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Golden Knights Analysis

Knights Stifled by Surging Blue Jackets; Overtime Woes Continue

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With tonight’s game being the last home game until February 22nd, I’m sure the Vegas Golden Knights (31-15-6) wanted to give their fans a show. That is not what happened. They ultimately fell to the Columbus Blue Jackets (25-19-7) in overtime by a score of 2-1.



The Golden Knights were off their game by the middle of the second period. What began as an aggressive, structured attack devolved into sloppy run-and-gun hockey that continued until the end of regulation.

Even on the Golden Knights’ lone goal, you can see signs of what went wrong for them tonight. Nic Hague sent a pass to Pavel Dorofeyev, who banked it into the zone for Tomáš Hertl. The Blue Jackets collapsed– they play man-on-man and do so aggressively– and Cole Sillinger and Damon Severson converged on Hertl to take the body. Hertl tried to thread a pass for Victor Olofsson, but Sillinger got his stick on it. As Hertl corralled the bouncing puck, Olofsson ran a slight pick play on Jake Christiansen to prevent Christiansen from impeding with Hertl. Hertl swerved around them and ripped a shot over Merzlikins’ shoulder to beat him blocker side.

On that play, Hertl ended up in control of the puck and capitalized on it. But the rest of the night was littered with passes that were broken up or simply off-target.

“He’s been playing awesome for us,” said Noah Hanifin on Tomáš Hertl’s play postgame. “[Hertl], he’s a real smart guy, a real smart player. Puts himself in the right spots. Big, strong body. He’s been great for us recently, producing a lot of our offense. He’s been excellent.”

Unfortunately for the Golden Knights, Hertl’s goal was the extent of their offense tonight.

At the end of the first period, the Blue Jackets forced a turnover and got a scoring chance off the rush. Ilya Samsonov made a good save on Adam Fantilli, but Dmitri Voronkov jammed at the puck and prevented Samsonov from covering it. The Golden Knights thought he had it, but Fantilli managed to work it free, and the puck took a bounce off of Nic Hague’s skate and into the net.

That would be the last goal scored in regulation, which feels quite fitting.

Regulation ended with Ivan Provorov holding onto the puck behind the Blue Jackets net, much to the crowd’s dismay. They let him hear it, and I can’t say that I blame them.

According to Natural Stat Trick, the Golden Knights had nine high-danger chances against the Blue Jackets’ seven at the end of regulation. That feels a little generous.

This is the second consecutive game in which the Golden Knights had a Grade-A look in overtime right off the hop but were unable to capitalize. This is the second consecutive game where that came back to haunt them.

Brett Howden tied up Adam Fantilli on the faceoff, and Shea Theodore came away with the puck. It looked to be a 2-on-1 with Theodore and Howden against just Zach Werenski, but Kirill Marchenko backchecked and broke up Theodore’s cross-ice pass.

Thirty seconds later, Jack Eichel entered the zone, cut to the middle, and dropped a pass for Alex Pietrangelo. Kent Johnson stole the puck and took off up ice on a breakaway. Ilya Samsonov made a great save on Johnson and then another on Zach Werenski. But Samsonov didn’t have time to recover, and Cole Sillinger was left all alone atop the crease to pot the loose change. Game over.

“I think we expect more,” said Noah Hanifin. “We didn’t give up a whole lot. I thought defensively, we were pretty good. Offensively, we have to find ways to generate more offense and more looks and get back to the way it was at the beginning of the year, with a lot of traffic, point shots, tips, things like that. We have a big group up front, and we have some d that can move. We’ve just got to simplify a bit.”

Golden Knights Notes

Let’s talk about what the Golden Knights did well. First and foremost, I thought Samsonov was excellent. His positioning was a bit shaky at times, but he made quite a few big saves. Neither of the two goals that got by him were his fault.

The top line of Ivan Barbashev, Jack Eichel, and Mark Stone was dangerous in the offensive zone. They went pointless, but it wasn’t for lack of desire or opportunity. They had their looks. Unfortunately for them, Elvis put on a show in Vegas— hey, imagine that!

Tomáš Hertl’s goal tonight extends his career-long point streak to eleven games. He’ll have a chance to make Golden Knights history on Sunday against the Rangers and tie a record set by Jack Eichel during the 2023-24 season.

The Golden Knights didn’t generate much offense tonight, but it’s hard for me to say that they played poorly. Their defense was sound, and although they lost, tonight’s game was closer to a complete effort than the one against Dallas on Tuesday. Baby steps.

The Golden Knights are now 3-6 in games that have required overtime. At least three of those losses could have been wins– Jack Eichel missed a wide-open net last Monday against St. Louis, Theodore had a breakaway on Tuesday against Dallas, and Theodore and Howden had a good look right off the faceoff tonight. Luckily for them, postseason overtime isn’t played 3-on-3.

Jack Eichel’s point streak will end at eight games.

The Golden Knights collected four out of a possible six points over this three-game homestand. It’s not perfect, especially since all three games were winnable, but even ugly points count towards the standings.

“We just have to find a way to push through here,” said Noah Hanifin about the team’s struggles in January. “We’ve got a big road trip coming up and four more games left before the break. We can reset and get back to the way we were earlier. I think we just have to take these few days and regroup a bit. We’re playing a few teams that beat us the last time we played them, so we’ve got to be ready to go.”

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