The Vegas Golden Knights (3-1-0) dropped their first game of the season, suffering a 4-2 loss to the Washington Capitals (1-1-0) Tuesday night at Capital One Arena.
Washington scored three goals in the span of just over three minutes to take a 4-1 lead early in the second period, and the Golden Knights were unable to dig themselves out of that hole.
It was the highly-anticipated matchup between Adin Hill and Logan Thompson, but it was the former Golden Knight who came out on top. Thompson picked up his first win with the Capitals, turning aside 24 of 26 shots for a .923 save percentage.
But perhaps the bigger loss on the night was an injury to Victor Olofsson, who appeared to twist his leg and needed to be helped off the ice.
The Capitals opened the scoring just over six minutes into the first period. Andrew Mangiapane forced a turnover on the forecheck, intercepting Zach Whitecloud’s pass along the boards before feeding it to a wide-open Jakub Vrana. In the first game of his second stint with Washington, Vrana beat Hill on a one-timed blast from the slot.
Washington threatened to take a two-goal lead, but a fantastic stick play by Nicolas Hague saved what would have been a sure goal, as Dylan Strome’s power move left him alone in front of a yawning cage.
Instead of falling into a 2-0 hole, the Golden Knights evened things up with their fourth power-play goal of the year. A missed call on a Mark Stone trip preserved the power play, and Vegas took full advantage, executing a tic-tac-toe play to set up Olofsson for his third of the year, making it a 1-1 game after one.
Hill came up with a few key stops early in the middle frame, but a stream of careless stick infractions — including the Golden Knights’ second and third tripping penalties of the game — ultimately caught up to them when Tom Wilson scored his second of the year.
Washington continued to generate offense from down low, and Aliaksei Protas was the next beneficiary, scoring on a one-timer in the slot courtesy of a beautiful setup by Alex Ovechkin, who recorded his 700th career assist on the play.
Washington continued to pour it on, as Jakob Chychrun netted his first with the Capitals, knocking the puck out of mid-air off a cross-crease saucer feed from Nic Dowd.
It was the Capitals’ third goal in the span of just 3:07.
However, Vegas responded 64 seconds later with a perfect passing play by the top line. A gorgeous feed from Stone found Jack Eichel alone in front of an empty net, and Eichel made no mistake, cutting the deficit to two.
The Capitals came within inches of erasing Vegas’ progress, but the teams proceeded to trade chances up and down the ice. Hill made a few timely saves as the back-and-forth pace continued, and Stone missed the net on a breakaway when he exploited a rare breakdown in Washington’s coverage.
The Golden Knights got their second power play of the game seconds later on yet another tripping penalty, though this one went in Vegas’ favor. The Golden Knights had extended zone time, but most of it was spent passing around the perimeter. There were a few seam passes, but Vegas wasn’t able to break through.
Hill made a key save on Taylor Raddysh to keep Vegas within two, and Alexander Holtz got a breakaway on the next shift. However, Thompson shut it down with a huge glove save.
Hill answered with another clutch save on Strome and was tested with a few more chances until the horn ended a chaotic second period.
The third period was Vegas’ best of the night.
At all strengths, the Golden Knights outshot the Capitals 12-3 and managed a 68.18 percent expected goal share.
They had a number of prime scoring chances after pulling Hill for the extra attacker, but Thompson pulled out his best saves at the end of the night to close out the win against his former team, handing Vegas its first loss of the 2024-25 campaign.
The game got away from Vegas in the second period. The Golden Knights gave up 23 scoring chances at 5-on-5, and Washington scored three times in the first six minutes. Though that stretch proved to be the difference in the game, the Golden Knights didn’t unravel and didn’t stop playing.
Vegas responded and halted Washington’s momentum with a big goal from Eichel, and the Golden Knights proceeded to test Thompson. It was a wide-open game, which is not the style Vegas wants to play. But the Golden Knights generated opportunities to pull within one, they just couldn’t finish.
There were other concerns.
The discipline, or lack thereof, played a role in preventing Vegas from getting to its game. Though Washington was very aggressive offensively, Vegas took three tripping penalties (and got away with a fourth) in the first 20:16 of the game.
The Golden Knights committed too many turnovers for the second game in a row, and the offense was too dependent on the Eichel line, which was the only line that consistently generated pressure, including five high-danger chances (compared to two from the other three lines combined).
While Hill made a number of key saves to keep Vegas in the game, he finished the night with a save percentage below .900 once again. Even so, he made a number of key stops, and he didn’t have much of a chance on the Capitals’ point-blank goals.
At the end of the day, the Capitals played well and deserve some credit for the outcome of the game. They sliced through the Golden Knights in the neutral zone, they were hungry and methodical, they were strong on puck retrievals and they capitalized on their chances.
Plus, the Golden Knights came up against the best goaltending they’ve faced this season. As a result, they were unable to recover from the second-period spiral.
It’s still early, and the Golden Knights will continue to address the flaws in their game.
But the real concern for Vegas is Olofsson, who has been a dynamic part of Vegas’ offense through four games. Bruce Cassidy didn’t have a specific update on his status but said “it didn’t look good when he left the ice, so hopefully it’s not too severe.”
That would be a major blow to Vegas, especially since Olofsson has three goals in four games and has played a key role in Vegas’ early power-play success.
The Golden Knights will take on Tampa Bay and Florida on Thursday and Saturday before returning home to face the Kings on Tuesday.