Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Analysis: Predators add to Golden Knights’ struggles against top teams

Vegas will need to improve against contenders after All-Star break

Predators Beat Golden Knights 2-1

John Locher/AP

Nashville Predators right wing Viktor Arvidsson (33) attempts a shot on Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury (29) during the third period of an NHL hockey game Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019, in Las Vegas.

Predators Beat Golden Knights 2-1

Vegas Golden Knights left wing Max Pacioretty (67) is upended by Nashville Predators center Ryan Johansen (92) during a game at T-Mobile Arena Wednesday, Jan. 23, 2019. Launch slideshow »

Advanced metrics and betting odds agree on the Stanley Cup picture as the NHL heads into its All-Star break: There are nine primary contenders.

The good news is the Vegas Golden Knights are among that group. The bad news is the Golden Knights have stood about as much of a chance as a small pile of snow against a Zamboni when they’ve encountered those peers this season.

Vegas has routinely gotten flattened against the best teams in the league, going 4-10 versus the eight teams listed at 12-to-1 or less in the futures market at the Westgate Las Vegas Superbook. The latest loss was particularly deflating, as the Golden Knights dropped a 2-1 decision to the Nashville Predators Wednesday night to head into an eight-day vacation having lost two straight games and four of their last six.

“It’s tough right before the break to lose like that,” defenseman Nate Schmidt said.

The game against the Predators seemed set up to show that the Golden Knights had arrived and reached prime form to defend last year’s Western Conference championship over the second half of the regular season.

It was the final nationally televised game ahead of Saturday’s All-Star festivities in San Jose, pitting two teams with identical 29-18-4 records. It drew a crowd of 18,477 fans to T-Mobile Arena, the third largest in regular-season history of a venue that’s turned into one of the NHL’s toughest places to play.

And the Golden Knights appeared as hyped as their faithful, zipping to one of its best starts of the season in the opening 10 minutes. Vegas got one goal to show for it, when Max Pacioretty finished off perfect passes from Paul Stastny and Alex Tuch, but nothing else.

Everything turned in the second period, as much of the raucous atmosphere drained from the building when Nashville’s Ryan Johansen and Nick Bonino scored in an early two-minute span. Like has happened all too often against fellow teams at the top of the standings, the Golden Knights couldn’t respond.

That’s not to say they didn’t try. They controlled possession more often than the Predators, and posted edges in all shot metrics including a lopsided 26-15 in scoring chances.

But they simply couldn’t solve Nashville goalie Juuse Saros, a fledgling Vegas villain who’s now 3-0 against the Golden Knights with 113 saves on 115 shots. The Predators had less trouble with Marc-Andre Fleury, as it took sensational late defensive plays from Schmidt and Colin Miller to prevent the margin from swelling beyond one goal.

The Predators got fortuitous bounces on each of their two goals, which surely helped fans, and perhaps even players, console themselves after the loss.

“I thought we played really hard and played a really good game,” assistant coach Mike Kelly said. “(Saros) was excellent.”

That was the consensus in the locker room, though it was a little jarring coming from the same team that railed against the idea of bad puck luck contributing to its slow start of the season.

They’ve certainly got some valid excuses for coming up short in some of their biggest games — the back-to-back and rare Fleury rest day in a 7-2 loss at Calgary, a stronger-than-the-score-indicated performance in a 4-1 loss at Winnipeg last week — but they only go so far when the losses are piling up. In the 14 aforementioned games against fellow contenders, the Golden Knights have now been outscored 45-35.

“It feels like we’ve lost to good teams but we’re a good team too and we should have won some of those, but sometimes that’s how it goes,” Fleury said. “Overall, we’re in a good spot right now so we’ll relax a bit and get back at it when we come back.”

The Golden Knights have every reason to be happy with their current standing. They’re comfortably in the playoffs with a chance to play into at least home-ice advantage in the first round.

It’s somewhat petty to isolate how they’ve played against an arbitrary set of opponents and make an issue out of it. But that’s also what the expectations demand for a team that shattered records in its expansion season and sought to top it this season.

Fourteen games also remains a relatively small sample size. The Golden Knights still have 10 games left against the apparent elite eight — Tampa Bay, Nashville, Winnipeg, Calgary, Pittsburgh, Toronto, Washington, San Jose and Boston — and it would be no major surprise to see them reverse the trend and push for a winning record against those teams over the rest of the regular season.

That would be a welcome sight for fans, because if the Golden Knights are to reach their goals, they’re going to have to improve against the top of the league.

“Tonight, San Jose the other day and Winnipeg I thought were all low-scoring games,” Fleury said. “We had the puck a lot tonight, against San Jose and Winnipeg also. I don’t think we’re far off.”

Case Keefer can be reached at 702-948-2790 or [email protected]. Follow Case on Twitter at twitter.com/casekeefer.

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