Golden Knights Analysis
Stars Strike Thrice In Second; Knights Fall 4-3

Last night, the Vegas Golden Knights (30-15-4) played a stifling defensive game against the St. Louis Blues. When they made mistakes, the Blues were unable to capitalize on them. Tonight, however, the Dallas Stars (30-17-1) had no such problem.
Jack Eichel perfectly summed up what went wrong for the Golden Knights tonight.
“We just got outcompeted in front of our net, honestly… a couple of long shifts in our end, and they were able to capitalize. I thought we did a lot of good things in the third; I liked a lot of the things we did in the first. It was just that middle period that didn’t go our way, and it ended up costing us.”
Victor Olofsson drew a hooking call that sent the Golden Knights to the power play early. Ilya Lybushkin tried to clear, but the puck bounced off of Roope Hintz and right to Mark Stone. Stone passed cross-ice to an unmarked Jack Eichel, who blasted an Ovechkin-reminiscent shot past Jake Oettinger.
Logan Stankoven entered the zone and fed Evgenii Dadonov. Dadonov fired a centering pass up and over the stick of Zach Whitecloud. Adin Hill went down to try and cover the puck, and Roope Hintz batted it out of midair and into the net.
Noah Hanifin had a breakaway coming out of the penalty box, but Oettinger made the save, and Hanifin didn’t get off the ice. Thirty seconds later, when Jason Robertson entered the zone and dropped a pass for Matt Duchene, the Golden Knights had three defensemen on the ice. Duchene wristed a shot on net that Hill kicked away, and an unmarked Robertson potted the rebound.
The Golden Knights tied the game on the powerplay. Shea Theodore galloped through the neutral zone with the puck. Theodore passed to Mark Stone, who entered the zone and threaded a pass cross-ice to Tomáš Hertl. Hertl passed to Theodore, and the defenseman put the puck into the empty net.
You could feel the third Stars goal coming. They were pushing hard, and four Golden Knights had been on the ice for over a minute. Mavrick Bourque fanned on a one-timer but collected the puck and sent it back to Miro Heiskanen at the blue line. Heiskanen passed to Matt Duchene, who fired a shot on net. Jamie Benn was parked atop the crease and redirected it home.
“We just weren’t executing right,” said Keegan Kolesar. “We had a game plan; we knew what they were going to do, we knew how we had to counter it. We just weren’t sharp with our exits, with our breakouts, with our forecheck.”
The Golden Knights got some puck luck on their first goal of the night; this time, the bounce went in favor of the Stars. Wyatt Johnston collected a bouncing puck and dangled through Brett Howden. Adin Hill pokechecked the puck away, but the four Golden Knights in the area were unable to clear it. The puck rolled right to Jason Robertson, who shot it past Hill glove side.
Despite their best efforts, the Golden Knights weren’t able to recover.
“One goal turns into two, three, now you’re chasing it,” said Bruce Cassidy. “You’ve got to get through those bad stretches without taking yourself out of the game.”
Jack Eichel cut the deficit to one, but the Golden Knights weren’t able to find the equalizer, and Robertson’s second goal of the night stood as the game-winner.
“He was very driven,” said Bruce Cassidy about Eichel’s play. “He wanted to be a difference-maker tonight; he always does, but I think these games against rivals mean a little more. The temperature rises in the game; he’s going to rise up with it. He certainly dragged us into the fight in the third.”
Golden Knights Notes
Jack Eichel may have played his best game of the season tonight. He now has a five-game point streak and has three goals and four assists in that stretch.
It’s been six games since a Golden Knights goaltender recorded a save percentage above .900. That was January 12th’s 4-1 win over the Minnesota Wild, when Adin Hill recorded a .938 save percentage.
Tomáš Hertl recorded the primary assist on Shea Theodore’s power play goal to extend his point streak to eight games (6-6-12).
With a win tomorrow against the Buffalo Sabres, the Edmonton Oilers can overtake the Golden Knights and move to first in the Pacific Division.