Golden Knights stay upbeat after letting Lightning ‘off the hook’

By Case Keefer (contact)

Tuesday, Feb. 4, 2020 | 10 p.m.

Like a skilled angler in the middle of Hillsborough Bay directly behind Amalie Arena, the Vegas Golden Knights had caught their prey.

The Tampa Bay Lightning were the trophy fish, and the Golden Knights needed just one final pull to finish off a battle where they had shown more than enough tactical strength and resilience. They couldn’t quite do it, as the Lightning slipped away, swimming off as the first team to beat the Golden Knights since the unofficial second half of the season began with a 4-2 victory.

“We let them off the hook on some empty nets, some outnumbered attacks, some chances to really put them in a hole, especially early in the game,” Golden Knights coach Pete DeBoer said. “You let a team like that off the hook and they can score. They don’t really need a lot of chances to do it.”

Despite the final score, the Golden Knights acted as the predator for the vast majority of the game between two of the most talented teams in the NHL. Vegas lurked in the area of Tampa Bay’s goal much more than the other way around.

The Golden Knights held sharp edges in shots on goal (29-18), scoring chances (24-10) and high-danger scoring chances (6-1). They just bungled the opportunities too frequently.

Everyone from the team’s leader in goals and points, Max Pacioretty, to the rookie defenseman playing in his third career game, Zach Whitecloud, failed in grade-A situations to beat Tampa Bay goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy. It left Vegas with an all-too-familiar feeling, one that had defined the season at least until the current two-game win streak in the Southeast — the thought that they played well but got nothing to show for it.

But there was no frustration this time in the locker room. The players know they have to start reeling in these types of games considering they’re locked into a playoff race shifting daily. If there’s one loss like this they can shake off without issue, however, it’s against the best regular-season team of the last two and a half years.

“Every point matters toward the end of the season but it’s still encouraging, positive,” goalie Marc-Andre Fleury said. “We just played a great team. We hung in there, I thought we played very good.”

Fleury faced 17 shot attempts and gave up three goals and was left wishing he had a couple moments back. But it’s tough to say if he could have done anything differently.

The Lightning are too deadly on offense to tell. A lesser team would have been unlikely to convert on any of their three even-strength goals.

First, Brayden Point capitalized on a Golden Knights’ turnover by firing a split-second fastball through the net. Then, also in the opening period, Anthony Cirelli and Tyler Johnson, who was credited with the goal, each tipped a puck right in front of Fleury. Another loose puck in the third period brought the ultimate downfall when Steven Stamkos virtually re-created Point’s goal with his own rendition from the slot.

“That’s kind of their team: very opportunistic, high-end skill,” defenseman Brayden McNabb said. “They can wait and find their spots and finish. They did that tonight.”

McNabb had an assist on the Golden Knights’ first score, finding William Carrier for his sixth goal of the season. He had just missed minutes before, firing a wrister into the post.

It was the loudest and most visible close call, but one of many the Golden Knights had to fight through. And they did fight through them, with Paul Stastny a fitting player to finally persevere.

The top-line center missed most of the second period after taking a puck to the face but returned to score off a deflection in the opening of the third period to tie the game at 2-2. The arena fell silent, surely sensing Vegas was on the verge of getting it done considering how little time Tampa Bay seemed to be spending in its offensive zone.

“You come into this building and hold that team to 17 or 18 shots, that’s a big ask,” DeBoer said. “I thought we had a good commitment of guys working away from the puck trying to limit their opportunities.”

Alas for the Golden Knights, it wasn’t meant to be. Stamkos found the aforementioned slightest crease to free his team, and then Alex Killorn added an empty-netter in the final seconds.

The road trip isn’t a wash, though. If Vegas can jet south and stifle the Florida Panthers in Fort Lauderdale on Thursday, it will sit at a satisfactory 4-2-1 since DeBoer took over despite a tough schedule.

And if the Golden Knights proceed with the same force they showed against the Lightning, they're confident against anyone.

“If we won tonight and didn’t play well or didn’t see the type of game that I’m seeing out of our group, I’d be worried,” DeBoer said. “We lost but if we stick with this type of game, we’ll have a chance to win every night.”

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