Golden Knights frustrated after falling to Arizona for fourth straight home loss

By Justin Emerson

Tuesday, Feb. 12, 2019 | 11 p.m.

The Golden Knights lingered in the locker room longer than usual Tuesday night before media were allowed in, and defenseman Nate Schmidt said it was because coach Gerard Gallant stuck around “spreading some truth.”

Gallant did not seem inclined to share what that truth was, and the frustration was evident after the 5-2 loss to the Arizona Coyotes at T-Mobile Arena.

“You think I’m going to tell you the message to the team?” Gallant said in the postgame press conference. “None of your business.”

The offense was nonexistent for times in the third period after flashing brilliance in the first two. The Golden Knights recorded 34 shots on goal in the first 40 minutes, then did not record a shot on goal in the third until the 8:11 mark, and had four shots on the frame until the 15:46 mark.

By the time the offense got going in the third, it was too late. Arizona lost its 2-0 lead at the end of the second but shut down Vegas once it regained the advantage.

“There’s just not a lot of jam to our game right now,” Schmidt said. “You come out for the third period dead flat and they take it to you, they get a goal and we’re fighting an uphill battle the rest of the game.”

T-Mobile Arena, last year a safe haven where the home team was nearly unbeatable, has been quite welcoming to visitors as of late. The loss was the fourth in a row at home, matching the worst stretch in the team’s young history.

Last season the Golden Knights were 29-10-2 at home. This year they are one shy of matching the loss total with 14 to play at 16-8-3. They have the Maple Leafs and Predators still remaining on this home stand.

“They came to our building and wanted it more than us,” center Pierre-Edouard Bellemare said. “It is frustrating, but every solution is just us coming a little harder.”

Looking at the stat sheet would lead you to think the Golden Knights won. They led in shots on goal (43-26), Corsi (54-44), scoring chances at 5-on-5 (28-17) and high-danger scoring chances (14-5).

It’s a moral victory, which doesn’t mean a whole lot.

“Sometimes certain statistics might deceive you,” Schmidt said. “We had a lot of shots but we didn’t really get there as much.”

The Golden Knights had stretches when they dominated, particularly midway through the first when they had seven consecutive 5-on-5 shot attempts after the Coyotes came out hot.

But Gallant wasn’t pleased. We may not know what he said to the players, but we have an idea based on his postgame comments.

“I thought we played about 10 minutes of real good hockey tonight,” Gallant said. “There was no passion in our game, there was no aggressive forecheck in our game, we played a soft game.”