On Monday, the Vegas Golden Knights suffered one of their worst losses of the season at the hands of the Minnesota Wild. They allowed a goal in the opening minute of the game and eventually found themselves down 5-0 early in the second period. Don’t let the two garbage time goal fool you– this was a slaughter.
“They just kept rolling,” said Ivan Barbashev postgame. “We gave them everything, and they did everything that they wanted, offensively.”
The Golden Knights have won just one of their last six games. They’ve allowed 25 goals over that six-game stretch.
“There’s a lot of teams that took advantage of us in the d zone [in the last five games],” Barbashev lamented. “The same thing happened today. A little bit in the first period, but it was way worse in the second.”
The Golden Knights allowed a goal just 26 seconds into the game.
“The effort was there in the third period,” said Barbashev. “But at the same time, it has to be there from the first period. We went down early… We just have to be ready for the game. The start wasn’t there, and that’s probably why.”
“Obviously, not a great start,” said Mark Stone postgame. “We gave up a goal in the first minute of the first period, first minute of the second period, so that was behind the eight ball.”
“We kind of shot ourselves in the foot in the first 22 odd minutes, and we were kind of scrambling from there,” Stone continued. “They started feeling good about their game, started moving the puck pretty well in the o zone. We were just a step behind in that 35, 40 minute stretch there, and once you get down five-nothing, you’re not coming back. It just felt like we were losing the 50-50 battles that we normally win.”
Tomáš Hertl was ejected for boarding Ryan Hartman just 2:13 into the first period.
“It was an unfortunate play with Tommy,” said Stone postgame. “I don’t think he was trying to kill [Hartman], or anything. If that guy handles the puck, [Hertl] is probably still in the game. It’s just unfortunate.”
With Jack Eichel and William Karlsson injured, the Golden Knights were already down their top two centers. Mitch Marner has slotted in as a center for the past three games, and Hertl’s ejection didn’t make matters easier.
“The way we play, wingers get low in the o zone,” said Stone. “Face-offs were the hardest part; Mitch [Marner] hasn’t taken face-offs in probably ten years. He’s doing a pretty good job considering, but he’s not used to it.”
