The Vegas Golden Knights enter Thursday night’s game against the visiting Chicago Blackhawks with a two-point lead over the Edmonton Oilers in the Pacific Division standings.
However, head coach Bruce Cassidy wasn’t pleased with his team’s last outing, a 5-2 loss at Los Angeles on Monday. The Golden Knights had a rare third-period meltdown, allowing four unanswered goals and blowing a 2-1 lead.
Trevor Moore scored twice, including the game-tying goal at the end of a 2-on-1 only 42 seconds into the final period, to spark the comeback for the Kings.
“We mismanaged a puck, needed a save there, and then we played losing hockey from then on,” Cassidy said. “You play losing hockey, you usually lose. That’s what happened.
“You’re never going to be perfect the whole game, but it’s a really inexcusable third period.”
Following a day off on Tuesday, Cassidy wasn’t backing down on his assessment. Asked if he’d flush the third period and move on after watching the tape, he replied, “No, we didn’t play well enough.
“You need to close out games if you expect to get anywhere. Close games should be a strength of ours, so we addressed it this morning.”
Braydon McNabb found the back of the net for Vegas, but the 6-foot-4 defenseman wasn’t pleased with the team’s effort.
“We need to look into the mirror and be better, and make sure we’re better going forward,” McNabb said.
Captain Mark Stone, who gave the Knights a 2-1 lead with a goal late in the second period, added, “We’re going to have to learn from this, pick yourself up off the mat, and do a better job.”
The good news for the Golden Knights is they play their next five games at T-Mobile Arena where they have compiled a sparkling 20-6-3 record. First up is a Chicago team with the worst road record (6-19-4) in the league and is riding a four-game losing streak (0-3-1).
The Blackhawks arrive in the Sin City following a 2-1 loss to the Utah Hockey Club on Tuesday. Defenseman Seth Jones scored a power-play goal in the first period to give Chicago the early lead, but Clayton Keller tied it up in the second period to set the stage for Lawson Crouse’s game-winner on a backhand shot with 7:48 to go.
The loss wasted an outstanding goaltending performance by Arvid Soderblom, who made 34 saves.
“They were stifling us,” interim head coach Anders Sorensen said. “They were staying above us a lot, so we didn’t find a lot of space there.”
Chicago, which has won just one of its last eight games (1-5-2), is three points ahead of San Jose for the worst record in the league.
“We’re the exact same team right now as we were game one,” a frustrated Jones said. “It’s pretty evident out there. We haven’t made any strides to be a better, more simple hockey team, and it shows. We don’t get a lot of wins because of that.”
One of their 17 wins, however, came over the Golden Knights in their only previous meeting of the season. Chicago, behind a pair of power-play goals from Tyler Bertuzzi, and a goal and two assists by Jones, defeated the visiting Golden Knights, 5-3, on Jan. 18.
–Field Level Media
