Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Golden Knights fall in St. Louis, still need one point to reach playoffs

Golden Knights at St. Louis, 2019

Dilip Vishwanat / Assocaited Press

St. Louis Blues’ Ryan O’Reilly (90) scores a goal against Vegas Golden Knights’ goalie Malcolm Subban (30) during the second period of an NHL hockey game Monday, March 25, 2019, in St. Louis.

Golden Knights Lose to Blues in St. Louis

Vegas Golden Knights' Alex Tuch (89) has his pass deflected by St. Louis Blues' Alex Pietrangelo (27) during the first period of an NHL hockey game Monday, March 25, 2019, in St. Louis. Launch slideshow »

The Golden Knights need one point in the standings to clinch a return trip to the Stanley Cup Playoffs. It’s going to have to wait at least one more day.

William Karlsson had a power-play goal on Monday in St. Louis for Vegas, but the Golden Knights never had the lead in a 3-1 defeat to the Blues.

The Golden Knights can clinch a spot tomorrow if Coyotes loss against the Blackhawks. If the Coyotes win, Vegas can clinch with a win against at the Avalanche on Wednesday.

Malcolm Subban, who started for the fifth game in a row, had 19 saves Monday in the loss against St. Louis.

Here are three takeaways:

Shot suppression

For the second night in a row, the opposition slowed down the Golden Knights and kept them off the shot sheet. Vegas averaged 38.7 shots on goal per game in the 11 games following the trade deadline, only dipping under 30 once in that span. The Golden Knights had 30 shots on goal in Saturday’s overtime loss to Detroit, then 25 against the Blues. It was the 12th time in 76 games Vegas was held to 25 shots or fewer.

St. Louis kept Vegas out of the high-danger areas and gave goalie Jordan Binnington a good view of the puck. Vegas only had five shots on goal from between the circles in the first two periods.

“Their gaps, their D, it was right on top us and made it hard for us,” Karlsson told AT&T SportsNet.

Resting players?

It’s possible the Golden Knights have been bit by the injury bug recently. It is late in the year, after all, and many players haven taken their lumps throughout the year.

More likely though, the Golden Knights see where they are in the standings and realize getting everyone healthy is more important than winning games. Shea Theodore was a late scratch Monday, joining Colin Miller, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, Brandon Pirri and Max Pacioretty as regulars to miss games in the last week.

It also serves as an audition for players who haven’t seen the ice recently. Valentin Zykov played Monday for the second time in as many games, and Nick Holden has played four in a row after missing nine games.

“It’s chance for guys to step up and everybody needs to step up in that situation,” forward Jonathan Marchessault said. “That’s not what we did tonight.”

Singing the Blues

The Golden Knights played strong against their Western Conference foes this season, picking up at least one win against all of them except one. And the Blues finished the three-game season sweep Monday night.

The Blues outscored Vegas 12-5 in this season.

The Golden Knights also failed to defeat the Toronto Maple Leafs, Boston Bruins, Montreal Canadiens and Columbus Blue Jackets this year, though they only played them twice each.

The Golden Knights swept the Anaheim Ducks (four games), Dallas Stars (three), Chicago Blackhawks (three) and Ottawa Senators (two) this year.

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