Another day, another disaster-filled loss for the Golden Knights in flop against Oilers

Oh man, where do I even start with this one? Fresh off an unusually low-key trade deadline for this deeply flawed Golden Knights squad, the team had something to prove. What did they prove on Friday night, though? Well, that this team still has a lot of kinks to work out... wait a second, why is this all sounding so familiar?

Ah, right, it's because the Golden Knights made basically all the same mistakes yet again in another 4-2 loss, this time to the Edmonton Oilers. An absolute disaster stretch continues to plague this team, as the Oilers came in and got basically all of the puck luck. Vegas was unable to take advantage of a Ducks regulation loss, and now finds themselves staring down the possibility of no playoffs entirely.

The offense has an unacceptably quiet night yet again

Not-so-fun-fact: The Golden Knights have had just two games since the Olympic break in which they've scored three or more goals. One of those was against the Jim Hiller-led Kings, so it's debatable if it even counts. Even with Mark Stone missing for all but two of those games, it's an absolutely unacceptable output considering everyone else on the ice. You hear tons of complaints about goaltending, but what does that matter when the offense can barely manage to score two goals a night?

Making things even worse, did you know that the Oilers had been averaging 4.67 goals against in their 12 games prior to this one? This should've been a great opportunity for Vegas to get its scoring groove back. Instead, they scored exactly one goal through roughly 57 minutes and made Connor Ingram (he of the .890 save percentage) look like a Vezina contender most of the night.

The usual suspects are still putting up points, but the bottom six and defensemen continue to be mostly useless in that facet. As noted on the broadcast tonight, Noah Hanifin's second-period equalizer was the first goal from a defenseman in 12 games, if I recall correctly. For what he and Shea Theodore are being paid (and what Rasmus Andersson likely will be paid), that's horrific.

Oh well. At least Jack Eichel had this sick shorthanded goal late:

Goaltending and defense don't get the job done, again

Not much new to report here. Adin Hill had a comparatively better night by his recent standards, with only -0.7 goals saved above expected, but still not a good one overall. Vasily Podkolzin's goal isn't his fault, as it was a breakaway, but he tripped himself up on the Frederic goal and left way too much of his five-hole open against Draisaitl late. Ultimately though, with Edmonton winning the expected goals battle 3.18-2.79, even an average effort from Hill wouldn't have saved this team from its lack of scoring.

Speaking of Podkolzin's goal, how on earth does this defensive corps let this happen? What was Jeremy Lauzon doing? We literally won the faceoff!

Just a dreadful, dreadful night to forget, in what's becoming a consistent trend. Next up, a top-tier Dallas squad on Tuesday. Hooray!