Vegas Golden Knights falter again after being handled by Coyotes

Notes & Stats from the game

This was the Vegas Golden Knights lineup…

Marchessault-Karlsson-Smith
Pacioretty-Glass-Stone
Pirri-Stastny-Zykov
Carrier-Nosek-Reaves

McNabb-Theodore
Merrill-Holden
Hague-Engelland

Subban

And these were the healthy scratches for the Golden Knights:

• Jimmy Schuldt
• Nicolas Roy

Here are some key stats from the game:

• SOG – VGK: 38 – ARI: 29
• FO% – VGK: 47% – ARI: 53%
• PP – VGK: 0/4 – ARI: 0/2
• PIM – VGK: 4 – ARI: 8
• HITS – VGK: 21 – ARI: 15
• BLKS – VGK: 11 – ARI: 12
• GVA – VGK: 9 – ARI: 10

And here’s the official scoring summary from the game:

• Conor Garland (1) – Soderberg (1) – 8:00 / 1st
• Nick Schmaltz (1) – Dvorak (1), Hayton (1) – 19:21 / 1st
• Shea Theodore (1) – McNabb (1), Glass (2) – 19:55 / 1st
• Conor Garland (2) – Oesterle (1)  – 2:03 / 2nd
• Niklas Hjalmarsson (1) – Keller (2), Soderberg (2) – 18:28 / 2nd

Let’s finish with some notes from the game:

• The Vegas Golden Knights are now 2-2-0 after dropping their second consecutive game.
• The Knights did boast an all-time record of 4-0-0 at Gila River Arena prior to last night’s matchup.
• Arizona won their first game of 2019-20 and their record now stands at 1-2-0 to start the regular season.
• Malcolm Subban got his first start of the year and was sensational in the one period he played before injury struck, stopping 12 of 14 shots he faced and pulling off some stunning stops.
• Marc-Andre Fleury came in for Subban and was kept busy in the two periods he played, stopping 13 of the 15 shots he faced.
• Shea Theodore recorded his first goal of the year at the end of the first period, with Brayden McNabb and Cody Glass getting the helpers on the effort.
• Glass now has three points (one goal, two assists) in four games and he continues to impress in the early stages of his NHL career.
• Conor Garland registered his first two goals of the year, Niklas Hjalmarsson got his first goal and Carl Soderberg had himself a two-point night with two assists.
• It was also a night to remember for rookie Barrett Hayton, the No. 5 overall pick in the 2018 NHL Entry Draft, who picked up his first assist in the National Hockey League.
• The Golden Knights were outfought in the faceoff circle again, winning 47 percent of their draws while Arizona won 53 percent.
• Vegas’ superb penalty kill continued and it is currently operating at a 93.3 percent clip through four games.
• However, they went 0-for-four on the power play and they just couldn’t get their offense going.

• And speaking of offensive failures, the bottom six was nonexistent again and that continues to be an alarming issue for the Knights.
• As does turnovers with Vegas giving up nine giveaways, while they were also guilty of giving up a slew of breakaways.
• The Knights did come out on top in one category – out-hitting the Coyotes 21 to 15.
• Paul Stastny excelled in the faceoff circle for the Knights by winning 71 percent of his draws.
• William Karlsson, who hasn’t been taking faceoffs due to an unspecified issue, won 40 percent of his draws against the Coyotes.
• Shea Theodore led all Golden Knights skaters in total ice time after logging a monster 24:42 minutes, recording an assist and a plus/minus rating of +1.
• The Official Three Stars of the Night were: 1. Conor Garland 2. Darcy Kuemper 3. Barrett Hayton

It was another tough night for the Vegas Golden Knights who have now dropped two straight games, but they won’t have to wait long to get back to it with the Calgary Flames visiting T-Mobile Arena on Saturday night – 7:00 p.m. PT.