The Vegas Golden Knights (17-10-11) left another two points on the table in the final game of 2025, falling 4-2 to the Nashville Predators (18-17-4) Wednesday afternoon at T-Mobile Arena.
Things started off well for the Golden Knights, who jumped out to a 2-0 lead nine minutes into the contest. However, Nashville scored three goals in five minutes in the second half of the period and then added a fourth in a controversial middle frame. Steven Stamkos’ goal at 15:37 of the opening frame was the 600th goal of his career.
The Golden Knights wrap up December having lost six of their last seven games (1-4-2), including going 1-2-1 on this four-game homestand. Vegas has won just three out of the last 14 games on home ice.
Jack Eichel missed his seventh straight game, but the Golden Knights enter 2026 with another significant injury concern after Brayden McNabb exited Wednesday’s game in the second period following a collision. McNabb did not return, playing just 10:24. Bruce Cassidy said the Original Misfit suffered an upper-body injury on the play but did not provide an update.
The game marked Nicolas Hague’s first game back at the Fortress following the trade that sent him to Nashville in the summer. Hague, taken in the second round (No. 34 overall) of the 2017 NHL Entry Draft, played more games in a Vegas sweater than any other player drafted by the Golden Knights.
He got an electric ovation from the Vegas faithful following a tribute video.
Hague was involved in a contentious moment in the second period, but he and the Predators got the best of the Golden Knights in the end.
After being named to Team Canada’s roster for the 2026 Olympics, Vegas captain Mark Stone opened the scoring with his 10th goal of the year, taking a feed from Pavel Dorofeyev and beating goaltender Justus Annunen 5:35 into the game.
Vegas doubled its lead when Ben Hutton scored his sixth goal of the year. The goal set a new career high for Hutton, who has scored in two of his last three games.
However, the Predators responded with three goals in the span of 5:01, including what proved to be the game-winner with 3:29 remaining in the first.
Just 2:14 after Hutton’s deflection goal, Nick Perbix beat Akira Schmid through traffic to cut Vegas’ lead in half.
The Predators scored again 3:17 later to reset the score. It was a play NHL fans have seen time and time again over the years, as Stamkos scored a power-play goal on a one-timed blast from his office in the left circle.
The goal marked the 600th goal of Stamkos’ career, making him just the 22nd player in NHL history to accomplish the feat.
It also fully erased Vegas’ lead, making it a 2-2 game at 15:37.
The Predators kept their foot on the gas, taking their first lead of the afternoon 44 seconds later on Reid Schaefer’s fourth of the season.
An excellent start for the Golden Knights unraveled in a hurry, as the Predators scored three straight to completely take over the game.
The second period featured only one goal, but there was plenty of action.
In fact, Jeremy Lauzon was assessed a five-minute major just seven seconds into the period. However, the officials reviewed the play and determined that the contact was made with Michael McCarron’s shoulder, not his head. Ultimately, no penalty was assessed on the play.
The two clubs then traded penalties, but neither ended up in the back of the net.
Aside from the five-minute stretch in the first period, the other turning point in the game came as a result of a collision between McNabb and Michael Bunting midway through the second period. McNabb got the worst of it, staying down on the ice before heading straight down down the tunnel.
The play seemed accidental, but Cassidy said after the game that he believed it was “blatant interference” on Nashville. No call was made.
Keegan Kolesar went after Bunting on the next shift, shoving him into the boards in front of the Nashville bench. From the bench, Hague made contact with Kolesar, which is an automatic penalty. However, no call was made.
Kolesar, by contrast, received a two-minute minor for cross-checking, a two-minute minor for roughing and a 10-minute misconduct, setting up a four-minute power play for the Predators.
The Vegas penalty kill took care of the first minor, but Nashville scored on the second to take a 4-2 lead at 11:52. It was none other than Bunting who scored on a deflection.
It was the final goal of 2025, but it was the 14th one the Golden Knights have given up in their last three games.
In the third, Nashville threatened to extend the lead to three when Cole Smith was awarded a penalty shot. However, he hit the post, keeping the deficit at two with 12:29 remaining.
Vegas got to its game in the final frame, sustaining plenty of time in the offensive zone and creating 26 scoring chances, per Natural Stat Trick. The Golden Knights had a power play, but they were unable to convert, despite Stone’s best efforts. Vegas then pulled Schmid with 4:33 left, but the Golden Knights were unable to shrink the deficit, losing 4-2.
In the end, the Golden Knights outshot the Predators 18-3 in the third, but the damage was already done.
After blowing the lead and giving up three straight in the first, the response never came in the second period, as Vegas recorded just four shots on goal while falling behind by two goals. The officiating sequence may have been frustrating, but the push never came from Vegas, which had plenty of time to recover. The third period was a much better effort, but it was too little, too late.
Once again, the goaltending was not good enough, with multiple goals being scored through traffic. Schmid finished the game with 15 saves on 19 shots for a .789 save percentage.
“We played very well against Colorado,” Cassidy said. “I think [the Avalanche] had some fortunate goals, but Minnesota [scored] long-range goals. Tonight, long-range goals. That’s gotta stop. We can evaluate that any way you want. Is it the goalie not fighting to find the puck? Are we not getting in shooting lanes? Are we not boxing out? It’s usually a product of those things. … Those pucks have to stop going in from distance.”
The other message in the locker room was that Vegas needs to do a better job not giving up multiple goals in quick succession, or, as Tomas Hertl and Brandon Saad put it, “stopping the bleeding.” After all, the Golden Knights gave up three goals in 5:01 and two goals in 44 seconds, which ultimately cost them the game.
“We have to find a way to stop the bleeding and get back into it,” Hertl said. “We have to just play with more confidence,” he said, adding that he thought the Golden Kights were afraid to make a mistake “because if you make one mistake, it’s in the net.”
Saad echoed those sentiments.
“Kind of just have to stop the bleeding and get back to our game,” he said. “It just seems like when we’re getting scored on, we’re kind of getting in those ruts. In the third, we kind of got back to our game, but then it was too late.”
It’s not like the Golden Knights were wildly outplayed offensively or defensively, but Vegas didn’t capitalize on its opportunities.
“Offensively, we didn’t finish as well as maybe we had been,” Cassidy said. “Today, we pushed to the end but couldn’t find any luck around the net. Maybe a second chance to give us some life. … I thought there was enough there to get us three or four goals, but we can’t always need four goals to win.”
Cassidy called the McNabb collision a “tough one” and expressed frustration with how the officiating was handled in the second period.
“Talk about things that altered the game,” he said. “That particular instance and what transpired after, I was very disappointed in how we ended up on the wrong end of that.”
Cassidy said he thought the officials got it wrong by not calling Bunting for interference on McNabb and not calling Hague when he got involved from the bench. The Predators went on to score the insurance goal on the second minor, which would have been nullified had Hague been penalized.
“Kolesar gets involved with one of their guys, and that’s an automatic penalty when you’re in a scrum from the bench,” Cassidy said. “So I think they blew that call, to be perfectly honest.”
The Golden Knights will try to pick up the pieces when they hit the road for a three-game swing, which starts Friday in St. Louis.
Eichel will travel with the team, but Cassidy said he doesn’t know if Eichel will play despite being “closer” to returning.
Statistics courtesy of Natural Stat Trick.
Photo via Nashville Predators (@NHLPreds) on X