Slow-Starting Golden Knights Rally, Force OT; Fall to Penguins

On Tuesday night, the Vegas Golden Knights (39-16-7) had something I can only describe as a case of the Mondays. Their passing was out of sync; they turned the puck over like it was a delicious pastry, and the chemistry was off. They found their legs in the third period, but it wasn’t enough; the Golden Knights fell 3-2 to the Pittsburgh Penguins (26-31-10) in overtime. 

There’s no other way to say it— for the better part of 40 minutes, the Golden Knights played sloppy hockey. 

The Golden Knights hadn’t played a road game since February 24th, and it showed in the first period. They struggled to execute line changes for the first 15 minutes or so. 

There were a lot of similarities between tonight’s game and the one the Golden Knights played on Sunday against the Los Angeles Kings. Their breakout passes were ineffective, and they couldn’t build speed through the neutral zone. The result? The Golden Knights were largely unable to generate much offense. The line of Reilly Smith, Nic Roy, and Keegan Kolesar was the one exception.  

As the night progressed, the Golden Knights were able to clean that up. However, they were mostly unable to clean up their passing through the neutral zone. 

They were also unable to contain Sidney Crosby. 

At 16:57, the Penguins got their second power play opportunity of the night. The Golden Knights killed off the first 40-ish seconds well, but then they got caught puck-watching. Kevin Hayes went around the world, drifted towards the blue line, and deked out Jack Eichel along the half wall. Hayes passed to Rickard Rakell, who sent a no-look pass to Sidney Crosby back door, who chipped it up and over Ilya Samsonov’s shoulder. 

At 3:02 in the second period, the Penguins extended their lead. Sidney Crosby shielded the puck from Brandon Saad, rolled around Tomáš Hertl, skated unimpeded from the blue line to the right dot, and ripped a shot past Ilya Samsonov for his second goal of the game. 

The Golden Knights got their only power play opportunity at 5:51 in the second period. Noah Hanifin fed Jack Eichel below the goal line; Eichel passed back to Hanifin. Hanifin fed Pavel Dorofeyev in the right circle, and Dorofeyev blasted a one-timer past Tristan Jarry. 

The Golden Knights grew increasingly frustrated with their inability to score the equalizer and with their inability to draw penalties. The Penguins had four power play opportunities against the Golden Knights’ one. 

For the second game in a row, the Golden Knights pulled their goaltender for the extra attacker; on Tuesday, it worked. Tomáš Hertl won the neutral zone draw, and Jack Eichel entered the zone and fired a shot on net. Tristan Jarry made the save but allowed a rebound, and Pavel Dorofeyev collided with Ilya Kolyachonok in front of the net. The puck went into the corner, and Mark Stone got to it first. Stone sent it to Noah Hanifin at the point; Hanifin walked the blue line and fed it back to Stone. Stone waited out Sidney Crosby’s block and passed cross-ice back to Hanifin, and Hanifin one-timed it home with six seconds left. 

​​The Golden Knights never possessed the puck in overtime. Kris Letang left the puck for Evgeni Malkin, who drove into the zone and dropped a pass for Erik Karlsson. Karlsson had just gotten on the ice, and was completely unmarked; just like on Crosby’s second of the night, he drifted down from the blue line to the right dot and beat Ilya Samsonov. 

“It can get frustrating in a game like that,” said Noah Hanifin. “As the game goes on, you’re starting to control the game more and more, and you’re getting a lot of those opportunities, but you can’t find the back of the net. I thought we did a pretty good job of sticking with it… it’s tough not getting the two points, but it’s good to come up with one that late in the game.”

Golden Knights Game Notes

The Golden Knights need more from the Jack Eichel-Mark Stone line at 5-on-5. They were dominant last Wednesday against the Toronto Maple Leafs, but since then, they’ve been offensively or defensively off. It’s not yet a concern, but it’s something to watch.

Victor Olofsson started the game with Jack Eichel and Mark Stone, but he just wasn’t up to speed. The chemistry was off. At some point during the second period, Bruce Cassidy demoted Olofsson and put Tanner Pearson back on the top line.

It’s time to talk about Kaedan Korczak— and I mean that in a good way. He’s played 25 games this season, which is an appropriate sample size. He’s been great. He has some solid offensive instincts, and he rarely makes bad pinches. Korczak has been huge for the Golden Knights in Shea Theodore’s absence, and I’m not sure they’ll be able to take him out of the lineup once Theodore is healthy. But that’s a good problem to have.

Tristan Jarry was stellar in net for the Penguins. He finished with just 0.97 goals saved above expected; by the eye test, he saved at least two that looked like sure goals— one, a stuff attempt from Tomáš Hertl; the other, a partial breakaway for Jack Eichel. 

Reilly Smith was noticeable tonight, even during the first two periods when the rest of the team was asleep. The whole Smith-Roy-Kolesar line was great. It’ll be interesting to see the lines once Brett Howden and Ivan Barbashev return to the lineup.

Jack Eichel extended his point streak to six games. His assist on Pavel Dorofeyev’s power play goal puts him at 78 points on the season. He’s now tied with William Karlsson (2017-18) for points in a single season, and the Golden Knights have 18 games to go.