During the 2021 offseason, the Vegas Golden Knights management showed their trust in Robin Lehner when they chose to trade Marc-Andre Fleury to the Chicago Blackhawks.
Though many Golden Knights fans were upset with the move, it seemed like a reasonable gamble given Lehner’s impressive play over the previous three seasons. Unfortunately for him however, his play has not been up to par this season, and it has resulted in an inconsistent start for a team most viewed as a Stanley Cup contender this summer.
Through 28 games played, Lehner’s 2.95 goals against average ranks 35th amongst all goalies who have played in 10 or more games, while his .904 save percentage (SV%) ranks 39th. Simply put, this is not good enough for a starting goaltender, and is holding this team back from its true potential.
Over Lehner’s past nine games, he has recorded a SV% below .900 five times. That was once again the case on Monday night in a 5-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Penguins, one in which Lehner allowed four goals on 36 shots. While none of the goals were particularly bad, you need your goaltender to be better than the opposing teams, and that wasn’t the case in this contest. After the game, Lehner spoke about what went wrong and how his team managed to blow a 3-0 first period lead.
“We came out well. I thought they had some chances in the first, but we were pretty opportunistic,” Lehner said. “We had a great first period, up 3-0. Pittsburgh has been one of the best teams, they came out real hard in the second. We took some penalties, they got some pretty crazy momentum. I think that first goal kind of set us off a bit and we couldn’t really recover.”
The good news for the Golden Knights is that they still remain first in the Pacific Division. The bad news is that they are nearly half way through the 2021-22 season, and Robin Lehner’s struggles are starting to become a legitimate concern. Even worse is that backup goaltender Laurent Brossoit is still out with an undisclosed injury, and a return date hasn’t been mentioned by coaching staff. There is no denying the talent level of this team, but if they aren’t able to get some better goaltending from Lehner, it is hard to see them going on a very deep playoff run this season.
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Vegas Ron of VGKKIR experience on facebook says stats don’t matter. Meatball has it hard. You should support him
Bring back my precious Flower. He’s the bestest of the best. We all love him.
I don’t care about Lehner Karly has the best hair on the team. He’s dreamy
I dont see how this is similar at all to Kutherov
Lenhner is an American HERO he is better than Fleury. You must not know hockey at all!
As a Summerlin Mom with a gold sparkly jacket and my husbands Black AMEX card , I just can’t get over Flower getting traded . I mean that day , I got Botox and then went to the gym and just cried for days . I had to go on a Amazon binge to just make myself feel better . Then after , I took my Tesla to Kona Grill to drown my sorrows over some top shelf daiquiris . The only thing that made me feel better the next few days was the Vegas Golden Knights Keeping It Real Experience on FB. Truly that fan site brings me joy . Sitting in my gated community I feel bad for Meatball , I think he has it rough. No matter what he does here in Vegas , he will be ridiculed . I have to go to Summerlin Costco now to buy some boxed wine. I’m sad thinking about meatball . I support him . So should you !
I hate this team. Not only did they trade Flower they traded Reavo. Do you see how well he is playing in NY with Gallant. Big mistake, big.