Knights follow familiar script in 3-2 loss to Kraken

LAS VEGAS — It’s getting to be like “Groundhog Day” at T-Mobile Arena.

The Vegas Golden Knights find themselves following an all-too-familiar script. They’ll fall behind early, chase the game, find a way to play themselves back in it only to ultimately lose.

Saturday’s 3-2 loss to Seattle was just the latest in an exasperating series of squandering points at a time when going head-to-head against your division foes is so important. And while Vegas is still tied for first place in the Pacific Division with Edmonton despite a 25-15-14 record, those 64 points the Knights have amassed don’t look all that great.

This time, the culprits were the defensemen, who failed to win a couple of stick battles in front of their own net and allowed the Kraken to capitalize with first-period goals from Eeli Tolvanen and Jared McCann, whose power play goal gave Seattle a 2-0 lead.

“It’s hard to play from behind,” said recently acquired defenseman Rasmus Andersson. “We have to start faster, maybe play simpler.”

Perhaps a little dump-and-chase hockey might cure what ails the Knights. But it also would go against this team’s DNA, which is puck possession, smart passes and finishing at the net. Instead, what we’re seeing of late during what has become a 4-4-2 stretch has been individual play in an attempt to catch up.

Jack Eichel however isn’t buying it. The elite center had two assists Saturday, the first a smart pass from below the Seattle goal line to Ivan Barbashev, who beat Joey Daccord to cut the deficit to 2-1 in the second period. Eichel then got the puck to Mitch Marner during a second-period power play with Marner stickhandling his way into the clear then ripping one past Daccord to tie it.
In the end though, the Knights fell behind early in the third period as the defense failed to pick up Kaapo Kakko and the ex-New York Ranger would get the game winner as he put it past Akira Schmid.

“We lost a puck battle twice,” coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Our D-corps is not old. But they’re not young. We need to be a hell of a lot more competitive in front of our net. It cost us two goals tonight. We shouldn’t lose that part of our game.”

But lose it they are. Jeremy Lauzon was minus-2 Saturday. Kaedan Korczak a minus-1. And while plus-minus is never the be-all-end-all to measure a player’s effectiveness, when you’re not winning the battles in front of your own net and you’re allowing high-danger chances as a result, that’s a metric that does indicate there’s something amiss.

And yet the Knights still had their opportunities to garner at least a point from all this. Barbashev walked in on Daccord in the third period looking for the equalizer shortly after Kakko put seattle back in front but Daccord flashed the leather and made a nifty glove save to deny Barbashev.

Late in the match with Schmid pulled for the extra attacker, the Knights won every single faceoff in the final 1:21 and had good pressure on Daccord. But he stopped every attempt, be it Marner from the point, Eichel from the left faceoff circle or Mark Stone at the doorstep.  

Some would say the Knights didn’t show any urgency in their play until late in the contest. But they were outplaying Seattle in the second period and despite trailing in the third, Vegas did carry the play for a good portion of it so to say there was a lack of fire would be a misnomer. Eichel appeared very vocal on the bench trying to rally his guys and they tried to respond.

But when you’re going bad, the hockey gods don’t always cooperate. And right now, the Knights are a team that continues to scuffle along, unable to put a full 60 minutes together, have one part of their game excel while other parts are subpar.

“We have to find a way,” Tomas Hertl said. “We have to be quicker. We have to be stronger and not let anyone inside. The last couple of games we’ve given up a lot of chances from the middle.

“Expectations are always high around here. But it’s on us. We have to play our brand of hockey. It’s on everybody. It’s on the forwards. It’s on the D.”

Three games remain before the Olympic break, starting Sunday in Anaheim against the Ducks, who are right in the wild card playoff chase. The Knights will host Vancouver Wednesday and Los Angeles Thursday before nine VGK players along with Cassidy head to Milan, Italy. And with things so tight in the Pacific, these possible six points loom large.

“We just got to bear down at the start and come out better,” said Andersson. “There’s a lot of skill here but we have to figure out our starts and you don’t want to chase every game. You want to play with control and unfortunately we haven’t done that lately.”