Golden Knights Grades: Good, Bad, & Ugly in OT Loss to Penguins

What do you call a team that leads in shots, scoring chances, and high-danger chances but still loses? The Vegas Golden Knights.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times– that is to say, Tuesday’s tilt against the Pittsburgh Penguins was a tale of two games. For the first 40 minutes, the Golden Knights had nothing. Zilch. Nada. They struggled to generate offense, to complete passes, to execute line changes. 

The Penguins made them pay.

Lightning may not strike twice, but Sidney Crosby did on Tuesday– first on the power play when the Golden Knights were caught puck-watching and then at even strength. When you give star players time and space, they typically capitalize on it. Crosby did just that.

It’s what happened on Erik Karlsson’s game-winner, as well. In overtime, the Golden Knights never possessed the puck, and Jack Eichel was stuck on the ice. Eichel was gassed; Karlsson entered the zone unimpeded, and Eichel was a step too slow to prevent him from halting the Golden Knights’ comeback attempt.

This was a frustrating game for the Golden Knights. Through 40 minutes, the effort was there, but the execution was not. In the final frame, they executed, but could not solve Tristan Jarry for a second time until the waning seconds of the period. 

The Golden Knights didn’t play a particularly bad game. Really, they didn’t. They struggled to execute, but they were defensively sound. They held the Penguins to just 17 shots on net through nearly 61 minutes of play. The Golden Knights finished with 38 shots on goal, but only two of them got past Tristan Jarry. 

The Golden Knights outchanced the Penguins 40 to 26; high-danger chances were 11-8 in favor of the Golden Knights. 

“I think we chased [the game] well,” said head coach Bruce Cassidy. “Today, I don’t think we did [open the floodgates]… I think we were as rock solid defensively as we’ve been all year… In overtime, we never had the puck to have a chance to make a difference. The guys played well today, for the most part. Little sluggish start, but it wasn’t like we were caved in in the first period. We had plenty of opportunities to score and we defended well.”

Golden Knights Grades

Team: C+

I’ve gone back and forth, my grade fluctuating between a C- and a B. So, I’m going to split the difference and call it a C+. Here’s why: on Sunday, the Golden Knights fell behind 2-0 to the Los Angeles Kings; on Tuesday against the Penguins, they also fell behind 2-0. The similarities end there.

On Sunday, the Golden Knights were lethargic and sluggish. They weren’t engaged, and they didn’t compete. On Tuesday against the Penguins, the Golden Knights started slow– but by that, I mean it took them some time to execute. Their compete level was there from the drop of the puck. 

Penalty kill: A-

I know, I know, the Golden Knights gave up a goal while shorthanded; Sidney Crosby broke the ice at 17:48 in the first period. But before the goal, it was a strong kill. The Golden Knights made two errors in about three seconds– Brayden McNabb was slow to pressure Kevin Hayes, and Mark Stone was half a second too late to break up Rickard Rakell’s feed to Crosby. 

By my count, the Golden Knights recorded around 6:47 of successful penalty killing. They had a few shorthanded looks. And, come to think of it, in this case, Crosby isn’t so dissimilar to Alex Ovechkin– both manage to get open while their team is up a man, and they can make their opponents pay.

Power play: A+

The Golden Knights had just one power play opportunity, and they made it count. Pavel Dorofeyev put the Golden Knights on the board at 14:29 in the second period with a vicious one-timer from the right dot. Their puck movement was good; they didn’t force plays, they scored, and they gained momentum. 

The Golden Knights found new life after Dorofeyev’s goal. It’s probably not a stretch to suggest that was what woke them up.

Ilya Samsonov: B

Can you blame Samsonov for any of the three goals that the Penguins scored? I can’t. Sure, a save would have been nice on Crosby’s second goal. But when you give one of the best players in NHL history that much time and space, you can’t expect him not to make you pay. 

The same can be said for Erik Karlsson’s game-winner, as well. He was completely unmarked and got some mustard on that wrister. It was a perfectly placed shot, and of course it was– he had all the time in the world to take it.

Reilly Smith-Nic Roy-Keegan Kolesar: B+

The Golden Knights couldn’t generate much of anything offensively for the first 30 minutes of the game. Plays fell apart in the neutral zone. Passes were well behind or in front of their intended targets; even when they connected, the puck almost always rolled off the receiving player’s stick. 

This wasn’t the case when the Smith-Roy-Kolesar line was on the ice. Reilly Smith had a few great looks that Jarry turned away. Roy took a high-sticking penalty early in the first period, but otherwise, he played a near-perfect game. And Kolesar was the best version of himself. 

They did everything but score.

Jack Eichel/Mark Stone: C+

Ivan Barbashev and Brett Howden were both out of the lineup. Apart from the Saad-Hertl-Dorofeyev line, Bruce Cassidy jumbled up his forward combinations. The Smith-Roy-Kolesar line clicked instantly; the top line was not so lucky. 

Eichel and Stone started the night with Victor Olofsson on the left wing; by the third period, Tanner Pearson replaced Olofsson. It didn’t matter who was up there. Passes didn’t connect, and apart from Eichel’s partial breakaway that Jarry saved, Eichel and Stone couldn’t get going offensively at 5-on-5. It just wasn’t happening for them. Defensively, they were stifling. Again, the Golden Knights held the Penguins to just 17 shots on goal.