The Golden Knights entered stop number three of this East Coast swing on the back foot. Having been outscored 8-2 in their past two games, things were not going well. One would think their 5-0 thrashing at the hands of the Pittsburgh Penguins would've put some desperation in their game, motivating them to show some fight, but it just... didn't.
Instead, Vegas fell into a 3-0 hole for the third consecutive game, and like the last two, they couldn't claw their way out of it. Let's take a look at what went wrong in yet another brutal loss.
Death, taxes, always playing from behind
We've written extensively on how Vegas has had a long-standing issue with falling into holes this season. Unfortunately, that problem reared its ugly head again on this road trip. As previously mentioned, Vegas has fallen behind 3-0 in three consecutive games, in addition to trailing Los Angeles 2-1 for a solid chunk of that game.
In fact, since the end of the Olympic break, Pavel Dorofeyev's game-opening goal against the Kings marks Vegas' only first-period goal, with the game as a whole marking the only time Vegas has held a lead. SinBin also points out that the Golden Knights simply haven't been a good comeback team in recent memory:
3 takeaways from the game, presented by @dotvegasinc
— SinBin.vegas 🇺🇸🥇 (@SinBinVegas) March 4, 2026
1) 13 straight losses to playoff teams. It has to be sorted out and quickly or the playoff chances, which had been north of 90% pretty much all year, will plummet down.
2) 7 straight regulation losses in which they’ve fallen… pic.twitter.com/BAw2yF6pqt
Just a rough, rough trend that hasn't fixed itself. I'm not even really sure what they can do differently, but better goaltending and defense might be a start. The late-night acquisition of Cole Smith, known for his defense and penalty-killing, might be a start there; at least he gets one of our weaker forwards out of the lineup.
A fraud amongst contenders
As also mentioned by SinBin, Vegas has now lost 13 straight games to playoff teams. They're 5-10-10 on the season as a whole, with the last one coming against the Utah Mammoth... in November.
Vegas Golden Knights Fun Facts
— Liam Blutman (@Blutman27) March 1, 2026
Last time VGK beat a team currently in a playoff spot: November 20th, 2025 vs. Mammoth
Four Wins all season vs. teams current in a playoff spot: Canes x2, Red Wings, Mammoth
To say that's utterly brutal is somehow underselling it. For the most part, they're not necessarily losing badly, as many of those recent losses have been close ones; 3-2 to Seattle and Buffalo, 4-3 to Anaheim, 5-4 to Dallas in a shootout, and so on.
However, they just haven't shown that extra gear to beat the teams that matter, and they're running out of time to do so. They still stand a pretty good chance at making the playoffs, but that's less due to their own performance and more due to the Pacific Division being more like the Great Pacific Garbage Patch this season.
Anyways, the Golden Knights get another shot at a playoff team in the Red Wings tonight. Let's hope their strong record on back to backs might right the ship a little.