Vegas Golden Knights: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly from Blackhawks loss

Another game and another loss for the Vegas Golden Knights who lost to the Chicago Blackhawks for the first time in franchise history on Wednesday night.

With the game part of the Wednesday Night Hockey broadcast, the Vegas Golden Knights failed to produce a doozy after falling to the Chicago Blackhawks 5-3 at T-Mobile Arena.

It all started so well, too, as William Carrier deflected a Nic Hague shot past Corey Crawford, before William Karlsson snapped a three-game scoring slump by converting on the power play.

However, the tide started to turn when Patrick Kane ripped a trademark one-timer past Marc-Andre Fleury, and the moment when Alex Tuch had a goal overturned really shifted the momentum in Chicago’s favor.

That decision really seemed to spook the Knights as Calvin de Haan and Erik Gustafsson both scored in quick succession to turn the game on its head, and tucks from Kirby Dach and Dylan Strome in the third period iced the game.

Nate Schmidt did put a wrister past the red hot Crawford with a minute remaining, but it was too little too late as the Golden Knights dropped to 9-8-3 on the year after losing four straight and six of their last seven.

So, on that note let’s dive into The Good, The Bad and The (very) Ugly from the Vegas Golden Knights’ 5-3 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks…

The Good

The Offense – Although they lost, the Golden Knights offense looked a lot sharper and they outshot the Chicago Blackhawks 42-26.

Mixing up the lines seemed to work and the Knights certainly generated their fair share of high-danger chances, although they came up against a brick wall in Corey Crawford.

That happens but the Golden Knights should feel positive at least about how dangerous their offense looked after a rough few outings.

William Karlsson – The forward entered the game carrying the weight of a three-game scoring slump on his shoulders, but he snapped it in emphatic fashion by recording a two-point night.

Karlsson began his big night by converting on a first period power play after going with the backhand on Corey Crawford, before he tallied an assist on Nate Schmidt’s wrister in the final minute of the game.

Alex Tuch – Playing in just his third game of the year due to the fact that two significant upper-body injuries have ravaged his season, Alex Tuch gave the Golden Knights an offensive boost.

He tallied a secondary helper on William Karlsson’s power play goal and Tuch nearly had a goal himself after unleashing a superb shot on net, but it was ruled out after officials came to the conclusion that it hit the crossbar before bouncing back out without crossing the line.

In any case, it was a boost to see Tuch back on the ice and his return should hopefully spark a woeful third line into life.

Marc-Andre Fleury – Although he allowed five goals, Fleury made a plethora of huge stops for the Golden Knights and it could have been far worse were it not for his significant efforts.

Fleury stopped 21 of the 26 shots he faced and his crowning moment no doubt came in the second period when he made a sublime double-save:

The Bad

Mark Stone – The elite two-way forward wasn’t awful by any stretch of the imagination, but you can’t gloss over the facts, unfortunately.

After being held without a point against the Chicago Blackhawks, Stone now has gone five straight games without posting a single goal or assist, while Paul Stastny is riding a seven-game streak without a point.

With the Golden Knights struggling, they are going to need those two to start producing sooner rather than later.

Cody Eakin – In order to spark the forward into life, Vegas Head Coach Gerard Gallant bumped Cody Eakin up to the second line.

However, it was an experiment that failed to really pay off as Eakin logged just 11:44 minutes of total ice time with no shots on goal before leaving the game in the third period with cramps.

We wrote a piece on Wednesday about why the Knights should consider trading Cody Eakin, and that opinion hasn’t changed after last night.

Cody Glass on the Wing – We’ve spoken about this a lot over the last couple of days and we probably sound like a broken record, but this is an important point.

Cody Glass’ considerable talents are wasted on the wing. He does a solid enough job but he deserves to be playing center and the franchise should be giving him every opportunity to succeed in his rookie year.

They aren’t at the moment.

With Cody Eakin and the offense in general struggling, now is the perfect time to promote Glass back to the second line, bump Paul Stastny down to the third line and slot Eakin in on the fourth line.

It doesn’t make sense to keep Glass on the wing.

The Ugly

Turnovers – Ugly probably doesn’t even cover how bad the defense was last night. They coughed up eight giveaways and gave up a plethora of odd-man rushes, a couple of which led to goals.

They also committed the cardinal sin of allowing Patrick Kane to do what he wanted, and the elite forward finished the night with three points (one goal, two assists) as a result.

History – The omens were on the side of the Vegas Golden Knights prior to last night, with the team 7-0-0 against the Chicago Blackhawks in franchise history.

However, they lost their first-ever game to the Blackhawks on the way to dropping their fourth straight on what was another frustrating night.

Looking Ahead

It is LA next for the Vegas Golden Knights who will matchup against the Kings on Saturday, before starting a four-game homestand against the Calgary Flames on Sunday.