The Vegas Golden Knights suffered their first regulation loss of the season when they were shut out 3-0 by the Florida Panthers on Saturday. Vegas will wrap up the weekend back-to-back this afternoon against the Tampa Bay Lightning (2 p.m. PT).
The Golden Knights and Lightning split the two-game season series last year. Vegas is 8-6-0 in the all-time matchup, including 4-3-0 at Benchmark International Arena (formerly Amalie Arena).
Once again, Vegas will be without captain Mark Stone, who was placed on long-term injured reserve, as well as defenseman Noah Hanifin (injured reserve) and netminder Adin Hill, who is considered week-to-week. None of them traveled with the team for this three-game road trip, which wraps up Tuesday in Carolina.
It has been a surprising start to the season for the other Florida franchise, as the Lightning are just 2-4-2 in their first eight games and had one win through seven contests. The Lightning picked up their second win of the year yesterday against Anaheim with a 4-3 victory. It was a special game, as Nikita Kucherov notched the 1000th point of his impressive NHL career. Though Tampa Bay blew a two-goal lead in the third period, Anthony Cirelli scored the go-ahead goal on the power play with 3:15 remaining.
Jake Guentzel leads the club in scoring with four goals and nine points, while Cirelli’s game-winner was his team-high fifth of the season. Cirelli, Kucherov, Brayden Point and Victor Hedman round out the top-5 with seven points apiece.
Andrei Vasilevskiy is expected to get the nod in net today for Tampa Bay. He has yet to win this season, kicking off the year with an uncharacteristic 0-3-2 record, 3.41 goals-against average and .885 save percentage. He has surrendered 17 goals in five games. Vasilevskiy is 6-5-3 with a 3.19 goals-against average and .894 save percentage in 14 career games against the Golden Knights.
The Lightning finished first in the NHL last season as the top-scoring club, averaging 3.56 goals per game. This year, however, Tampa Bay is averaging just 2.75, which is good for 24th overall. Despite getting blanked in Sunrise, the Golden Knights rank fifth with an average of 3.75 goals per game.
Vegas has yielded an average of 2.75 goals per game, good for 13th overall; Tampa, meanwhile, ranks 23rd (3.38).
The Golden Knights also have the edge on the power play, as Vegas has the fifth-ranked power play (30 percent) with nine goals on 30 opportunities (though it has not been the same without Stone). The Lightning are operating at 19.2 percent (20th overall) with five goals on 26 chances on the man-advantage.
But the Lightning have the upper hand on the penalty kill with the fifth-best unit in the NHL (89.3 percent), while the Golden Knights are clicking at 77.3 percent (17th overall), killing off 17 of 22 penalties. The penalty kill has not been a strength for Vegas, though the Golden Knights went 3-for-3 yesterday against the Panthers.
Shea Theodore leads the Golden Knights with 16 points in the all-time matchup against the Lightning, while Kucherov leads all players with 22 (Hedman and Point have 13 and 12, respectively). Theodore has thrived against the Lightning over the years, and the Golden Knights desperately need more from him offensively, particularly with Noah Hanifin and Alex Pietrangelo out of the mix. The Golden Knights have just one goal from the blue line this season (courtesy of Kaedan Korczak), and Theodore has just two assists in eight games.
Keys to the game
Execute
The Golden Knights never found their game Saturday against the Panthers. As a result, it marked the first time this season that Vegas failed to come away with any points. Fortunately for the Golden Knights, they have a quick turnaround and can look to right the ship today against Tampa Bay, but they’re not going to get different results if they can’t control the puck, win battles and establish their forecheck.
“We just didn’t make any plays with the puck tonight,” Bruce Cassidy said after the game. “When that happens, sometimes you gotta go to a more workmanlike game, generate some offense through some forecheck. … [The Panthers] did what they needed to do to create offense. We did not.”
Vegas was a step behind and never found its rhythm in yesterday’s shutout loss. Though Tampa Bay has been struggling, the Lightning have more than enough elite talent to make Vegas pay in a flash. Committing 20 giveaways (as Vegas did on Saturday) with the likes of Kucherov, Point and Guentzel on the ice will not end well. Similarly, failing to capitalize on chances (particularly on the man advantage) will be costly, especially since games between these clubs are usually one-goal decisions and often come down to the wire. Every bounce is important, and the Golden Knights have to put in the work. They also need more from the bottom nine, especially against a top-heavy Lightning squad.
Needless to say, shooting the puck should be a focus. The Golden Knights managed just 17 shots in Florida, and that came after four days of rest. That’s not going to cut it.
Protect the net
Goaltender Carl Lindbom is expected to make his NHL debut today against the Lightning. Lindbom was selected by Vegas in the seventh round (No. 222 overall) of the 2021 NHL Entry Draft. The 22-year-old Stockholm native went 18-15-2 last year with the Henderson Silver Knights, recording a 2.65 goals-against average, .912 save percentage and three shutouts. His numbers are solid so far this season in very limited action, as he has a 1.00 goals-against average, a .958 save percentage and one shutout in two appearances. The Golden Knights need to help him clear the front of the net and keep Tampa Bay to the perimeter as much as possible.
Projected lineups
Note: In his post-game comments, Cassidy said he may tweak the lines ahead of the Tampa Bay game but also may leave them as is because Vegas has been one of the highest-scoring teams this season.
Golden Knights
Brandon Saad — Jack Eichel — Ivan Barbashev
Pavel Dorofeyev — Tomas Hertl — Mitch Marner
Reilly Smith — William Karlsson — Alexander Holtz
Brett Howden — Colton Sissons — Keegan Kolesar
Brayden McNabb — Shea Theodore
Ben Hutton — Zach Whitecloud
Jeremy Lauzon — Kaedan Korczak
Carl Lindbom
Akira Schmid
Lightning
Jake Guentzel — Brayden Point — Nikita Kucherov
Brandon Hagel — Anthony Cirelli — Curtis Douglas
Oliver Bjorkstrand — Dominic James — Gage Gonclaves
Zemgus Girgensons — Yanni Gourde — Pontus Holmberg
Victor Hedman — J.J. Moser
Ryan McDonagh — Erik Cernak
Darren Raddysh — Emil Lilleberg
Andrei Vasilevskiy
Jonas Johansson
How to watch
Game 9 of 82: Golden Knights at Lightning
Where: Amalie Arena — Tampa Bay, FL
When: 2 p.m. PT
TV: Scripps, ESPN+
Radio: Fox Sports 98.9 FM