Kirkell: Golden Knights Made Their Bed; Now, They Must Lie In It

During the regular season, this Vegas Golden Knights team looked like a powerhouse destined for a deep playoff run. They boasted one of the deepest scoring lineups, reliable goaltending, and a power play that was, at one point, the best in the league.

At first, it seemed like all those strengths would carry over into the postseason. The Golden Knights checked those boxes in Game 1 of the first round. Their forecheck led to scoring chances off of turnovers. Pavel Dorofeyev scored his first postseason goal on the power play. And Brett Howden scored twice, including the game-winner.

All of that evaporated in Game 2. The Golden Knights couldn’t control the neutral zone, which gave the Minnesota Wild easy offense in transition. They couldn’t take care of the puck, and it cost them. 

In retrospect, perhaps that game was their undoing. They got away from the winning hockey they played during the regular season and allowed bad habits to creep in.

Turnovers. Errant passes. An aversion to forechecking. For the majority of the postseason, the Golden Knights have looked uncharacteristically fallible. Getting past the first round masked some of their issues, but it clearly didn’t fix them. 

The cracks didn’t close, but instead continued to spiderweb across the surface and into the foundation of this Golden Knights team.

The Golden Knights haven’t been good defensively against the Edmonton Oilers. They’ve allowed 15 goals through the first four games of this series. Adin Hill hasn’t been his usual self, but he’s far from the only problem. 

Brayden McNabb, injured though he may be, is a -6 this postseason; during the regular season, he was a second-best +42. McNabb was on the ice for 16 of the 34 goals scored against the Golden Knights this postseason– and eight of the 15 in this second-round series.

McNabb, too, is far from the only problem. During the regular season, the Golden Knights allowed 214 goals, the third-fewest in the league. In the postseason, they’ve allowed 34 goals in 10 games– tied for the second-most in the league.

Of course, defense means nothing if you can’t score. During the regular season, the Golden Knights scored the fifth-most goals in the league. But in a do-or-die Game 4, they couldn’t manage to get even one past Stuart Skinner.

Tomáš Hertl, the team’s third-leading scorer during the regular season, has gone ice cold. After scoring three goals and five points in the first four games of the postseason, he hasn’t so much as recorded a point. It’s been six games since Hertl found the scoresheet. 

Pavel Dorofeyev, the team’s leading goalscorer during the regular season, has recorded just one assist since scoring in the first game against the Wild. 

It’s not just the big guns struggling to produce offensively– depth scoring has completely evaporated. 

Tanner Pearson hasn’t recorded a point since his first postseason contest. Keegan Kolesar, though not known for his offensive prowess, has just one assist. And for as well as he’s played, Brandon Saad has just two assists in eight postseason games.

Ivan Barbashev has just one goal and one assist in ten games, and he’s spent a few of those on the top line with Jack Eichel and Mark Stone.

And then there’s the issue of Adin Hill.

No, he’s not a bad goaltender. No, he should not be benched in favor of Akira Schmid in Game 5. But he needs to be better if the Golden Knights have a fighting chance of clawing their way back into this series. Hill has the second-worst GSAx in the postseason, ahead of only Connor Hellebuyck.

If the Golden Knights faced just one of these challenges, they likely wouldn’t be down 3-1 in this series. If their only issue was, say, depth production, they could probably overcome it.

But that’s not how things have shaken out. Deservedly so or not—see: uncalled trip on Brayden McNabb in overtime of Game 2— the Golden Knights do, in fact, trail 3-1 in their second-round series against the Edmonton Oilers.

The Golden Knights have been the second-best team on the ice for far too long, and it all ends tonight. They’ll either win, or they’ll break out their golf clubs for what will be an unexpectedly long offseason.

On Wednesday, the Golden Knights will either clean up their play, or they’ll be cleaning out their lockers.

It won’t be easy. The Oilers have the Golden Knights over a barrel, and they show no signs of letting up.

But the Golden Knights made their bed. Now, they must lie in it.

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