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Year 2 Game 36: Golden Knights lose goaltending battle to Blue Jackets 1-0

Posted on by Shepard Price

The Vegas Golden Knights have officially been held scoreless for the first time in the 2018-19 season.

The Golden Knights lost an incredibly tight game Monday night where their goaltender stood on his head and was perhaps the best player on ice for Vegas. This time, however, that goaltender was not Marc-Andre Fleury, but Malcolm Subban, who made 30 of 31 saves in the losing effort. Maybe the Golden Knights can afford to play this kid more than once a month?

The Golden Knights played well despite the scoreless outing. They had 28 shots at even strength, including nine high-danger chances. The team moved the puck well generated some nice chances, but Sergei Bobrovsky was in the zone, making 28 saves on 28 shots.

The Golden Knights took advantage of the even-strength Corsi battle, putting up 50-42, but many of those chances were missed shots, and only 28 ended up on net.

In addition, two of Vegas’ streaking players lost their goal streaks due to the shutout — Alex Tuch and William Carrier had both scored goals in two straight games, but neither were able to make it three.

Vegas’ power-play unit, which has been surging recently and now stands as the 15th-best in the league, went without a shot and just in general looked a mess. They gave up better chances than they got, which didn’t help in the grand scheme of things.

It’s difficult choosing a highlight for this game. The one goal scored wasn’t that pretty, but was a matter of Jonathan Marchessault getting beat defensively. There wasn’t a standout chance that Bobrovsky saved. Instead, it might be this excellent defensive play:

That’s how to defend a 2-on-1. Shea Theodore takes away the passing lane, challenges the shooter, and trusts his goaltender to make the stop (and Subban does). Theodore’s had some practice defending the 2-on-1 this season and it’s beginning to pay off.

As much as Subban deserved a win, he’ll have to wait a bit longer to pick up his first victory of the season. In any other game, against any other goaltender, he probably would have gotten it. Just not tonight.

Hey, at least Vegas won at Connect Four:

Talking Points