In possibly the worst game of the season, the Golden Knights suffer a brutal loss to the red-hot Minnesota Wild

It was all set up perfectly. In spite of injuries and inconsistency, the Golden Knights went into their Monday night matchup against the Minnesota Wild with momentum, having scored 12 goals in their last two games. Should've been a barnburner, right?

Well, it... wasn't. Things went poorly early for Vegas; 26 seconds in, to be exact, when Marcus Johansson put the Wild up 1-0. Shortly afterwards, Tomas Hertl was ejected for boarding the Wild's Ryan Hartman, and then the wheels really fell off in an overall disastrous night. What went wrong in the penultimate game of 2025?

Vegas falls into a hole, yet again

We thought that the Golden Knights might've finally figured out how to seize the early momentum and not dig themselves into a hole. We were wrong. The Golden Knights didn't just fall into a hole, but a near-bottomless pit, as the Wild seemingly scored at will through the first two periods. In both the first and second periods, Vegas allowed a goal within the first minute of play, immediately destroying any momentum they could've gained:

By the time another six minutes had gone by, it was already 5-0, as any chance of the Golden Knights winning evaporated. The Wild's momentum kept carrying over and over, as they forced bad turnovers, capitalized off of abysmal defense, and kept the Golden Knights completely hemmed into their own zone for much of the first two periods. Overall, by far the worst start this team's had all year, and a reminder of an issue they've been nearly unable to fix thus far.

Another goalie controversy?

Despite early success, Carter Hart has come crashing back to earth lately, and this game was no exception. Monday marked the third time he's allowed four or more goals in his last four games, with a save percentage far under .900 in all four. Tonight was particularly brutal, as he allowed five goals on just 12 shots, ultimately being pulled for Akira Schmid roughly halfway through the second period. Poor defense aside, MoneyPuck puts the blame squarely on him, with a -4.3 goals saved above expected. Interestingly enough, Bruce Cassidy had this to say following the game:

The Golden Knights are no stranger to goalie controversies; see Fleury, Thompson, Lehner, and so on. But to be blunt, Schmid's numbers have been better than Hart's in recent memory, with a shutout of the Devils in his second-to-last start and zero goals allowed on the 15 shots he faced against Minnesota. He hasn't been elite overall, but one wonders if he has a chance to reclaim the starter's net he lost after Hart's hot start.

An anemic offensive effort dooms any hopes of a comeback

Vegas managed just 16 shots on goal all night, which the broadcast noted was their lowest single-game total all year. Obviously, missing your top 3 centers and top defenseman impact this, but still, yikes. While they did convert on two of those to make the final score marginally more respectable, both came after the Wild had run up a 5-0 score, making them more pity points than anything. Jack Eichel's impending return is sorely, sorely needed.

Next up, the Predators on New Year's Eve. Let's get one more W in 2025!