Vegas Golden Knights: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly from Jets hammering

It was an ugly loss for the Vegas Golden Knights who crashed and burned in Winnipeg against the Jets on Friday at Bell MTS Place.

In what was the first game of a five-game road trip, the Vegas Golden Knights were shutout in a 4-0 blowout.

It wasn’t pretty and, yet again, a sloppy start in the first period ultimately proved costly for the Golden Knights.

For the third time in the last four games, the Knights allowed a goal on the first shot of the game after Nikolaj Ehlers got Marc-Andre Fleury out of position before banking a shot in off a defenseman’s stick on the wraparound.

Patrik Laine then slammed home a power play goal on the rebound, before Kyle Connor compounded a miserable first period for the Golden Knights by cashing in on a 2-on-1 rush.

And an awful game for Vegas was complete in the second-period when Mathieu Perreault converted the Jets’ second power play goal of the game.

It was a night to forget for the Vegas Golden Knights and we broke down the game by going through The Good, The Bad & The Ugly…

The Good

N/A – This is easy. On what was just a terrible night for the Vegas Golden Knights, it doesn’t feel right to pick out any positives.

Let’s move on.

The Bad

Turnovers – This was just a sloppy game by the Golden Knights from start to finish, and one play in particular really summed up Vegas’ troubles in Winnipeg.

Deep in the first period, and already in a two-goal hole, Vegas forward Nicolas Roy was skating towards no-man’s land and, as a result, opted to try and send a pass back over to the far side.

However, with a cluster of Winnipeg bodies around him, Roy executed the pass poorly and it was cut out by Jack Roslovic who had plenty of open ice in which to exploit.

Exploit all that open ice he did too, creating a 2-on-1 odd-man rush before dishing a perfect pass over to Kyle Connor who beat Marc-Andre Fleury with a perfect snipe.

It was just a bad play that epitomized how sloppy and sluggish the Golden Knights were on Friday in Winnipeg.

The PK – It has been a problem for a few months now and the penalty kill continues to stink for the Golden Knights.

The Winnipeg Jets cashed in on both of their power play opportunities, with Patrik Laine making it a two-goal game on the man advantage while Mathieu Perreault wrapped up the game late in the second period with his team’s second power play goal of the game.

Both goals were by-products of sloppy, slow defense where the penalty killers for the Golden Knights resembled ancient statues.

Vegas is now ranked 28th on the PK in the NHL (76.6), while their current 71.9% percentage on the penalty kill is the second-worse stretch in franchise history.

To put it bluntly, that is not going to get the job done and the Golden Knights won’t last long in the postseason if they continue to suck on the penalty kill. It needs fixing and quick.

The Ugly

First Period Woes – What is it with the Vegas Golden Knights and the way they start games?

Nikolaj Ehlers’ goal at :32 in the first period was the third time in the past four games that the Golden Knights had allowed a goal on the first shot of the game.

There is also a much-bigger sample size when it comes to working out that there is a worrying trend when it comes to the Knights being sluggish to start games.

In 11 of their last 12 outings the Golden Knights have struggled to really get going from the opening faceoff, and some of that has to do with the fact that Head Coach Peter DeBoer continues to put out his fourth-line to start games.

You should be starting games with your best players in order to land the first blow of the contest as quickly as possible and, like the penalty kill, this is a major bugaboo that needs correcting as quickly as possible.