Vegas Golden Knights: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly from Dallas loss

Coming out of the gate slow proved to be the ultimate downfall for the Vegas Golden Knights in a 4-2 loss to the red hot Dallas Stars on Monday night.

Spotting a very, very good Stars team a 2-0 lead in the first period, the Vegas Golden Knights never truly recovered on their way to dropping three straight.

Alexander Radulov and Esa Lindell both struck for Dallas in the first period, as the Stars dominated and outshot their guests 16-6.

Shea Theodore‘s second goal in as many games did get the Knights on the board in the middle frame but Jason Dickinson answered back for Dallas who were always in the driving seat.

And, despite the fact that Paul Stastny marked his 900th career game in the NHL with a goal, the Golden Knights never looked like preventing the Stars from racking up a franchise record seventh consecutive win, and that was secured when Radulov converted on the power play in the third period.

There was a little good, a lot of bad and a fair amount of ugly from the Vegas Golden Knights’ 4-2 loss to the Dallas Stars, so let’s dive in…

The Good

Paul Stastny – Playing in his 900th career NHL game, Paul Stastny marked it in style by recording his seventh goal of the year, taking him to 11 points on the year.

And the veteran forward loves playing against Dallas having now registered 50 points (21 goals, 29 assists) in 49 career games against the Stars.

Line Combinations – Vegas Head Coach Gerard Gallant finally went back to his usual forward lines, dropping Cody Eakin back down to the third line which allowed Paul Stastny to slot in on the second line between Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone.

It worked too with the line of Pacioretty, Stastny and Stone combining for a goal and all coming away with a point.

As good as Eakin has been in the last handful of games, he’s no second line center and it was about time Gallant put his top six back together.

Shea Theodore – It is now two goals in two games for the offensive defenseman who deked past a Dallas defenseman before backhanding the puck beyond Ben Bishop.

It was a second consecutive filthy goal for Theodore, who finally seems to be settling into a groove after a slow start to the year.

He now has 12 points (three goals, nine assists) on the year.

The Bad

Malcolm Subban – How do you solve a problem like the Vegas Golden Knights’ backup goaltending?

Good question.

Don’t get me wrong, I think Malcolm Subban has talent but coming in every now and then doesn’t help his cause and his lapses of concentration are a huge issue.

He allowed four goals on 28 shots and, in my opinion at least, he should have done a lot better with Dallas’ second goal after allowing Esa Lindell to go five-hole on him.

Defensive Play – As they did against the Edmonton Oilers, the Golden Knights afforded the Dallas Stars far too much space and you simply can’t do that when you are playing elite teams.

The Stars boast a plethora of big hitters and the likes of Tyler Seguin and Alexander Radulov had a field day against the Vegas defense last night.

It was ugly to watch at times and this team needs to tighten up if they are to stay in contention in the Pacific Division.

Bad Start – Just when will the Golden Knights learn from their mistakes? They seem incapable of playing a complete game and, after giving the Edmonton Oilers an easy start, they did exactly the same last night.

They spotted Dallas a 2-0 lead in the first period and, despite their best efforts, there was no coming back for Vegas after that.

You simply can’t give elite teams headstarts in games and, unfortunately, the Knights are finding that out to their cost a lot at the moment.

The Ugly

Special Teams – Wow, these were bad.

The Vegas Golden Knights whiffed on both the power play and on the penalty kill in big ways, but let’s get the worse out of the way first.

They had four attempts on the power play but generated just four shots on goal and, to add insult to injury, they had four straight minutes on the man advantage but failed to record a single shot on goal.

Awful.

And then there was the penalty kill, which allowed two goals on three attempts including the first and last goal of the game.

We pinpointed winning the special teams battle as one of the keys to the game and, shock horror, it wasn’t a surprise the Vegas Golden Knights dropped this one after failing to execute on both the power play and the penalty kill.

Looking Ahead

The Nashville Predators are next up for the Vegas Golden Knights on Wednesday, who will then return home on Friday to take on the Arizona Coyotes the day after Thanksgiving.