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Three Things I Noticed Against the Blues

By Evan Mead

LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - OCTOBER 12: Robin Lehner #90 of the Vegas Golden Knights takes to the ice for a game against the Seattle Kraken during the Kraken's inaugural regular-season game at T-Mobile Arena on October 12, 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Golden Knights defeated the Kraken 4-3. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA - OCTOBER 12: Robin Lehner #90 of the Vegas Golden Knights takes to the ice for a game against the Seattle Kraken during the Kraken's inaugural regular-season game at T-Mobile Arena on October 12, 2021 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The Golden Knights defeated the Kraken 4-3. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /
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The Vegas Knights came off a well-earned first win against the Kraken, but since have struggled. Yesterday was a well-fought game, but came up short against the Blues.

The Vegas Knights, who started the season 1-0-0 are now 1-2-0. They won the first game of the season against the Kraken, but since that point, they have now lost to the Kings and Blues. However, after watching and analyzing the game against the Blues yesterday, it wasn’t necessarily a poor performance. It’s just the Blues simply out-played them. With that being said, let’s take a look at some of the things I noticed from the game yesterday.

Peyton Krebs

As far as good takeaways go, Peyton Krebs has to be mentioned. Yesterday, the Knights received their second loss of the season, but Peyton Krebs was the light we needed. Although he didn’t put up any goals or assists, his presence on the ice was exhilarating. He was moving well all over the ice, made good decisions with the puck, and showed great competitiveness. Now he did get too ancy at points, one of which landed him in the penalty box, but had a very strong showing when looking at the big picture.

With that being said, perhaps the best part about this game was that, with each game he’s played so far, he’s improved. In this league, especially as a young player, you tend to make a lot of mistakes with the puck that costs the team chances and creates chances for the opposition. Now the Blues did have 40 shots on goal, but not to Krebs’ fault. Krebs had a remarkable game yesterday and if he continues to build, he’ll be sticking around for the long haul.

Robin Lehner

Everyone, Can we just take a second acknowledge the fact that this loss was in no way Lehner’s fault? Good. Now that that’s done, let’s dig in deeper to just how well Lehner played in net. Yesterday, the Knights allowed 37 shots on goal and yet he only allowed two. Not to mention that one of them was a 3-on-0 breakaway between two of the Blues’ best players. Anytime someone has to try and stop a 3-on-0 breakaway, you can pretty much just expect a goal. On top of that though, the Blues also had eight grade-A chances. In other words, Lehner played a career game yesterday.

If Lehner can grow off this performance, the Knights could have a chance for a dramatic turnaround once the team get’s healthy again. Unfortunately, they haven’t been healthy so far, but the team shouldn’t be discounted with the way Lehner has performed.

Defense

So this topic here goes hand-in-hand with Lehner, but it’s as simple as they need to do better defensively. Anytime a goalie has to face as many high scoring chances they had to last night, things have to be corrected. It’s not going to help matters with Alec Martinez possibly heading to the IR, but they have to work around that. Injuries is part of the game, but overcoming those circumstances is what is going to show your true colors. If they can figure out a way to overcome those differences, then they can make a bounce-back, but they’ve had two very poor performances defensively. They simply speaking need to do better.

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