FSM Essential Recap: Golden Knights vs Flames - Game 48

FSM Essential Recap: Golden Knights vs Flames – Game 48

Franchise Sports Media

Golden Knights (28-17-3)  | Calgary Flames (24-13-6)

 

The Golden Knights had a rough night Wednesday in Calgary as they were defeated 6-0 by Flames.

 

This puts the Flames only five points behind the Golden Knights in the Pacific Division standings and they have six games at hand.

The Golden Knights will now be off until next Wednesday as they will make up their third game on their schedule against the Colorado Avalanche. There is a good chance we could see the team’s lead in the Pacific Division standings be removed.

Robin Lehner and Jakob Markstrom started in the net for each team. Golden Knights captain Mark Stone was unavailable as an hour before the game, it was announced that he would be out with an upper-body injury.

For the Flames, this was their first game in seven days, back from the 2022 NHL All-Star Game. But from the start of the first period, you wouldn’t have been able to tell as it looked like the Golden Knights just woke up from a week-long nap.

The Flames piled on three goals in the first period alone against the Golden Knights. Defensively, the Golden Knights were an absolute mess allowing turnover after turnover and refusing to help out their goaltender in Lehner.

The Flames’ top line of Elias Lindholm, Matthew Tkachuk, and Johnny Gaudreau skated circles around the Golden Knights‘ defense and scored the game’s first goal. With some solid puck movement between Gaudreau and Tkachuk, Gaudreau scored his 25 points in the last 14 games.

A goal right after an expiring powerplay would be the next tally for the Flames as Mikael Backlund scored. Milan Lucic was left all alone in front of Lehner as the two defensemen for the Golden Knights in Dylan Coghlan and Ben Hutton seemed preoccupied with other matters.

The Flames added yet another goal thanks to sloppy defensive work from the Golden Knights with Lindholm scoring. Lindholm easily skated through the Golden Knights‘ 1-1-3 completely un-guarded and fired home a simple wrist shot that beat Lehner.

 

The Golden Knights found themselves down by three after one period of play and things only got worse in the second as Andrew Mangiapane extended the Flames lead.

 

Nolan Patrick had a trio of quality chances, including a breakaway but Markstrom was there all night. The Golden Knights simply dug themselves in too deep of a hole Wednesday night.

The cherry on top came in the third period when Tkachuk scored on Lehner with an in-between-the-legs play. If you hadn’t already turned the game off by this point, this surely did it for you. Mangiapane also added another goal late.

Help is on the way for the Golden Kights. Last week Monday, newly acquired Golden Knights center Jack Eichel shed his no-contact jersey and participated in a full-contact practice for the first time since joining the team.

Eichel, as well as Jake Bischoff and Alec Martinez, are currently on long-term injured reserve (LTIR). But as soon as Eichel is activated from LTIR and his full salary hits the cap, the Vegas Golden Knights will be in cap hell. With the team off until next Wednesday, it is likely that we see McCrimmon make a move as Eichel nears his Golden Knights debut.

According to CapFriendly, the Golden Knights will need to free up around $4.3 million for Eichel to join the team and the Golden Knights to be cap-compliant. There are really only three ways in which the team can go about this. They can (1) put players on waivers (2) trade players or (3) place players on LTIR.

Who is the most likely Golden Knight to be cut or traded away? I don’t know, but if I had to take a guess it would be Evgenii Dadonov.

Dadonov is an interesting case having been acquired in the offseason almost immediately after the Marc-Andre Fleury trade. He has been streaky with the Golden Knights so far this season, often overshadowed by other wingers on the team. His contract, $5 million per season, has another additional year on it as well.

He’s a player that has already journeyed around the NHL as a veteran and has not blown the Golden Knights away with his performance this season. Unlike Smith, Carrier, or Janmark I personally think Dadonov lacks the “misfit” aspect of being a Golden Knight as well.

 

The Vegas Golden Knights will be at home to take on the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday night. They drop the puck at 7:00 pm on TNT.