After a convincing win without their five best offensive players on Wednesday, the Vegas Golden Knights should have been boosted by their return. Instead, they came out flat on Friday and fell behind by three in the second period. Ultimately, despite a comeback bid they lost 3–2 to the Washington Capitals.
The cracks began to appear early in the first period when the Capitals had six of their first seven shots on goal. From there, things didn’t get better for the Golden Knights.
Akira Schmid played well, made big saves when called upon and finished the night with a .25 GSAX. However, he could not compensate for the Golden Knights’ lapses on defense and in the neutral zone.
The Capitals broke the ice and finally solved Schmid 49 seconds into the second period. The Golden Knights allowed him a clean pass through the neutral zone and passed a clean pass to Rasmus Sandin. Sandin found Aliaksi Protas in the slot; Protas set up Pierre-Luc Dubois, who picked out his corner.
The Capitals struck again just 2:34 later. Under pressure from Tom Wilson, Rasmus Andersson passed the puck to Aleksi Protas behind the net. Protas backhanded it into the slot and Pierre-Luc Dubois hit his second of the night.
The Capitals increased their lead at 14:52 of the second minute. They came in waves from the circle, and Rasmus Sandin set up Jakub Chykrun for a one-timer from the right circle.
In the third period, the Golden Knights finally came alive. They outshot the Capitals 13-8 and controlled 67.1% of the expected goal share.
Their work paid off and the Golden Knights got on the board just 2:27 minutes into the third period. Kaidan Korczak sent a stretch-pass to Brayden Bowman, and the puck bounced off his stick in the offensive zone. Bowman raced after it, charged forward all alone and beat blocker-side Logan Thompson.
The Golden Knights tied it with a goal on the power play at 9:15 of the third game. Pavel Dorofeyev focused on Tomas Hertl and Hertl scored his 600th career point.
One by one, the Golden Knights applied pressure; However, a late penalty by Mark Stone halted their momentum. He knocked it down and pulled on Akira Schmidt for an extra attacker, but could not score the equaliser.
“We weren’t ready to play,” said head coach Bruce Cassidy after the 3–2 loss. “The coach has to prepare the team… but in this one, the players were not ready to play. They are professionals; they have to be ready to go. We were not good enough.
“We got through the first period, so you think it will be better in the second period,” Cassidy added. “But it got worse throughout that period. We’ll always respond, and we did again tonight… When we play 20 minutes, we almost win hockey games; imagine when we play 40 or 45.”
Jack Eichel, Mark Stone, Mitch Marner, Shea Theodore, and Noah Hanifin returned to the lineup after missing Wednesday’s game in Los Angeles. Eichel, Stone and Marner each recorded only one shot on goal.
“These are high-class players who have to be ready to play,” Cassidy lamented. “Toews and Makar played back-to-backs; McDavid, Matthews and Jack Hughes also… We gave our guys a few days off — intentionally scripted it — and got through it in L.A. and played well.
“He was quite relieved, to be honest,” Cassidy said. “They’ll be better on Sunday. They’re our best players. They’re our leaders, and we expect them to play like that.”
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