VGK Season 3 Closed With Three Straight Losses To Dallas, Quiet Wrap-up Day With Media Via Zoom Wednesday
By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
There was magical Season 1 that took the underdog Vegas Golden Knights on a captivating ride to the Stanley Cup Final.
The loss to the Washington Capitals in June 2018 stung. But it didn’t feel heartbreaking to the Las Vegas market, which, in the end, rejoiced in a fairy tale-like inaugural Golden Knights season. After it was over, VGK players had final chat sessions with the media and conversations lasted a while because there was so much to unpack from a miracle season.
Season two ended with anger in 2019, as the Golden Knights lost a crazy Game 7 to the San Jose Sharks in the playoffs’ opening round in April 2019 because of a highly controversial major five-minute penalty that saw a VGK 3-0 lead in period three transform into a 4-3 deficit in the deciding game. When it was over and the Knights players and management met the media, there was also a lot to unpack. After that painful Game 7 loss, VGK owner Bill Foley was still clearly ticked off at the official’s call on the Knights.
But today as some Golden Knights players and VGK General Manager Kelly McCrimmon talked to the media through Zoom with the franchise’s third year in the book, there was a flatness in tone to most of the day’s comments. Most of all, no answers on whether Marc-Andre Fleury — we’re told he’s the “Face of the Franchise” — will be back for Season 4.
The Golden Knights had just lost in five games to the Dallas Stars in the Western Conference Finals after spending two months in a controlled environment in downtown Edmonton where there were away from family and friends.
The novel coronavirus pandemic, which has claimed the lives of nearly 200,000 Americans, prompted the NHL to stage is postseason without fans at two arenas in Canada — one for the Western teams in Edmonton and the other for the East clubs in Toronto. Layered on top of this bubble environment were racial injustice issues scarring America, which prompted the players to not play for two days in the middle of the playoffs as a protest and time of reflection about the treatment of Blacks in the U.S.
On the ice, there was also a major controversy about who should play goalie for the Knights. The franchise had Fleury, the Hall-of-Famer who was already beloved by Las Vegas after two seasons. But the Knights coach, Peter DeBoer, the man who took over for fired Gerard Gallant in January, decided to choose Robin Lehner as his starting netminder in the playoffs after rotating each for starting assignments every other game during the regular season before the COVID-19 pause in March.
During the playoffs, the goalie situation that caused more off-ice controversy for the Golden Knights when Fleury’s agent, Allan Walsh, tweeted a provocative picture of Fleury with a sword through his back with DeBoer’s name on it.
McCrimmon said he has a good relationship Fleury, but it’s unclear whether Fleury will return for a season during which he will be paid $7 million when Lehner and the VGK have reportedly agreed to a five-year $25 million.
During today’s Zoom session, I was prepared to ask McCrimmon point-blank whether he expected Fleury to return but I was never called and given a chance to ask the GM that question.
McCrimmon called Fleury “the face of the franchise” (everyone likes that phrase) and praised his play as a goalie, mentioning that he was even a better person than player.
The GM acknowledged there will be distractions during the playoffs such as the Walsh Tweet, but said it did not affect the Knights’ performance in the games.
By the end of the pandemic playoffs, the day to chat with the media was subdued, anti-climatic and quiet. The team made leaders like Reilly Smith and Mark Stone and regulars like William Karlsson and Alec Martinez available to the media through Zoom. But Lehner and Fleury were not available.
Karlsson took 32 seconds to explain why the Golden Knights didn’t score enough against Dallas.
The Knights won the number one seed in the West Bubble thanks to round-robin wins against Dallas, Colorado and St. Louis. Then it was a five-game first round win against Chicago and then the seven full games against Vancouver in the second round to advance to meet Dallas in the West Finals. The Golden Knights up-tempo style of hockey yielded a mere eight goals in five games against the Stars as the Knights lost each of the four games by a single goal.
The playoffs lacked a giant presence — the crazed Golden Knights fans who pack T-Mobile Arena to the tune of 19,000 a night during playoff games. The pandemic playoffs were a TV event as the Knights and NHL lost tens of millions of dollars of ticket revenue from not having fans at the rinks.
A season that began in September with William Marchessault wearing outfits like this ended with a thud and a subdued final media day.
Here were some final thoughts from GM McCrimmon:
“What a strange year it’s been,” he said. “A good year in many respects. At the same time, we had high expectations. It’s disappointing to not reach the ultimate goal of winning the Stanley Cup.”
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