7 Observations: Golden Knights Beat Themselves, Allow 3 in 1st Period

On Tuesday, the Vegas Golden Knights had an opportunity to go up 2-0 in their series against the Minnesota Wild. Instead, they repeatedly shot themselves in the foot and only woke up once the Wild took a 4-0 lead. 

“We’re giving their best players easy offense,” said Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy. “That’s a bad formula.”

Understatement of the century.

The Golden Knights started the first period well and were the more desperate team for the first few minutes, outshooting the Wild 5-0. That changed 4:38 into the first period when Ryan Hartman had a clean breakaway. Adin Hill made the save, but the damage was done. The Wild had life, and they never looked back. 

At 9:56 in the first period, the Wild took their first lead of the series. Kirill Kaprizov floated the puck to Matt Boldy, who shrugged off Shea Theodore and beat Adin Hill. 

Less than two minutes later, the Wild extended their lead. Ryan Hartman lowered his shoulder, got around Brayden McNabb, drifted below the goal line, and found Marcus Foligno in front of the net.

At 17:15 in the first period, the Wild made it 3-0. Shea Theodore whiffed on a pass and turned the puck over to Marcus Johansson. Johansson fed Mats Zuccarello, who deked around Tomáš Hertl and beat Adin Hill glove side.

At 3:59 in the second period, the Wild made it 4-0 off another Shea Theodore turnover. Matt Boldy sprung Kirill Kaprizov, who drifted to the left dot and wristed a shot on net. Hill initially made the save, but the puck trickled through his pads and into the net. 

A stretch of time during the second period perfectly summed up the game for the Golden Knights. They hemmed the Wild into their zone and sustained pressure for nearly two minutes, even completing a full line change. Two Wild players collided with each other and fell over, but the Golden Knights couldn’t take advantage. Instead, they overpassed until Yakov Trennin eventually deflected Zach Whitecloud’s shot out of play.

However, the Golden Knights built on that shift and eventually solved Filip Gustavsson at 12:04 in the second period. Nic Roy tried to deke around Zeev Buium but lost the handle.  Noah Hanifin jumped into the play, collected the puck, and ripped a shot past Gustavsson from the slot. 

The Golden Knights scored 2:26 into the third period to give the building life. Brandon Saad raced into the zone, circled behind the net, and left the puck for Alex Pietrangelo. Pietrangelo drove the net, faked a shot, drifted deeper, and set Tomáš Hertl up for an easy tap-in. 

The Golden Knights pushed but couldn’t further chip away at Minnesota’s lead. They pulled Adin Hill for the extra attacker, but Kirill Kaprizov iced the game at 17:34 in the third period. 

Three stars of the game: Kirill Kaprizov, Matt Boldy, Noah Hanifin

7 Golden Knights Observations

1. First, the bad: Shea Theodore probably played the worst two periods of his life on Tuesday. He was only credited with two giveaways, but that feels generous. 

2. It’s not time to panic, but Jack Eichel has been a complete non-factor. He’s been good defensively, but going forward, the Golden Knights need more from him offensively. 

3. Tuesday wasn’t Adin Hill’s best showing. He allowed four goals on 16 shots and finished with a -1.85 GSAx. However, he was very impressive early in the game. It’s a shame that the Golden Knights squandered that.

4. Onto the good: Alex Pietrangelo was incredible. He took care of the puck, was never out of position, and singlehandedly gave the Golden Knights life when he set up Hertl’s goal. If the Golden Knights get this Pietrangelo for the rest of the postseason, watch out.

5. Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy wasn’t afraid to jumble his lines mid-game. He swapped Brett Howden into Ivan Barbashev’s spot on the top line; however, by the end of the game, Barbashev was back with Eichel and Stone.

6. Look on the bright side— on Tuesday, the Golden Knights beat themselves; they made mistakes, and the Wild capitalized. We’re still at DEFCON 5.

7. I liked this quote from Bruce Cassidy postgame:

“[The Wild are] hungrier than us. They’re more competitive. No one cares what we did two years ago. Nobody cares. They respect us for what we did, but they don’t care now. There are 16 teams that want the trophy, and they’re hungry. Some of our guys have to realize that we started Sunday. Get hungry. Get competitive… They were hungrier than us and more competitive than us in the first half of the game, and it showed.”