Vegas Golden Knights made to pay for horrific first period yet again

Notes & Stats

This was the Vegas Golden Knights lineup to start the game…

Stephenson-Karlsson-Smith
Pacioretty-Stastny-Stone
Nosek-Eakin-Tuch
Carrier-Roy-Reaves

McNabb-Schmidt
Holden-Theodore
Hague-Engelland

Subban

Here are some key stats from the game:

• SOG – LAK: 23 – VGK: 46
• FO% – LAK: 42% – VGK: 58%
• PP – LAK: 1/1 – VGK: 0/1
• PIM – LAK: 2 – VGK: 2
• HITS – LAK: 20 – VGK: 32
• BLKS – LAK: 18 – VGK: 13
• GVA – LAK: 5 – VGK: 6

And here is the Official Scoring Summary from the game:

• Alec Martinez (1) – Unassisted – 13:40 / 1st
• Ben Hutton (2) – Toffoli (15), Iafallo (17) – 15:01 / 1st
• Tyler Toffoli (12) – Kopitar (24) – 18:44 / 1st
• Adrian Kempe (9) – Amadio (9), Roy (10) – 19:56 / 1st
• Reilly Smith (18) – Unassisted – 14:38 / 2nd
• Max Pacioretty (20) – Stastny (9), Stone (27) – 15:34 / 2nd
• Adrian Kempe (10) – PPG – Unassisted – 19:51 / 3rd

Let’s go over some notes from the game:

• The Vegas Golden Knights are now 24-17-6 on the year and 14-9-3 at T-Mobile Arena following the loss to the LA Kings.
• What is going on with the Vegas Golden Knights in the first period of games? They have now been outscored 9-0 in the past three first periods of games, which is concerning.
• And it is even more frustrating when they then come out and turn it on in the last two periods.
• Take this game for example. After being outshot 18-10 in the first period, the Knights went on to outshoot the LA Kings by a combined total of 36-5 in the final two periods.
• And here is another takeaway from this game; the Knights really need to address the blueline and their lack of secondary scoring at the Trade Deadline. They need a puck-moving defenseman and a third-line scoring wing, although they will need to create cap space first.
• No matter how you look at it, this was a bad loss. The LA Kings are in the early stages of a rebuild and the Knights, given how talented this roster is, should not have been blown out like that in the first period.
• Malcolm Subban made his first start since Dec. 27, and he allowed four goals in the first period, saving 18 of 23 shots. Subban is now 6-7-3 this year with a 3.04 Goals Against Average and a .898 Save Percentage.
• Reilly Smith has been red hot all year when it comes to putting the puck in the net, and the forward recorded his 18th goal and 36th point of the year on Thursday.
• Speaking to players on a tear, Max Pacioretty lit the lamp for the 20th time this season, and the veteran leads the Golden Knights in points with 45.
• Paul Stastny is starting to heat up a little bit and the forward tallied the primary helper on Pacioretty’s goal, while Mark Stone also recorded an assist on the goal.
• The Vegas Golden Knights and the LA Kings combined for a grand total of four penalty minutes, which is amazing considering the edge these two teams play with.
• Speaking of which, the Knights laid on 32 hits while they also came out on top in the faceoff circle, winning 58% of their draws.
• The Golden Knights went 0/1 on the power play and they also allowed a goal on LA’s only power play of the night.
• Shea Theodore again led all Vegas Golden Knights skaters in total ice time with 25:58 minutes.
• The Official Three Stars of the game were: 1. Jack Campbell 2. Reilly Smith 3. Max Pacioretty

Looking Ahead

The Vegas Golden Knights finish this long homestand on Saturday against the Columbus Blue Jackets, before hitting the road for a very long road trip.

They won’t return to T-Mobile Arena for an NHL game until the second week of February.