A familiar refrain: Knights lose in OT, 4-3

LAS VEGAS — For all intents and purposes, the playoffs are underway for the Vegas Golden Knights.

What seemed like a stone-cold lock a few weeks ago has become a desperate struggle to make it to the postseason. When the NHL season resumed on Feb. 25 after the Winter Olympics, the Knights were in first place in the Pacific Division, four points ahead of second-place Edmonton.

Thursday, Vegas was trailing the Oilers, who are still sitting in second in the division despite being without star Leon Draisaitl with the Knights in third place.

So it’s a matter of survival over these final 10 games, which began with a head-to-head pillow fight that turned into real fisticuffs on a couple of occasions against Edmonton at T-Mobile Arena. The Knights are running out of runway and with 79 points and nine games remaining, their hold on a playoff berth remains a tenuous one. Los Angeles is just three points behind Vegas and Seattle is five points back. The Knights and the Kraken will meet twice over the final nine-game stretch, April 9 in Seattle and the regular season finale April 15 at T-Mobile Arena.

The Knights’ 4-3 overtime loss following Evan Bouchard’s goal 3:10 into the extra period only magnifies that this team needs to get on a late-season run and time’s a wastin’. Bruce Cassidy has been juggling things around, trying to get the right combinations to click. So far, it hasn’t yielded much in terms of results.

“Every single game is going to be like a playoff game,” forward Ivan Barbashev said. “Points are big. We got one today, two would’ve been better.

“As a group, we’ve been talking about it. Play simple. Put the puck behind them and we’ve had some success doing that.”

So how did we get here? How did things go sideways so quickly in March?

Too many key players have not been delivering. You can lay the blame for the spotty goaltending of Adin Hill if you wish but he’s not the sole problem. Though just when it appeared Hill had turned the corner with wins over Pittsburgh and Chicago earlier this month, he reverted back to the struggling netminder that had defined his season to date. His 3.03 goals-against average and .868 save percentage have him statistically near the bottom third of the NHL. He’s ranked No. 56 out of 95 goaltenders who have appeared in a game this season. Akira Schmid, Hill’s backup, is ranked 32nd.

The real issue is the guys playing in front of Hill aren’t producing enough to get him off the hook. Going into Thursday night, Jack Eichel hadn’t scored in six games. Mark Stone hadn’t produced a goal in his last seven appearances until he delivered twice Thursday. Mitch Marner no goals in his last six games. Pavel Dorofeyev no goals in his last five. Tomas Hertl no goals in his last 10. Barbashev had just one goal in his last 10 until he scored in the third period to tie it 3-3.
 
In the 16 games since returning from the Olympic break, the Knights have scored just 37 goals. That’s an average of 2.3 a game. Sorry, that ain’t gonna cut it.

Cassidy can’t put the puck in the net for his players. Nor can he prevent them from being scored on. His shot-blocking days ended years ago back in Italy. That said, he needs to find a way to get his guys going before it’s too late and he’s potentially looking to sell his house in Summerlin. Thursday was the 15th loss in OT or a shootout by the Knights this season. If they had managed to win just half of those games, we wouldn't be having this discussion. But the failure to convert when opportunities present themselves continues to plague this team.

It’s tough,” Stone said. “You give yourself a chance to win. You get the power play in OT and you don’t capitalize.”

Vegas’ inability to exit its own end cleanly continues to be an issue. They are susceptible to a strong forecheck by the opposition and that was evident when Zach Hyman picked Brayden McNabb’s pocket late in the second period and beat Hill from in close to give the Oilers a 3-2 lead which they took into the third period.

“I thought we played a pretty good game 5-on-5,” Stone said. “The problem was we gave up a few big mistakes we got to clean up.”

And while getting a point certainly helped their cause, they are in no position to feel comfortable as to their postseason future. The Knights can’t worry about who they may face in the playoffs. Their focus is on just getting in.

“We’re just trying to get our game together and get in,” Cassidy said. “It’s been a battle for us since the Olympic break to win games. So let’s get winning again, feel good about ourselves and then if and when, we’ll worry about who our opponent is and accept the reality of what the pros and cons are.”

Stone said: “I’m trying to get us going in the right direction. I take a lot of pride in being part of the organization we’ve built here.

“We’ve got nine big games left to put ourselves in the dance. There’s no guarantees. So we have to wake up in the morning, put our best foot forward and be ready for every game.”