FOOL’S GOLD?
Michael Traikos has five reasons why Vegas is looking like an expansion team this season
“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 been entirely 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 in September, adding that 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 more of the season remaining, here are five reasons why the Golden Knights haven’t looked all that golden:
Goaltending hasn’t been as great
Fleury has allowed four goals in his past four games, while the Golden Knights have gone 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 louder critics of the NHL’s new chest protectors, arguing that 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.
Based on his recent play, he isn’t flinching anymore.
Golden Misfits are making millions
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 that had essentially been given up on by their former teams. But 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 three-year deal worth $6.5 million annually, traded for
Max Pacioretty and signed him to a four-year extension with a $7-million cap hit, re-upped Marc-Andre Fleury for three years and $21-million, and handed out significant raises to William Karlsson, Jonathan Marchessault, Nate Schmidt and Shea Theodore.
In some cases, the money wasn’t exactly well-spent.
It’s difficult to say whether money has killed the players’ motivation, but it’s clear the us-versus-them mentality that brought them together needs to be revised.
Vegas Flu has cleared up
When Vegas first got an expansion team, the running joke around the league was that team would have the best home record for obvious reasons. Turns out it was true.
While opposing teams swore they wouldn’t take in all that 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 a 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 the following five games, where the Golden Knights went 2-3-0. Since then, Vegas is 2-0-1 at home.
Wild Bill is shooting blanks
With eight points in nine games, it’s difficult to suggest 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 scoring six goals and 25 points.
There’s no indication 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 increased ice time.
A year ago, they could live with the fact he only scored eight of his 43 goals on the power play. Not anymore. With a power play that is clicking at a league-worst 7%, Wild Bill needs to fill the net. If not, no one else will.
Lack of offence from the back end
On Thursday, the Golden Knights announced 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 another 11 games. It’s a loss that shouldn’t be overlooked. Schmidt is coming off a career-best season in which he tallied 36 points and led Vegas in ice time.
Without him in the lineup, the team has relied heavily on Colin Miller and Shea Theodore, whose ice time has increased by as much as three minutes per game. To their credit, the Golden Knights are allowing the fewest number of shots in the league.
But where Schmidt has been missed the most is on the scoresheet, with Vegas’ defence combining for no goals and just six points.