Early deficit in Dallas too much as Golden Knights drop third straight

By Justin Emerson

Monday, Nov. 25, 2019 | 8:45 p.m.

The Golden Knights played well for most of Monday night's game, but unfortunately a poor first period led to an early two-goal hole that was too much to overcome.

The Golden Knights went 0-for-4 on the power play and just 1-for-3 on the penalty kill as the Dallas Stars scored twice in the first period and went on to win 4-2 at American Airlines Center.

It was the Golden Knights’ third loss in a row and fifth-straight road loss.

Vegas trailed in shots on goal 16-6 after the first period then led 22-13 the rest of the game.

Shea Theodore scored for the second night in a row for the Golden Knights, and Paul Stastny scored his second goal in 12 games. Alexander Radulov scored twice for the Stars, and Esa Lindell and Jason Dickenson added the others.

Here are three takeaways from the loss.

Slow start

The Golden Knights had just two high-danger scoring chances in the first period, and one of them was short-handed. The Stars, meanwhile, had nine, which showed Dallas' domination.

Even ignoring their time on the power play, the Stars had 69.6% of the shot attempts, 71.4% of the scoring chances and 76.0% of the expected goals at 5-on-5. It was ugly for Vegas. The Stars led 2-0 after a period, and the Golden Knights have not trailed by two goals in a game this season and gone on to win.

It cost the Golden Knights because they came out of the third angry and with good push. Nick Holden hit the post 33 seconds into the period, then Mark Stone fed Stastny to make it 3-2 with 18:37 to play.

“Our starts haven’t been good enough. If we start the game on time we’re usually on top at the end,” Stone said to AT&T SportsNet. “It builds comfortability and wears their team down.”

Can’t be all Fleury

Monday was the seventh game this season that Marc-Andre Fleury didn’t start, with six Subban starts and one from Oscar Dansk. The Golden Knights have lost all seven of those games.

Subban wasn’t terrible against Dallas. The defense didn’t do him any favors, as his goals were results of a power-play deflection, an open lane from a defenseman, a 3-on-2 rush and a power-play rebound. And while it’s not fair to ask him to steal a win, sometimes he’s going to have to.

Subban has played five full games this season (he left after one period in his first start). He has only one game, Nov. 7 at Toronto, that he has had a save percentage better than .900. Monday’s loss dropped him to .883 for the season, which is fourth-worst in the league among goalies with at least three starts.

Power-play failures

The Golden Knights scored in the second period five seconds after a power play ended, and if you wanted to chalk the goal up to the power play, you won’t find much argument. But while there were fewer Stars than Golden Knights on the ice, the results weren’t good enough.

Vegas had 7:42 of power-play time in the second period thanks to four Stars penalties and managed just four shots on goal and 12 attempts. Three of those shots and five attempts came on the first power play. That also includes 3:42 of time after back-to-back penalties and 18 seconds of 5-on-3 time with no shots on goal.

This season the power play has been strong with a 22.8% success rate entering the game, eighth-best in the league. It hasn’t cost the Golden Knights often this season, but it did in Dallas.

“They had two big power-play goals, and we had a bunch of chances in the second period and we didn’t capitalize, let alone get too much momentum off that,” Stastny said to AT&T SportsNet. “Our power play has got to be better.”