Vegas Golden Knights: Good, Bad, Ugly from Sabres loss

This proved to be a loss with far more serious consequences after the Vegas Golden Knights fired Gerard Gallant as their Head Coach on Wednesday.

However, we have gone through the wreckage of yesterday’s bombshell news and the hiring of Peter DeBoer as the new Head Coach of the Vegas Golden Knights, and we will continue to do so today.

But for now, let’s focus on what happened in Buffalo on Tuesday night as the Golden Knights dropped a fourth straight decision with a 4-2 loss to the Sabres.

Despite being outplayed and outshot in the first period, the Golden Knights actually achieved a first in 2020 by landing the first blow of the night.

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Chandler Stephenson‘s cross-ice pass bounced off Tomas Nosek‘s skate and into the Buffalo Sabres net.

But it wasn’t long before the Sabres hit back and both Kyle Okposo and Sam Reinhart converted on the power play.

Vegas scored a goal on the man advantage themselves thanks to Reilly Smith‘s 19th goal of the year in the third period, although the Knights couldn’t build on that.

Jack Eichel, who is in contention for the Hart Trophy this year, scored a filthy effort with what proved to be the go-ahead goal, before Curtis Lazar iced the game for Buffalo with an empty-netter in the final seconds of the contest.

It was another disappointing night at the office for the Vegas Golden Knights, which led to the firing of Head Coach Gerard Gallant and Assistant Coach Mike Kelly, and we have broken down the game in our own unique way…

The Good

Marc-Andre Fleury – It hasn’t been a vintage year in the illustrious career of Marc-Andre Fleury, who hasn’t been at his best.

However, and despite allowing four goals on 25 shots, Fleury wasn’t really to blame for any of the Buffalo goals.

And, if it wasn’t for the future Hall of Famer, then the Knights would have been staring down another gaping hole at the end of the first period.

The Sabres peppered Fleury with a plethora of shots in the opening 20-minutes, but the goalie stood tall and stopped all 13 shots fired at him.

Reilly Smith / Shea Theodore – It is completely reasonable to state that a handful of Vegas’ big hitters haven’t quite lived up to expectations so far this year.

However, you can take Reilly Smith and Shea Theodore out of that category because the duo have been producing for the Golden Knights all season.

Theodore is on his way to carving out a career year and the defenseman finished with a two-point night against the Sabres.

Then there is Smith who has been like King Midas this year as far as that everything he has touched in-front of the net has turned to goal.

And the forward recorded his 19th goal of the year on Tuesday after blasting a wicked wrister past Linus Ullmark.

It is a shame that other players didn’t deliver the goods.

The Bad

William Karlsson – The forward did tally a secondary helper on Reilly Smith’s third period goal to snap a seven-game streak without a point, but it was still a rough outing for Karlsson who has struggled for the last few weeks.

And his most damning moment came in the second period when he was stripped off the puck in his own zone by Conor Sheary, which led to Kyle Okposo making it a tied game on the power play.

Karlsson finished with a plus/minus rating of -2 in 18:43 minutes of total ice time, and the franchise center getting back to his best will be key to the Golden Knights finding their groove.

The Ugly

The Penalty Kill – For most of this regular season, the Vegas Golden Knights have executed special teams to perfection.

However, that has regressed somewhat and the penalty kill in particular has really fallen off a cliff, as demonstrated perfectly on Tuesday.

While Buffalo came into the game having gone 4-for-11 on the power play in their last four outings, they ranked average to below average on the man advantage over a much bigger sample size.

However, the Sabres were given three opportunities to wreak havoc on the power play against the Knights, and they succeeded on two occasions.

Kyle Okposo beat Marc-Andre Fleury with a wrister in the second period following a horrific turnover by William Karlsson, before a game of tic-tac-toe between Jack Eichel and Rasmus Ristolainen resulted in Sam Reinhart beating Fleury for a second consecutive power play goal.

It was an ugly night for the Vegas Golden Knights penalty kill.

Recent run – Every team endures dips and bumps in the road throughout the course of an 82-game regular season.

However, this run of four consecutive losses resulted in a bombshell being dropped on Wednesday with Head Coach Gerard Gallant losing his job, along with Assistant Coach Mike Kelly.

Life must go on, however, and the Vegas Golden Knights will now attempt to achieve their mission of winning a Stanley Cup under new Head Coach Peter DeBoer.