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Golden Knights Analysis

Golden Knights Fall to Blackhawks; Penalty Kill Struggles, Concerning Trends Emerge

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Nicolas Hague, Pat Maroon, Taylor Hall

The Vegas Golden Knights (29-14-3) entered tonight’s game on an eight-game point streak against the Chicago Blackhawks (15-28-3). The Golden Knights have struggled to play a full 60 recently, and tonight’s game was no different. It was a spirited affair that held a fight, eight total goals, and 36 total penalty minutes. The one thing tonight’s game didn’t have was a Golden Knights win.



The Golden Knights scored the first goal of the game for the second night in a row. And for the second night in a row, the Golden Knights gave up the next three.

Tomáš Hertl made his presence felt just over nine minutes into the game. Blackhawks winger Pat Maroon was all over him, but Hertl held him off and threaded a pass to Alex Pietrangelo. Pietrangelo cycled down to the left dot and passed cross-ice to Victor Olofsson, who one-timed it into the empty net.

Blackhawks winger Colton Dach collected a Golden Knights dump-in and passed the puck up to Blackhawks Captain Nick Foligno. Foligno flipped the puck ahead to young center Lukas Reichel. Reichel corralled it, cut around Nic Hague, and scored his first goal in 18 games.

Fourteen seconds later, Pietrangelo tripped up Frank Nazar and sent the Blackhawks to the power play. Seth Jones blasted a shot from the blue line, and Tyler Bertuzzi redirected it in with his skate.

Taylor Hall made it 3-1 with 18 seconds to go in the first. Behind the net, Ryan Donato fed Hall, who was parked in the crease. Samsonov made the initial save but could not stop the second.

Two minutes into the second period, Nic Hague dropped the gloves with Blackhawks forward Pat Maroon. The scrap lasted 55 seconds before the linesmen stepped in and separated them.

Tomáš Hertl scored twice in the second period to tie the game at three. On the first, he received a beautiful stretch pass from Shea Theodore. Hertl split the Chicago defense, got positioning on former Golden Knight Alec Martinez, and beat Petr Mrazek over the blocker. The second goal came on the power play and was a surgical redirection from high in the slot.

Once again, the Golden Knights suffered a late-period collapse. Frank Nazar entered the zone and rimmed it around the boards to Connor Bedard. Tanner Pearson blew a tire and took himself out of the play. Bedard found Seth Jones. Unimpeded, Seth Jones skated right down Main Street and beat Samsonov under the blocker.

The Jones goal proved to be the game-winner, but the Blackhawks twisted the knife– er, Dagger– and added a fifth goal on the power play. Just five seconds into the man advantage, Teuvo Teravainen found Tyler Bertuzzi back door for his second of the game.

Bruce Cassidy got creative and put the lines in a blender, but the Golden Knights didn’t find the back of the net again. The final nail in the coffin came with 61 seconds left in the game with Samsonov off for the extra attacker. Mark Stone slashed Jason Dickinson to prevent Dickinson from taking a shot at the empty net. For those keeping track at home, that’s two nights in a row now that the Golden Knights took a penalty while 6-on-5.

Golden Knights Notes

Victor Olofsson’s goal tonight was the 100th of his career, and his 200th career point. This comes just one night after he recorded his 100th NHL assist.

The Vegas Golden Knights entered tonight’s game with the 17th-ranked penalty kill. It is now ranked 21st and fell from 79% to 77.6%.

Shea Theodore recorded the primary assist on both of Hertl’s goals, extending his point streak to four games. He was excellent tonight. Theodore had 11 shot attempts, and was on ice for all three goals that the Golden Knights scored. In a game where the Golden Knights surrendered five goals, he wasn’t on ice for a single one of them.

Ten days ago, before this six-game stretch, the Golden Knights had complete control of the Pacific Division. They had six more points than the Edmonton Oilers, and both teams had played 40 games. The Oilers lost tonight to the Vancouver Canucks, so the Golden Knights are still in the top spot.