Vegas Golden Knights continue to sink with first loss to Blackhawks
It isn’t quite the Titanic yet but it is heading in that direction after the Vegas Golden Knights dropped their fourth straight with a 5-3 loss to the Chicago Blackhawks at T-Mobile Arena on Wednesday Night Hockey.
November has been like the house of horrors for the Vegas Golden Knights who have lost four straight games, six of their last seven and are now 4-4-2 at T-Mobile Arena this year.
And, to make matters worse, the Knights had a 100 percent record against the Chicago Blackhawks prior to last night’s contest, but that streak was surrendered on what was another worrying night for Vegas.
It all started so well for the Golden Knights, however, who raced into a 2-0 lead thanks to a William Carrier deflection and a power play goal from William Karlsson.
However, the momentum started to shift when the Vegas defense committed a cardinal sin by leaving Patrick Kane open to execute his trademark one-timer, before Alex Tuch thought he had made it 3-1 only for the goal to be overturned.
And that setback completely swung the pendulum in Chicago’s favor as the Blackhawks scored four unanswered goals to take complete control of the contest and heap more misery on their hosts.
Nate Schmidt did pot his second goal of the year with less than a minute remaining in the third period, but it was too little too late as the Vegas Golden Knights fell to 9-8-3 on the year.
Let’s delve into the game in full by dissecting it period-by-period…
The Game
First Period – When things haven’t been going your way the last thing you want is to give away a penalty shot to start the game, but that is exactly what happened for the Golden Knights as Nic Hague hooked Zack Smith on a breakaway.
However, Smith went glove-side but pinged his shot off the crossbar and it was a hefty bullet dodged for the Knights.
heavy metal 🤘 pic.twitter.com/SUNUu03JCp
— 🏆 - Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) November 14, 2019
Corey Crawford made a superb save on Reilly Smith but Vegas were not denied for long as Nic Hague fired a wrister towards goal and it deflected off William Carrier and into the net at 2:58.
And the Golden Knights were looking to go for the kill when given a power play, and it paid off at 6:29.
Jonathan Marchessault fed William Karlsson with a sublime feed and the forward had the time to slide a backhand shot through the pads of Crawford.
Alex Tuch also registered an assist on the tuck in what was his first game back from an upper-body injury, while the power play had looked a lot more aggressive than it had in previous games.
However, the Vegas defense buckled immediately and put up a huge stinker as Patrick Kane was left all alone to crank a one-timer from the circle past Marc-Andre Fleury at 6:45, with Dylan Strome providing a brilliant cross-ice pass.
Fleury had to come up big on a number of occasions as his defense coughed up a plethora of giveaways, and the first period ended with Vegas holding a slender lead having outshot the Blackhawks 16-8.
Second Period – It all came crashing down for the Golden Knights in the middle frame, however, and it started with Alex Tuch thinking he had made it 3-1 only for the officials to rule that it had hit the crossbar and bounced out.
And that proved to be the turning point in the contest as Calvin de Haan ripped a wrister past Marc-Andre Fleury to make it a tied game and, in the blink of an eye, the Blackhawks made it a 3-2 game thanks to Erik Gustafsson‘s wrist shot.
It was a nightmare sequence for the Golden Knights as their defense delivered a stinker yet again, and it didn’t help that they were coming up against a hot goalie in Corey Crawford too.
Crawford denied Mark Stone on a breakaway before Jonathan Marchessault completely fanned on a penalty shot.
And a frustrating period came to a close with Crawford pulling out another great stop to this time deny Cody Glass with a pad save, after Mark Stone had fed the rookie with a sublime saucer pass.
Vegas again outshot the Blackhawks 15-9 but they found themselves a goal down heading into the final period.
Third Period – Corey Crawford made another stop on Mark Stone to start the period, and that led to another goal for the Chicago Blackhawks with Kirby Dach scoring on his own rebound, with two of the rookie’s three goals coming against the Knights.
Cody Eakin left the game hurt and the night only got worse for Vegas as Dylan Strome skated in on a three-on-two rush before icing the game with a wrist shot.
Nate Schmidt did get on the board with a wrister from the point but it was too little too late as the Vegas Golden Knights suffered their fourth straight loss.
Let’s go over some notes and stats from the game…
Notes & Stats From The Game
This was the Vegas Golden Knights lineup against the Chicago Blackhawks:
Pacioretty-Karlsson-Smith
Marchessault-Eakin-Stone
Tuch-Stastny-Glass
Carrier-Roy-Reaves
McNabb-Schmidt
Merrill-Holden
Hague-Theodore
Fleury
And these were the healthy scratches for the Vegas Golden Knights:
Here are some key stats from the game:
- SOG – CHI: 26 – VGK: 42
- FO% – CHI: 47% – VGK: 53%
- PP – CHI: 0/1 – VGK: 1/2
- PIM – CHI: 6 – VGK: 4
- HITS – CHI: 28 – VGK: 36
- BLKS – CHI: 11 – VGK: 9
- GVA – CHI: 3 – VGK: 8
Here is the Official Scoring Summary from the game:
- William Carrier (3) – Hague (3), Roy (2) – 2:58 / 1st
- William Karlsson (5) – PPG – Marchessault (9), Tuch (1) – 6:29 / 1st
- Patrick Kane (9) – Strome (10), DeBrincat (9) – 6:45 / 1st
- Calvin de Haan (1) – Smith (1), Dach (3) – 4:09 / 2nd
- Erik Gustafsson (1) – Strome (11), Kane (13) – 4:54 / 2nd
- Kirby Dach (3) – Carpenter (6), Smith (2) – 3:57 / 3rd
- Dylan Strome (4) – DeBrincat (10), Kane (14) – 16:39 / 3rd
- Nate Schmidt (2) – McNabb (2), Karlsson (13) – 19:00 / 3rd
Let’s go over some notes from the game:
- The Vegas Golden Knights are now 9-8-3 on the year after losing 5-3 to the Chicago Blackhawks.
- With the loss, the Knights have now lost six of their last seven games and they have dropped four straight.
- Also, they are now 4-4-2 at T-Mobile Arena this year and this is an interesting nugget from Jesse Granger of The Athletic:
- In the Knights’ first season, they didn’t lose their sixth game at home until Feb. 11, and last season it took until Dec, 22. The fact they have reached that mark by November tells its own story this year.
- And, another damming stat at play here is the fact that the Golden Knights had never lost to the Chicago Blackhawks in franchise history prior to last night.
- Marc-Andre Fleury got the start in goal and he made some huge stops as he saved 21 of the 26 shots he faced, although he was let down by his defense.
- Patrick Kane recorded a three-point night (one goal, two assists) for the Blackhawks and you can’t give an elite player like that so much time and space as the Golden Knights did.
- Chicago rookie Kirby Dach also recorded a two-point night and three of his six points this year have come against the Golden Knights.
- Cody Eakin left the game in the third period and he didn’t return, with Vegas Head Coach Gerard Gallant saying after the game that it was down to cramps.
- Speaking of Eakin, Gallant shuffled his forward lines with Eakin centering the second line between Jonathan Marchessault and Mark Stone, although that particular experiment didn’t really work.
- Max Pacioretty on the top line with William Karlsson and Reilly Smith did work, however, and the trio skated well together.
- Overall, the offense was clicking for the Golden Knights and they outshot the Blackhawks 42-26, but they came up against a hot goalie in Corey Crawford.
- William Karlsson had a two-point night with a goal and an assist, snapping a three-game scoring slump.
- Karlsson was the Golden Knights’ best player and he now has five goals and 13 assists for 18 points through 20 games.
- Alex Tuch, playing in just his third game of the year due to two significant upper-body injuries, also had a good night with his first assist of the year, while he also thought he had tallied a goal before it was waved off.
- Nate Schmidt picked up his third goal of the year, Nic Hague tallied his third assist and Nicolas Roy, Jonathan Marchessault and Brayden McNabb also picked up a point on the night.
- The Golden Knights did a good job of staying out of the box last night and they killed off Chicago’s only power play of the game.
- And the Knights went 1-for-2 on the power play, generating six shots with both units adopting an aggressive approach.
- Vegas outhit the Blackhawks 36-28, they blocked nine shots to Chicago’s 11 and they had more takeaways with eight to the Hawks’ three.
- And the amount of turnovers and odd-man rushes the Golden Knights gave up should be a major concern going forward, especially as it has been a huge bugaboo of this team throughout the year.
- Where do the Vegas Golden Knights go from here? It has been an awful run and there doesn’t appear to be any light at the end of the tunnel.
- Shea Theodore had his strongest game in a while and he led all Vegas skaters in total ice time with 25:20 minutes.
- The Official Three Stars of the Night were: 1. Patrick Kane 2. Dylan Strome 3. Alex Tuch
Next. Golden Knights should trade Cody Eakin. dark
Looking Ahead
The Vegas Golden Knights head to LA to take on the Kings on Saturday, before facing off against the Calgary Flames in the second game of a back-to-back on Sunday, which will start a four-game homestand.