arguing shots hurt more than they have in the past. If you’re flinching or afraid of getting a bruise, you’re generally not stopping the puck.
2. Misfits turned into Fat Cats
It was shortly after last year’s expansion draft when the Golden Knights began calling themselves the Golden Misfits.
It was an appropriate name for a bargain-bin roster consisting of players who had essentially been given up on by their former teams. That’s no longer the case.
Last year, not a single player was earning $6 million. After reaching the final, Vegas signed Paul Stastny to a $6.5-million deal annually, traded for Max Pacioretty and signed him to a four-year extension with a $7-million cap hit, re-upped Fleury for three years and $21 million and handed out significant raises to William Karlsson, Jonathan Marchessault, Nate Schmidt and Shea Theodore. It’s difficult to say whether money has killed the players’ motivation, but it’s clear that the us-versus-them mentality that brought the players together needs to be revised.
3. Vegas flu has cleared up When Las Vegas received an expansion team, the running joke around the league was the team would have the best home record and for obvious reasons. Turns out it was true. While opposing teams swore they wouldn’t take in all that Las Vegas had to offer by either flying in on the day of the game or staying miles away from the Strip or in some cases staying an extra day as reward, the end result was the same. Only Winnipeg and Pittsburgh won more games at home than the Golden Knights.
This year, home-ice advantage has been less of a factor. But a big reason for that is Vegas hasn’t been at home that much. After starting the year at home, the team went on the road for five games, where the Golden Knights went 2-3-0. Since then, Vegas is 2-0-1 at home.
4. Karlsson shooting blanks With eight points in nine games, it’s difficult to suggest that William Karlsson has been a disappointment. After all, he had just seven points in the entire month of October last year before finishing the season with 43 goals and 78 points.
Then again, he is two years removed from recording six goals and 25 points.
There’s no indication that Karlsson is a one-year wonder who will regress to his earlier numbers. But with James Neal gone, Stastny hurt and Pacioretty not really scoring, Karlsson’s lack of offence tends to stand out more than it probably should, especially now that he’s earning more money and receiving more ice time.
A year ago, they could live with the fact that he scored only eight of his 43 goals on the power play. Not anymore. With a power play that is clicking at a league-worst seven per cent, Wild Bill needs to fill the net. If not, no one else will.
5. Little defensive offence
On Thursday, the Golden Knights announced that Nate Schmidt will be playing in Vegas for six more years after this one. But first they have to wait another month.
With the defenceman in the midst of a 20-game suspension for violating the NHL’s substance-abuse policy, Schmidt isn’t eligible to return until Nov. 18.
So that means the Golden Knights will be without their No. 1 defenceman for 11 more games. It’s a loss that shouldn’t be overlooked. Schmidt is coming off a career-best season during which he had 36 points and led Vegas in ice time. So far this year, the defence has just six assists.