The Pittsburgh Penguins’ early-season bounce has turned into a skid, and Tuesday in Las Vegas only made that harder to ignore. After opening 2-0-0, the Penguins have now dropped into a 1-5-1 slide, and the Vegas Golden Knights were in control for most of a 6-2 win.
It started almost immediately and never really loosened its grip. Vegas scored on the first shot of the night, and even when Pittsburgh briefly found a way to make things interesting with a second-period power-play goal, the Golden Knights answered 71 seconds later and kept the game firmly on their terms.
Sidney Crosby’s deflection goal on the power play finally snapped an 0-for-20 drought, but that was about the only clean note for Pittsburgh.
The Penguins weren’t listless so much as overwhelmed. Vegas had the speed, the structure, and enough finishing touch to punish Pittsburgh repeatedly, while the Penguins spent much of the night chasing the puck and the play.
Rookie goalie Sergei Murashov got the start and had little help in front of him. The Knights kept finding odd-man rushes and open looks from close range, and Murashov stopped only 10 of the first 15 shots he saw and 19 of 24 overall. It was the kind of night that probably left him deserving an apology from his teammates.
Vegas goalie Adin Hill didn’t have to work nearly as hard, finishing with 16 saves on 18 shots.
The game also took a hit for Pittsburgh on defense when Sam Girard was injured midway through the second period. Girard raced back to stop Brett Howden after Howden had slipped past Kaedan Korczak, but Korczak held Howden and then Howden tripped Girard, sending him hard into the end wall at full speed. Girard stayed down for several moments before trainers helped him off, and he did not return.
Vegas opened the scoring just 66 seconds in, when Rasmus Andersson slipped by Evgeni Malkin and walked in untouched before beating Murashov at 1:06. The Knights struck again at 4:02 after another quick transition, with Noah Hanifin left alone in the low slot after Tommy Novak double-covered the puck carrier.
Pittsburgh’s best stretch came after Vegas had built a 3-0 lead. The Penguins finally cashed in on the power play when Hanifin interfered with Ben Kindel, and Crosby tipped home Tommy Novak’s shot from the right circle at 5:54 to make it 3-1.
That hope evaporated almost instantly. Crosby turned the puck over at the offensive blue line, Trevor Connelly jumped the play for a two-on-one, kept it himself, and buried a wrister past Murashov at 7:05.
Vegas pushed it to 5-1 at 11:17 after the sequence that followed the Korczak-Howden minors and the injury to Girard. Pittsburgh collapsed toward the puck in its own zone, but Shea Theodore was left alone in the slot and hammered home a one-timer off a quick pass from Brayden McNabb.
The Golden Knights made it 3-0 late in the second period when a penalty on Crosby put Pittsburgh back on its heels. Vegas worked the puck around the Penguins’ penalty kill for nearly two full minutes before Mark Stone redirected Trevor Connelly’s point shot through Murashov at 17:46.
Pittsburgh got one more late in the third when Novak carried through several defenders and the puck worked loose near the net. Hill couldn’t control the shot, and Ville Koivunen lunged to push it across the line, though the NHL later changed the goal to Malkin.
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