Vegas Golden Knights: Flaws highlighted in Boston Bruins defeat

It has been an impressive start to the 2019-20 NHL regular season for the Vegas Golden Knights who are 2-1-0 after three games.

Beginning the year by facing the San Jose Sharks in a home-and-home double header, the Vegas Golden Knights beat up on their bitter rivals in both games, outscoring their opponents 9-2 with Marc-Andre Fleury stopping 55 of 57 shots.

The way in which the Knights breezed past the Sharks was breathtaking and they got production up and down the lineup, particularly in the second game when Tomas Nosek recorded a three-point night (two goals, one assist) and William Carrier, Valentin Zykov and Brandon Pirri all registered a point.

But the Golden Knights were dealt their first loss of the year on Tuesday after the Boston Bruins ran out 4-3 winners at T-Mobile Arena, getting a monster night from their elite top line of Brad Marchand–Patrice Bergeron–David Pastrnak, who exploded into life after a quiet beginning to the year.

Now, let’s get this straight from the get go, the Bruins are an elite hockey team and they made the Stanley Cup Final last year for a reason. It wouldn’t be surprising if they embark on another deep postseason run this year, and they boast tremendous depth as well as having one of the best lines in the NHL.

However, there is no doubt that the Golden Knights were the architect of their own downfall against the Bruins, playing sloppy hockey at times and not everyone turned up to play.

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And what we mean by that is, as good as Vegas’ top six was, and they were very good, the bottom six was almost non-existent and they offered very little against a Boston team who can beat up on teams with ease.

While the top line of Jonathan Marchessault, William Karlsson and Reilly Smith combined for three points and the impressive now-look second line featuring Max Pacioretty–Cody Glass–Mark Stone tallied five points in total, Vegas’ depth forwards failed to bring anything to the table and it highlighted an obvious flaw.

It was a concern heading into 2019-20 and, while it was somewhat masked after the opening two games, those fears reared their ugly head against the Bruins and it should give the coaching staff some serious food for thought going forward.

Valentin Zykov, who was so impressive throughout the preseason and in the first two games against the Sharks, was a nonentity against Boston as was Brandon Pirri who has always struggled with consistency in the big leagues.

And the bottom line wasn’t much better either with William Carrier, Tomas Nosek and Ryan Reaves all -1 on the night, while the bottom six group failed to generate a single high-danger scoring chance between them.

That simply won’t do.

Granted, it could have been a bad night at the office and let’s hope it was but, with Alex Tuch and Cody Eakin currently on the IR, there could be changes afoot once those two are healthy if the likes of Zykov and Pirri can’t get it going.

Costly turnovers also proved to be an albatross around the Golden Knights’ necks against Boston, with Nick Holden at fault for Torey Krug‘s thunderous slapshot in the third period, while Deryk Engelland and Nic Hague couldn’t get the puck out of the zone which led to David Pastrnak first goal of the year in the first period.

Vegas coughed up 12 giveaways in total and they are hurting without Nate Schmidt on the ice, with the blueliner currently on the IR with a lower body injury.

Schmidt, like Shea Theodore, is a rarity on the Golden Knights roster in that he is a puck-moving defenseman who can get the puck out of the zone quickly, help with the transition game and provide some offensive production.

Theodore ticks all of those boxes too but he is somewhat limited without Schmidt on the ice to help ease some of the burden, and it was proven last year that the Knights are a better team with Schmidt on the ice after struggling mightily during his 20-game suspension.

Unlike the secondary scoring, which is a genuine concern in my opinion, the blueline should be fine and you can chalk the vast amount of turnovers against the Bruins down to just having a bad night at the office.

Once Schmidt is back and, with rookie Nic Hague getting more comfortable with every game he plays, the Vegas Golden Knights should iron out the kinks in their defensive game and be a solid unit that doesn’t give teams an inch on most nights, although the lack of secondary scoring is a real blemish on the copybook that is worth keeping an eye on going forward.