Five days ago, after the Vegas Golden Knights's 4-0 shutout of the Columbus Blue Jackets, there was so much joy and positivity and a realistic hope that this road trip could have that rarest of rarities this season: a genuinely happy ending. After Vegas got shut out by the Detroit Red Wings 3-0 to close the road trip today, all that’s left is a sense of, “[sighs]…should’ve known!”
Albert Johansson started the scoring for Detroit, and it’s all they really needed- though didn’t stop Lucas Raymond and Marco Kasper tacking a pair on in the third. Here are my three takeaways from “Wish you was English instead” kind of day from Hockeytown.
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— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) March 16, 2025
Ineffective offense dooms the Knights again
Today was the first time that Jack Eichel, Mark Stone, and Ivan Barbashev were on the same line in months. Outside of the third period, they were held thoroughly in check by the Detroit defense. You could also say the same of the rest of the Golden Knights. Only two forwards had more than one shot on Petr Mrazek, who looked far too comfortable for a man with a GAA over three going into today’s game.
This weekend, Vegas combined had the same amount of shots they had to start the road trip in Pittsburgh (37). It was the first time they had under 20 shots in back-to-back regular season games in franchise history. You hope it’s just an issue of exhaustion from a long and packed road trip. But it’s still one of those things that absolutely needs to be squashed down before Thursday under the wheels of a ‘55 Camaro.
Missing since January: Victor Olofsson
Continuing on the theme of scoring droughts, Victor Olofsson has been in a deep scoring freeze for closing in on two months now. His goal in the shootout on Saturday is the closest he’s come to finding the back of the net. That’s 18 games not making a whole lot of a footprint offensively, outside of three assists. 12 of those 18 games came while slotted in the top six, which is a whole other worry in its own right.
There’s still time for him to try to right the ship and establish a good presence as an offensive threat in the bottom six, which always come in handy come playoff time. But with Alexander Holtz getting his sixth AHL goal last night, there’s the big question of how much before Cassidy makes a change.
“Dropped Points” the name of the road trip
Regardless of the outcome today, this was always going to be the main theme of this road trip for the Golden Knights. Each of the three losses on this trip were ripe for the winning for Vegas. For example, if one of the handful of chances in regulation got past Tristan Jarry in Pittsburgh. If the defense in Buffalo was a modicum better in the empty net late in the third period, it would've been positive. Even here in Detroit today, with all of the headwinds against them, it was still ripe for the taking heading into the third.
With Los Angeles just starting to get hot again and Edmonton lingering around like a shark, these kinds of trips could turn out to be the difference between a division title and the treacherous 2-3 buzzsaw in a month’s time.
Next on the Marquee:
A delightful rest followed by the start of a three-game homestand against the Boston Bruins on Thursday night at 7 P.M. If there was ever a perfect time for good homecooking, this is it. The Bruins have given up more than three goals in four of the last six, including the thumping Tampa Bay gave them on Saturday night. Also, it’s officially the start of Spring, which is a win in its own right. Not as great as a proper win, of course, but still great nonetheless. Anyway, till then…