Vegas Golden Knights crushed in Philly on night to forget

“The City of Brotherly Love” certainly didn’t show the Vegas Golden Knights much lovin’ after they were handed a 6-2 whooping at the hands of the Philadelphia Flyers on Monday night.

In what was the first game of a back-to-back and the second of a three-game road trip, the Vegas Golden Knights had their doors blown off by the Flyers at Wells Fargo Center.

With Oscar Dansk getting the start in net – his first NHL start since October, 30, 2017 – the Golden Knights failed to offer their goaltender much protection and they paid the ultimate price.

The Flyers snapped a four-game losing streak in large part thanks to five unanswered goals, where they did most of their damage in the second period.

Vegas did pull a couple back in the third period thanks to Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith, but the damage was already done and Philadelphia iced the game thanks to Michael Raffl‘s third goal of the year.

It was a horrible defensive effort from the Knights who were looking for their third straight win and the second victory of this road trip.

Instead, they were dealt an ugly loss and their flaws on the blueline and when it comes to their depth in the goaltending department were both exposed last night.

The Game

First Period – Vegas’ vaunted penalty kill, which ranked first in the NHL prior to Monday, was put to the test early against the Philadelphia Flyers after rookie defenseman Jake Bischoff was sent to the box for cross checking.

And it was an examination the Golden Knights failed as Jon Merrill deflected a pass into the path of Travis Konecny, who wristed home a goal on the power play.

Vegas were outshot 15-7 in the opening period and they were under significant pressure for most, if not all of the 20 minutes of play as the Flyers had it all their own way.

Second Period – It didn’t get much better for the Knights, either, as the Flyers went on an absolute offensive splurge in the middle frame.

Kevin Hayes made it 2-0 early in the second as he put the puck through the pads of Oscar Dansk on the wraparound, and Michael Raffl redirected Ivan Provorov‘s shot.

It only got worse for the Golden Knights as they were scored on the power play for the second time, with Matt Niskanen one-timing the puck past Dansk from Sean Couturier‘s delicious cross-ice feed.

With that goal, Vegas had allowed as many power play goals in two periods as they did in the first nine games of the year combined. That stat alone summed up the Knights’ evening.

Philly were not done there, either, executing an odd-man rush perfectly with Michael Raffl and Oskar Lindblom playing a game of tic-tac-toe before the latter lifted the puck over Dansk.

Third Period – There was a better start to the third period for the Golden Knights after Mark Stone fed Jonathan Marchessault with a gorgeous feed, and the wing was able to apply the finishing touch at the backdoor.

Vegas soon had another goal on which to hang their hat on with Reilly Smith scoring on the breakaway after going five-hole on Brian Elliott, but that was as good as it got for the Knights.

And their misery was soon compounded when Michael Raffl completed a three-point night with his second goal after deking Oscar Dansk and beating the goalie on his backhand.

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