In yet another poor showing, the Golden Knights get shot down by the Jets

Honestly, folks, I think this may be the one that gets me. I well and truly do not know what I can say that hasn't already been said at this point about the uncomfortable truth: this is a bad hockey team. Gone are the good vibes of seasons past, gone is the frustrating-but-competitive team of earlier this season, and in its place is a team that folds like wet cardboard under any pressure. That was fully on display on Tuesday night, as Vegas continued a disastrous March showing with a 4-1 loss to the Winnipeg Jets, a team they've historically manhandled over the last while. Let's try to break down some of the specific points from yet another dull, plodding loss for this mess of a squad.

Do we need missing posters for the offense?

Possibly a hot take, but I'd argue this is the most concerning trend for this team at the moment, rather than goaltending. Our friends at Sinbin pointed out the unfortunate fact that Vegas has scored just five total goals in their last five games, and to make it even worse, three of those came against Dallas alone. In fact, Vegas hasn't topped two goals in a loss since before the Olympic break, and to make that even worse, they've only reached four goals in regulation twice in their last 14 games. When the team's scored just 12 goals in their last 10 losses, it becomes truly hard to argue that the admittedly-poor goaltending is what's losing Vegas games.

There's also this unfortunate little factoid:

In fact, Eichel has just six points total in 14 games played since the Olympics. Mark Stone has two since the break, in an injury-shortened nine games, and both points (two assists) came in the same game! Mitch Marner has 12 in 14, but half of those came in a three-game span, and he's got one point in his last five games. Simply put, the guys that you expect to score are not doing that, and with the issues this team's depth has had all year, that's disastrous for the overall state of the team.

The playoff margin of error is getting uncomfortably small

I won't lie, there's a part of me that kinda wants them to miss the playoffs. The way they've looked the last month, they quite honestly don't deserve it; 90% of the reason they're still in a spot is because the Pacific Division is looking more like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. Six separate Pacific teams, including the Golden Knights, lost by multiple goals on Saturday, and it's honestly hard to disagree with Connor McDavid's assessment of the division as a "pillow fight."

But that aside, the repeated losing is still having an effect. Vegas now sits at 78 points in 72 games, good for third in this disaster division, and currently slating them to face Edmonton in round 1. However, there's equally-bad-but-slightly-luckier teams creeping up on them. LA currently sits four points back, but with one game in hand. Seattle, similarly, is six points back with two in hand, and even San Jose is eight back with three games in hand.

The Golden Knights are not even close to out of the woods for the playoff race, with any hot streak by any of these teams vaulting them above Vegas (and possibly Edmonton as well). Both wild-card teams hold tiebreakers over Vegas right now too, so falling out of third may be a death sentence.

Up next, the aforementioned Oilers on Thursday. Someone, against their will, has to win this game; let's hope it's the guys in gold.