The Golden Knights fall apart in every facet in frustrating loss to the Minnesota Wild

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. General manager Kelly McCrimmon himself said that Vegas' moves for Cole Smith and Nic Dowd had "improved the identity of our forward group," focusing more on fit than finesse. What did they prove on Friday night, though? Well, that this team still has a lot of kinks to work out if there's any hope of making playoff noise this year. Let's take a look at what happened in another dreadful game against a top-end playoff contender.

A second-period disasterclass virtually dooms Vegas

After one period, things were still going pretty steady. Akira Schmid was pitching a shutout, Colton Sissons had not one but two breakaways, and in general, the Golden Knights had gotten some good offensive pressure on Filip Gustavsson, albeit without finding a way into the back of the net. However, little did we know that a three-minute chunk of the early second period would stop all of that in its tracks.

First, a rough turnover from Noah Hanifin at the blueline led to a Mats Zuccarello breakaway at roughly the 5:30 mark, which Schmid had virtually no chance on:

Then, the deathblow. In the span of just 18 seconds after the eight-minute mark, defensemen Zach Bogosian and Brock Faber blasted shots from far out. Bogosian's got through a screen, Faber's was tipped in by debuting acquisition Michael McCarron, and just like that, it was 3-0 Minnesota.

A late Vladimir Tarasenko goal didn't help things in the third, and while Vegas ultimately put two on the board thanks to Pavel Dorofeyev and Mitch Marner, it was too little, too late. At least Doro became the first Golden Knight ever to record back-to-back 30-goal seasons.

The blame game can be spread all around

There's no way around it: this game was a failure of every facet of the team. With Vegas' current situation, many Golden Knights fans hoped to acquire a new goaltender at the deadline; however, that didn't happen. Between that and tonight's sub-par performance from Akira Schmid, it appears we're doomed to our absolutely brutal goaltending for the remainder of the season. Schmid's GSAx was a nasty -1.68 tonight, meaning his own poor play accounted for nearly two full Wild goals. Even average goaltending means we're at the very least only needing one goal to tie it, or even going to overtime tied up at two. But alas, that's not what we got.

However, it's not all on goaltending. In their past five games, Vegas has only reached three goals once, in their comeback victory over Detroit. Regardless of goaltending, they won't win very many games only scoring that little. On top of that, most of those goals have come late in the game, by which point the tide of momentum has turned against the Golden Knights. "Close but not enough" has become a disturbingly common theme for the offense, and it's not one that the deadline acquisitons can really fix.

Finally, the defense's flubs led directly to two goals tonight. Hanifin's aforementioned turnover caused Zuccarello's breakaway, and Vladimir Tarasenko's goal after a bad pinch attempt by Shea Theodore led to a Wild 3-on-1. Things continue to be disjointed on that side of the puck, though defense is what Smith and Dowd are supposed to help, so we'll see.

Up next, Edmonton on Sunday. Oh boy.