The Vegas Golden Knights (28-18-14) lost a lot on Sunday afternoon at PPG Paints Arena. For one thing, the club suffered its second consecutive regulation loss in the form of a 5-0 rout against the Pittsburgh Penguins (31-15-13).
But more significantly, Mark Stone sustained an injury in the first period and did not return.
Bruce Cassidy didn’t have a firm update on the captain’s condition following the game.
“I assume he’ll be on the plane with us to Buffalo, and I’ll probably have a better update tomorrow,” the Vegas bench boss said. “Upper-body is all I was told, and we’ll see where that lands.”
That would be a massive blow to the Golden Knights, who demonstrated earlier this season that they are not nearly the same team without Stone.
It didn’t look like much, but Stone took a light bump from Kris Letang in the neutral zone, sending him straight down the tunnel.
It was a 1-0 game at the time of the injury after Ben Kindel opened the scoring with 5:04 remaining in the first. Kindel was given too much time and space, but that’s a goal that Adin Hill must stop.
Things went from bad to worse in the second period. For the second game in a row, the Golden Knights gave up three goals in the middle frame.
Six seconds after a successful penalty kill by Vegas, Egor Chinakhov broke through to double Pittburgh’s lead.
The Vegas penalty kill went 0-for-2 on the Penguins’ next two opportunities, the first of which came off the stick of Bryan Rust.
Later in the frame, Rickard Rakell put Vegas in a three-goal hole at 15:06 with his 11th of the season.
The Golden Knights have been forced to chase plenty of times this season, and they have often found another gear to make a real push in the third period. That was not the case this time, however, even if the Golden Knights outshot the opponent 10-5. But it was the Penguins who added one more for good measure at 14:59 for the 5-0 win.
Arturs Silovs made 22 saves as the Penguins shut out the Golden Knights.
Simply put, nothing about the Golden Knights’ effort in Pittsburgh was positive. Vegas played poorly offensively, defensively and in net.
The Golden Knights couldn’t get out of their own end and struggled on both special teams units. The power play, which went 0-for-2, didn’t help restore momentum, and the penalty kill went 2-for-4, though that doesn’t include Chinakhov’s goal that came six seconds after a Pittsburgh power play.
Hill wasn’t nearly good enough. He finished the game with 17 saves on 22 shots for a .773 save percentage. But the offense never showed up, and Vegas never got to its game. It was a team-wide failure and a surprising follow-up to the loss in Washington. The fact that the shots were even at 22 apiece is not reflective of how one-sided this game was.
The Golden Knights did not deliver, leaving another two points on the table. At times, they made Pittsburgh look like an offensive juggernaut. The Penguins dominated in front of the net, especially on the power play, and had way too many extended shifts in Vegas’ end. Vegas also was never threatening offensively.
The Golden Knights will look to regroup ahead of a back-to-back in Buffalo and Detroit on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Photo courtesy of the Golden Knights