Sharks needle Golden Knights on Twitter after killing off penalty

It has been five days since the Golden Knights’ Cody Eakin was sent off for five minutes for cross-checking San Jose’s Joe Pavelski midway through the third period.

It still was a terrible call.

The bitter taste lingers.

But one of these years, Golden Knights fans — and the front office, coaches and players — may acknowledge that the team’s penalty killing unit was at least partly to blame for a 5-4 meltdown in Game 7 of a hair-raising first-round playoff series.

It hasn’t happened yet.

Still too many other people with whom to be upset before looking in a mirror.

Such as the twittering fool for the official Sharks Twitter account.

After the Sharks killed a four-minute penalty against Colorado on Friday, the team reminded Las Vegas hockey fans that “What do you know, you *can* kill off four straight minutes of power play time!”

When it comes to tossing shade, this wasn’t the garden variety. This was a complete blackout. You almost had to read it through one of those filters kids made back in the day to view an eclipse of the sun.

Then there was this, from The Hockey News:

At risk of drawing the ire of those in Vegas, Marc-Andre Fleury was mediocre this season. His .917 save percentage at 5-on-5 ranked 31st of 43 goaltenders with at least 1,500 minutes at five-a-side this season, his goals-saved above average was minus 2.95, again 31st of those 43 keepers, and .913 SP at all strengths tied for 21st among the 48 goaltenders who made at least 30 appearances. His shutout total aside, it was a far cry from the play that saw him in the Vezina Trophy conversation last season.

I still believe the Sharks would trade Martin Jones for Fleury and throw in a puck bag and subscription to The Hockey News if it came down to winning one game. Or even four in seven.

But before you assess Jared Clinton a game misconduct for dissing the hockey patron saint of Las Vegas, he also wrote the Knights were a good team that should win a lot of games again next season.

In and out

Knights owner Bill Foley said the win was in the bag when Eakin was sent off, but a less-biased observer — or the person who writes official tweets for the Sharks — might have said the bag was not close to being cinched.

Remember in Game 2, when San Jose scored three goals in 2:09 to erase a 3-0 Vegas lead? It would have been four in 3:00 had Brent Burns’ apparent goal not been overturned via replay.

Only one came on a power play.

That’s the thing about rose-colored glasses. They tend to magnify one thing while limiting focus on another.

Fraser fesses up

When asked about the major penalty assessed to Eakin, here’s how longtime NHL official Kerry Fraser (2,165 games, 12 Stanley Cup Finals) responded to a query on Twitter:

“Jim … I felt sick in the pit of my stomach. Mistakes are made, we all made enough of them, but a cross-check SHOVE to the chest area in this case was not the overriding cause of Pav’s awkward fall/injury. Incidental contact from Stastny resulted in bad ending.”

Jim — the guy who posed the question — was Jim Kyte, who played 598 games as a NHL defenseman and 151 with the International Hockey League’s Las Vegas Thunder.

Early arrival

Las Vegan Danny Leyva recently made his MLS debut with the Seattle Sounders in a friendly against Club Nacional of Uruguay in front of 30,000 spectators at CenturyLink Field, fulfilling a dream 15 years in the making.

Which is Leyva’s age.

“It was a dream come true, honestly,” the youngster told the Seattle Times about becoming one of a handful of athletes to play American pro sports as a teenager.

Those in his inner circle say Leyva, who turns 16 on May 5, is precocious.

Said father Ulises: “I tell my wife he’s like an old man because he listens to older music, like Phil Collins.”

0:01

Local radio producer Clay Baker, on the wild third period of the Knights’ 5-4 overtime playoff loss to the Sharks:

“This VGK loss, almost comical at the end. Like a pro wrestling match where the refs looked the other way while the bad guys climb back (in).”

More Golden Knights: Follow at reviewjournal.com/GoldenKnights and @HockeyinVegas on Twitter.

Contact Ron Kantowski at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow @ronkantowski on Twitter.