Vegas Golden Knights Struggling On Home Ice

All of a sudden, the Vegas Golden Knights are looking extremely vulnerable at T-Mobile Arena.

After a 4-1-0 eastern coast road trip, the Vegas Golden Knights seemed destined to clinch a playoff spot this week on home ice. With players starting to return from injuries, it should only strengthen the expansion teams lineup for the rest of the season. However, that hasn’t been the case the past two games at T-Mobile Arena.

One of the weirdest games you’ll see all year from the Golden Knights is the game against the Devils earlier this week. The team came out with a ton of firepower early on, but New Jersey goaltender Keith Kinkaid kept Vegas at bay despite a ferocious attack.

The Devils scored the first four goals of the game and chased Marc-Andre Fleury for the first time in his Golden Knights career. The bounces weren’t going for the NHL’s newest team as the Golden Knights received an 8-3 shellacking from the Devils. Make no mistake about it, the Golden Knights didn’t play well enough to win, but the score shouldn’t have been that bad.

Two nights later, Vegas welcomed in a Minnesota Wild team that’s visiting T-Mobile Arena for the first time. This time, however, the Golden Knights got off to a poor start and couldn’t find their legs. The Wild capitalized on the opportunity and notched the games first three goals.

Vegas did try to stage a come back as Erik Haula, and Ryan Carpenter scored two goals late, but it was all for not as the Wild scored on the Vegas empty net to seal the deal. This game shouldn’t have been as close as it was. I thought the Wild looked way better and much more alert than the Golden Knights through 60 minutes.

Minnesota ended up sweeping the Golden Knights 3-0 to end the season series. If those two teams were to meet in the Stanley Cup Playoffs, that’s bad news for Vegas. Stylistically, the Wild match up against the Golden Knights better than most of the teams in the playoff field. But the question that everyone seems to be asking is “Whats happening to the Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena?”

The answer is quite simple; their heads aren’t in it like they were in October-January. I noticed a small dip in play in February, but for the most part, the team remained stable.  Sure, injuries definitely played a factor but the grueling stretch of an 82 game season could be taxing for a lot of players on the team.

Let’s go over some of the numbers: The Golden Knights have lost four straight games in regulation on home ice. In the last 12 home games, Vegas is just 5-7-0 at home since January 25th. With just six more home games to go, they only face two teams in playoff position.

Head Coach Gerard Gallant must find a way to right the ship on home ice and quick. With the playoffs rapidly approaching, the Golden Knights can’t afford to go on a long losing streak before the season ends. And even though injuries are no excuse, the team needs Reilly Smith back at full health.

Sure, Oscar Lindberg, William Carrier, and Luca Sbisa are all missing too, but the team really needs Smith’s two-way ability. In my opinion, I believe Smith is the MVP of this club. What the Toronto, Ontario native brings every night is a lot of hustle and scoring ability. When you take him out of the lineup, the Golden Knights are drastically different from who they are as a team.

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Overall, the Vegas Golden Knights need to get back on the right track at home starting Sunday afternoon against the Calgary Flames. The Flames desperately need wins to keep their playoff hopes alive, so this should be a great game. Catch puck drop at 1 PM PT with Dave Goucher and Shane Hnidy on AT&T Sportsnet.