The Vegas Golden Knights rarely get pushed to the wrong side of a blowout, but Tuesday night in Las Vegas was one of those outliers.
After a first period that stayed tight and a second period that opened the door for both teams, the Golden Knights went into the final frame down by three and never got back into the fight, falling 6-2 to the Tampa Bay Lightning. The Lightning scored three times in the second period, then added an early third-period goal that shut the door on any comeback attempt.
Mark Stone didn’t sugarcoat where things went sideways.
“We had our chances to get ourselves back in the game once it got to five,“ said Golden Knights captain Mark Stone. “They get that early one in the third, and it’s pretty tough to come back from that. We’ll stick with it and learn from it… We gotta be better in these games.”
Head coach Ryan Craig pointed to execution and rhythm after the loss, while also giving Tampa Bay credit for the way it disrupted Vegas.
“I thought we were a little bit out of our rhythm, a little bit out of our execution, that we had maybe been in for the last nine games. But give [Tampa] credit,” said head coach Ryan Craig following the 6-2 loss. “They did a lot to influence that as well.”
The scoreline made it look one-sided, but the game itself wasn’t a full domination by the Lightning. Vegas generated chances and looked dangerous in transition.
The bigger problem was what happened when the Golden Knights gave the puck away. Tampa Bay scored four unassisted goals, and that told the story of how much damage came directly off Vegas mistakes.
“We didn’t help ourselves. I think that would be the easiest way to put it,” said head coach Ryan Craig.
“I mean, they scored four unassisted goals tonight. We probably didn’t put ourselves in good positions to get out of areas, and then gave them chances to attack.”
Craig said it came back to puck management and some overhandling in areas where Vegas didn’t need to force the issue.
“It probably goes back to puck management a little bit, right? Both teams are good at checking as well, and I think some of the situations we put ourselves in didn’t help,” continued Craig.
“We probably just got a little bit cute at times, which led to being up and down a little bit. But if you don’t manage the puck, that’s what it’s gonna feel like.”
There was at least one bright spot for Vegas. Ivan Barbashev, who entered the night with seven points but no goals, finally found the back of the net. His first-period goal tied the game at 1-1 and ended a stretch where his offense had been showing up only on the assist sheet.
Barbashev had been productive enough to rank tied for fourth on the team in scoring, but the lack of goals had been the one missing piece. That changed against Tampa Bay, and for a streaky scorer like Barbashev, one could be enough to get things moving again.
The Golden Knights head out on a two-game road trip to St. Louis and Columbus next.
Even after the loss, Stone said the group isn’t treating this as anything bigger than an early-season lesson. The Golden Knights are only 11 games into the schedule, and he said they’re still building toward what they want to become.
“It’s game eleven; I don’t think there are measuring stick games in game eleven,” said Golden Knights’ captain Mark Stone following the 6-2 loss. “We’re still trying to build our game going forward.
We’re playing 84 games this year, and we’re trying to build our game to go on a long playoff run. It starts at game one; we’re in game eleven.
We still like where we’re at, as far as our record, but we want to get better.”
Stone said the defeat should be handled as a teaching moment, not something that lingers.
“When you play good teams, you’re not gonna come back from [being down] four in the third,” said Stone. “We have to correct your mistakes and build off some of the good stuff we did, because there was some good stuff.
We had lots of chances. How did we create those chances… And what bad plays did we make to give them chances?
That’s what we try to learn from.”
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