The Vegas Golden Knights dropped their fourth and final meeting against the Vancouver Canucks to split the season series, coming up just short and losing 4-3 on Monday night. This is the first time that the Golden Knights (42-27-8) have lost in regulation on the road against the Canucks (48-22-8), entering this game with an 8-0-2 record at Rogers Arena since joining the NHL.
The Golden Knights were coming off a historic collapse against the Arizona Coyotes, giving up six consecutive goals in the third period after entering the final frame with a 4-1 lead. This makes it two losses in a row now, with the Golden Knights giving up 11 goals in their last three games.
With this loss, the Golden Knights remain in the second wild card spot in the Western Conference, sitting one point back of the Los Angeles Kings for the third-place spot in the Pacific Division.
Jack Eichel had two goals and an assist in this game for the Golden Knights, making it the sixth time this season that he’s had three points in a contest. He opened the scoring just 1:52 into the first period on an impressive solo effort, skating end-to-end and shooting it between the legs of the Canucks defender and sneaking it under the glove of goaltender Arturs Silovs. Since Thatcher Demko has been out of the lineup, Silovs has started three games for the Canucks and has won all three.
Eichel added a second goal six minutes later off a beautiful cross-seam pass from Jonathan Marchessault to make it 2-0. Both of his goals were scored on the first two shots that the Golden Knights had taken in the game, giving them an early jump before the Canucks would march back to tie it at the conclusion of the period.
Outside of being one of the league’s best offensive-defensemen, Quinn Hughes has put up great offensive numbers against the Golden Knights. He had two goals in their previous matchup on April 2, picked up a goal and an assist in this game, and has put up 13 points in his last seven games against the Golden Knights.
Related: Canucks’ Hughes Greatest Defensemen in Franchise History
It was a night of milestones for a few other Canucks, as Brock Boeser’s 3-3 goal was his 40th of the season, which is the first time he’s reached 40 goals in his career. J.T. Miller picked up his 100th point of the season with his 400th career assist on Conor Garland’s 4-3 goal in the second period. This is the first time that Miller has hit the century mark in his career, surpassing his career-high of 99 that he had in the 2021-22 season. He finished with three assists in this game and is ninth in league scoring.
Garland also picked up two goals in this contest, which happened to be the 100th and 101st of his career, in his 400th NHL game. While these are all great accomplishments, no number is more important than the two points the Canucks were able to pick up for the win. They’ve now won three of their last five games and have extended their Pacific Division lead to five points on the Edmonton Oilers.
Golden Knights’ Lack of Discipline
The Golden Knights conceded two goals on the penalty kill, which is an area of their game that they’ve continuously struggled with. In fact, they currently sit 22nd in the NHL on the PK since March 1 (76.2%). There’s no excuse for the penalties they took in this game, and they were truly just out of frustration or because they couldn’t keep up with the Canucks forwards.
While the penalties themselves were frustrating to see, the lack of effort in front of their own net was even more frustrating. On both of the Canucks’ power play goals, Logan Thompson was swarmed by opposing forwards in his crease. With the way that pucks have slipped through Thompson as of late, it’s shocking that the Golden Knights defenders haven’t made it a priority to clear out players in front of their net to prevent second-chance goals.
Hughes’ goal was the perfect example of this. Zach Whitecloud was so far out of position that Brayden McNabb was left to fend for himself in front of the net, with both Elias Pettersson and Garland screening Thompson’s line of sight. On Garland’s 4-3 goal, he slipped behind three defending players and found open space at the side of the net to bury the loose puck. Tracking forwards as small and speedy as Garland can be difficult, but they can’t get so focused on watching the puck.
Neither of those plays should happen at this stage in the season, especially against a divisional opponent who is likely going to be your first round matchup. Showing that you can get outworked like this is just fuel for a team that plays with as much pace as the Canucks do, and they took advantage of it in this game.
Tomas Hertl’s Debut With Golden Knights
Tomas Hertl made his long-awaited debut with the Golden Knights on Monday after being acquired from the San Jose Sharks at the trade deadline in early March. This was the 30-year-old’s first game since Jan. 27, and has fully recovered from his surgery that removed loose cartilage from his knee.
Hertl had 34 points in 48 games with the Sharks this season before being injured, and slotted in on the Golden Knights’ second line alongside Chandler Stephenson and Michael Amadio. Swapping Amadio for Mark Stone will make that line extremely dangerous, and this also allows for a pretty solid third-line combination of Pavel Dorofeyev, William Karlsson, and Anthony Mantha.
Hertl played 12:22 and picked up an assist on Noah Hanifin’s 3-2 goal. He also got some opportunities to play on the top power play unit, where he set up in Stone’s usual spot in front of the net. It was a relatively quiet game for Hertl, but he definitely didn’t look out of place. There were a ton of good zone entries that he created by skating or distributing, and he works really well below the opposing goal line.
I think the next step for Bruce Cassidy as he navigates yet another new acquisition being added to the lineup, is to try and let Hertl play on the perimeter of the offensive zone more. He’s strong and has good hands in tight so he can handle being a net-front presence, but he’s going to make a much bigger impact on this team if he leads the cycle and is the primary puck carrier on his line.
Final Thoughts
Comparing this Golden Knights team to the one that played in the third period against the Coyotes is like night and day. This was a much more encouraging effort against a team hungry to get into the win column after a rocky few weeks, and outside of the previously mentioned defensive lapses, the offense looked pretty solid for most of the night.
Thompson is showing some obvious signs of fatigue, but until this team clinches the playoffs, I can see Cassidy riding him out as long as they need. With no indication of Adin Hill’s injury or timeline for return, Thompson has to continue to take on a larger volume of games down this final stretch.
The Golden Knights have just five games remaining in the regular season, and will travel to Edmonton to take on the Oilers in what should be an electric, playoff-like atmosphere.
