Vegas Golden Knights continue to sink with first loss to Blackhawks

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:

• Deryk Engelland
• Brandon Pirri
• Tomas Nosek

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

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.