ST. LOUIS—Apparently, the flaws of the Vegas Golden Knights suffered in the previous game against the Tampa Bay Lightning made for excellent travelers.
On Thursday, the Golden Knights got a quick two-game road trip started in inauspicious fashion, suffering a blowout 6-2 loss to the St. Louis Blues.
The trouble began early for the Golden Knights, as the penalty kill once again could not find a way to stop pucks from going into the net. Chaos in front of the net eventually saw Pavel Buchnevich locate the puck and fire it past Vegas goaltender Adin Hill to break the ice.
The goal marks the fourth straight game where the Golden Knights have allowed a tally on the power play, and their penalty kill ranks 29th in the league, a far cry from the sixth-ranked unit from last season.
The trouble would continue for the Golden Knights as Blues defenseman Justin Barron would get a clear lane in the offensive zone and fire a puck at full speed to give the home side a 2-0 advantage to end the first.
The second period would at least show some life from the Golden Knights. On their first real chance of the middle frame, Brett Howden was able to deflect Noah Hanifin’s point shot, then immediately pot the rebound past Blues goaltender Joel Hofer to put Vegas on the board.
Forward Alexander Holtz would also pick up his first point of the season on the secondary assist. The Swedish forward was called up to replace Mitch Marner, who was away from the team due to his wife expecting the birth of their second child.
The momentum would not last, as Mason McTavish would deflect Adam Jiricek’s shot past Hill minutes later to restore the two-goal lead.
Hill would rebound with some timely saves, followed by Jack Eichel opening the door once again after his attempt to find Mark Stone in close range would deflect off of Cam Fowler’s skate and into the net early in the third period.
However, the Blues would proceed to kick the door back into the face of the Golden Knights to the tune of three unanswered goals.
The first would come from a goal Hill would want back, as Jimmy Snuggerud launched a perfect shot from the top of the right faceoff circle that found its way into the corner. Dylan Holloway would add to the lead after Nic Dowd collided with Hill to essentially create an empty net, then would effectively plunge the dagger into the Golden Knights with a power play goal.
After two straight 6-2 defeats, new head coach Ryan Craig now has his first taste of adversity at the NHL level, and there is plenty to fix in such a short amount of time.
“I don’t think our guys are going to be happy with this,” said Craig.
“We’re not pleased with this. I expect a response. We’re gonna get a lot of teams’ best games on each and every night because of what these guys have accomplished here last season.”
The Golden Knights will now look to Saturday to keep this skid from going any larger in a road tilt with the Columbus Blue Jackets.