I'm tired, boss: despite a surprising performance, Golden Knights' tailspin continues with dreadful game in Dallas

Yours truly is getting tired of this, but to that, the Golden Knights say it's too damn bad. Fresh off back-to-back bad losses to Minnesota and Edmonton, one would hope that the Golden Knights would play like their backs were against the wall.

And they did! For roughly half the game, after which they fell apart in what's become an extremely familiar fashion. The boys in gold couldn't add to their impressive 7-2-2 all-time record in Dallas going into the game, nor could they break the Stars' now-13 game point streak. Making things worse, Vegas got a strong performance from their goaltender for the first time in ages, and yet it still wasn't enough. Let's take a look at yet another rough one.

The offense is simply not getting it done

I hate to beat a dead horse, but once again, Vegas' high-paid, high-powered offense had an atrocious night. The first period saw very little offense for both teams, giving the Golden Knights an excuse of sorts, with shots being tied at just 3-3. They then controlled large stretches of play for the first half of the second period, racking up a ton of shots while limiting Dallas to only six through the entire first half of the game. On the entire night, they outshot Dallas 27-16. Jack Eichel even scored again, giving the Golden Knights a rare lead. Sounds great, right?

However, at both the surface and deeper levels, all was not as it seemed. To be blunt, the guys who are paid to score did not score, as those 27 shots led to exactly one goal on the night. As noted by Jesse Granger, they've scored only 13 total goals over their last seven games, with four of those coming against Detroit alone. That's an average of 1.86 goals per game overall, and a pathetic 1.5 goals in those six losses.

Even the advanced stats don't speak well of the effort, with the Knights posting just 1.74 expected goals. While Jake Oettinger had a good night, Vegas didn't even really get goalied, as they didn't have many shots that genuinely challenged him. It's also the second consecutive game that Vegas has made a goalie with a sub-.900 save percentage look like a god, so... great.

A rare good Adin Hill start is wasted

Check that MoneyPuck link again, by the way. Your eyes are not deceiving you: Adin Hill posted a positive goals saved above expected. He, against all odds, kept things from getting worse, with Dallas posting over three expected goals compared to just two real goals. It's a prime example of the paper stats not telling the full story, as Hill's .875 save percentage doesn't reflect how the two goals felt fluky. Seriously, this J*mie B*nn goal was the sort of deflection no goalie can definitively plan for:

Vegas finally got a league-average goaltending performance like they've wished for for months, and yet, it still wasn't enough. I don't even know what this team can do differently at this point, and to tell the truth, I maybe only see one win in our next four games. It's gonna be a long month.

Up next, Pittsburgh on Thursday, who... just shut us out 5-0 last week. Joy!