Vegas Golden Knights fall to Kings in penultimate preseason matchup

The Vegas Golden Knights are now 4-2 in the preseason after falling to a 3-2 defeat to the LA Kings at the T-Mobile Arena on Friday night.

It was a second straight loss for the Vegas Golden Knights following the 4-1 defeat at the hands of the Colorado Avalanche on Wednesday although, as we are all well aware of, results carry little significance in exhibition games.

What does matter is that established stars and veterans get back into the groove and eradicate any rust ahead of the regular season, and the Golden Knights put an incredibly strong lineup out on the ice last night.

LA also played a star-studded roster with the likes of Jonathan Quick, Drew Doughty, Jeff Carter, Ilya Kovalchuk and Anze Kopitar all playing against the Knights in a game that acted as a dress rehearsal for the regular season which gets underway next week.

Michael Amadio and Alex Iafallo both got on the board in the first period as the Kings took a 2-0 lead into the first intermission, although it was a different story in the third and final period after Paul Stastny and Brayden McNabb made it a tied game.

However, Kyle Clifford tallied what turned out to be the game-winning goal at 11:01 in the third and that proved to be that, with attentions now turning to Vegas’ preseason finale against the San Jose Sharks on Sunday.

Let’s recap last night’s game against the LA Kings by breaking down the lineup and each period…

The Lineup

Marc-Andre Fleury got the start in goal for his second game of the preseason, while the rest of the lineup also represented what could be the Golden Knights’ opening night roster.

Jimmy Schuldt was the only rookie defenseman to be named on the lineup card, which suggests that he has won the race to be named on the opening roster. Established stars Brayden McNabb, Nate Schmidt, Jon Merrill, Nick Holden and Shea Theodore completed the makeup of the blueline, with the latter recovering from a minor injury that forced him out of the game against Colorado on Wednesday night.

And it was a full-force forward unit too with Jonathan Marchessault, William Karlsson, Reilly Smith, Max Pacioretty, Paul Stastny and Mark Stone making up the top six, while Valentin Zykov filled the left wing role on the third line with Cody Eakin and Alex Tuch.

Keegan Kolesar filled in for the injured Ryan Reaves on the fourth line, with Tomas Nosek playing as the bottom line center and William Carrier slotting in on the left wing of that line.

Cody Glass, Nic Hague and Jake Bischoff were the notable healthy scratches and it is looking increasingly likely that they will begin 2019-20 in the AHL with the Chicago Wolves.

The Game

First Period – Vegas had a power play early with their man advantage units looking like this:

Stone, Stastny, Pacioretty, Tuch, Theodore.
Karlsson, Marchessault, Smith, Zykov, Theodore.

Those were two hugely impressive power play units but they were unable to strike first on special teams, and it was LA who drew first blood after a sloppy play by Jon Merrill allowed Trevor Lewis to feed Michael Amadio at the backdoor and the forward did the rest with a one-timer for his fourth goal of the preseason.

And the Kings doubled their lead at 11:48 in the first with Alex Iafallo converting on the powerplay with helpers from Drew Doughty and Anze Kopitar after Cody Eakin was assessed two minutes for roughing.

Second Period – There was no scoring in the middle frame although there was bad news for the Golden Knights to digest with Alex Tuch leaving the game after taking a painful-looking fall into the boards.

The Knights had a massive shot advantage in the second period after outshooting their guests 21-7, but Jonathan Quick was standing on his head and frustrating the home crowd with a flurry of smart stops.

Trevor Lewis thought he had scored a third goal for the Kings but he was adjudged to have batted it in with his left hand and the goal was rightly wiped off.

Third Period – It was announced that Alex Tuch would not be returning to the game, and let’s keep everything crossed it isn’t a serious injury and he was only taken out as a precaution.

Marc-Andre Fleury had to make a big save following another sloppy error by Jon Merrill, and that stop allowed the Golden Knights to claw their way back into the game. Cody Eakin fed Paul Stastny with a dish and the veteran one-timed a shot beyond Jonathan Quick to make it a 2-1 game at 4:24 in the third.

And it was a tied game at 5:38 with Brayden McNabb beating Quick from the point with a solid wrister – Max Pacioretty keeping his hot streak in the preseason going with his fifth assist and second of the night, while Stastny helped himself to a two-point night with the secondary helper on the goal.

There were 18,103 people packed into T-Mobile Arena which is ridiculous for a preseason game, but they didn’t get to see a Vegas win after Kyle Clifford gave LA the lead back and that proved to be the game-winning goal.

The Vegas Golden Knights outshot the LA Kings 42-28 but dropped the game and will now look to finish the preseason on a high when they host the San Jose Sharks at T-Mobile Arena on Sunday afternoon.

Let’s go over some notes and stats from the game…