Second-period mistakes doom Golden Knights in loss to Predators

By Justin Emerson

Tuesday, Oct. 15, 2019 | 11 p.m.

The play that made Golden Knights fans pull their hair out came on Nashville’s fourth goal. When Marc-Andre Fleury went to play a dump-in behind the net, his clearing went right to Filip Forsberg’s stick and into the net.

It was a standout blunder, but Tuesday's game was defined by Golden Knights miscues, particularly in the second period. They allowed a trio of goals, the Predators didn’t relent and Vegas fell 5-2 at T-Mobile Arena.

“That second period is tough when we give them three goals and that’s what happens,” coach Gerard Gallant said. “We made some mistakes tonight that were uncharacteristic of our hockey team.”

The Fleury giveaway is the low-hanging fruit when pointing out the Golden Knights’ mistakes. It’s obvious, and even someone watching hockey for the first time would know that’s not supposed to happen. But really, all three of the second-period goals were results of poor Vegas play.

The first goal in the second period was a strong effort by Colton Sissons behind the net to get a wrap-around try, and when Fleury saved the first one, he elevated the second over his stick. Deryk Engelland and Nicolas Hague had lost the battle behind the net and Ryan Reaves was slow covering the front, which allowed Sissons the second shot attempt.

The second goal in the period has a pretty glaring red flag, too. When the puck comes off Calle Jarnkrok’s stick, there are only three Golden Knights in the defensive zone. It was a good effort play by Viktor Arvidsson to gain the puck and dance around Jon Merrill behind the net and feed Jarnkrok, but Paul Stastny and Max Pacioretty were caught too deep in the offensive zone and didn’t get back to help the defense.

“Three mistakes, three mistakes in the back of our net,” defenseman Brayden McNabb said. “They played well and they scored on their chances.”

Nashville also scored in the first and third periods, both off similar plays. Kyle Turris scored the first — a pretty deflection in front of Fleury — and assisted on the second, when Nick Bonino did the same off Turris’ shot.

Fleury may have allowed five goals, but it’s not accurate to pin the loss on him. The Vegas defense didn’t give him enough of a chance, evidenced in part by the 39 shots on goal allowed, the most of the season. The Predators crowded Fleury in front and won board battles behind the net and on the boards all night.

“They were hungry to get to the blue paint. They won the blue-paint battles in both ends tonight,” Gallant said. “(Nashville goalie Pekka) Rinne’s seeing all the pucks; Fleury didn’t see probably half of them.”

On the bright side for Vegas was its special-teams play. The first power play was a continuation of Sunday’s game in Los Angeles, where Vegas was 3-for-3 with the extra man. The same unit converted Tuesday, when Mark Stone potted his fifth goal of the season on a no-look feed from Cody Glass.

And while the penalty kill, which entered the game with a league-high 95.5% conversion rate, did allow a goal, it killed off 8:11 of short-handed time and batted away 11 of the 12 shots.

Stone’s power-play goal tied the game in the first period, and Reilly Smith’s goal, also his team-best-tying fifth of the season, at even strength gave Vegas the lead near the end of the first period. Nashville, though, responded with four unanswered to turn what was a tight first-period game into a runaway.

“It’s a 60-minute game — we talk about it all the time, so we need to stick to that,” Smith said. “I don’t think we played bad in the second period, but a couple mental errors really cost us.”