The Vegas Golden Knights got a sharp reminder on Saturday night that preseason polish doesn’t mean much once the game starts to tilt. In their finale at T-Mobile Arena, they fell 4-2 to a young San Jose Sharks team that kept pushing after Vegas had pulled even, then finished the night by outworking the home side in the third period.
Vegas actually clawed back after spotting San Jose a 2-0 lead. Tomas Hertl scored on the power play in the second period, and Nic Dowd tied it early in the third. But the Sharks kept answering, kept firing pucks high on Carter Hart, and kept the pressure on until the Golden Knights faded late.
Hart’s night ended with a .750 SV%, one of his rougher statistical showings in a Vegas sweater. The Golden Knights had stretches where they controlled the flow, but by the third period the energy had drained and the chances started to disappear.
That matters because this was not a throwaway lineup. Vegas dressed its NHL group and went head-to-head with San Jose’s top players, then watched its shot advantage turn into a loss. The Golden Knights finished with 30 shots and only two goals against Yaroslav Askarov, who looked every bit like an NHL starter.
For a team that has spent the last few seasons treating San Jose like an easy two points, Saturday carried a different feel. The Sharks had only five shots on goal through two periods, yet they cashed in on two of them. Then they took over the third, outshooting Vegas and adding two more goals to seal it.
There’s also the bigger offensive question hovering over this team: where do the goals come from if Pavel Dorofeyev’s 30-plus a season are gone? That concern was already hanging over the Golden Knights heading into the regular season, and the preseason finale didn’t do much to quiet it. Vegas had the volume early, but not the finish.
The shot totals told the story for a while. Vegas led 13-2 after one period and 25-5 after two, putting itself on a pace for more than 40 shots on goal.
But the third period flipped the script. The Golden Knights managed just five shots the rest of the way and finished at 30, a number they know all too well.
That was a familiar problem last season, too. Under Bruce Cassidy and John Tortorella, Vegas hit 30 shots or more in only 38 games, which was 46.3% of its contests. Saturday marked the second straight game with at least 30 shots, but those 60-plus attempts have produced just seven goals.
There is still time before the opener against the Chicago Blackhawks, and head coach Ryan Craig has a few days and practices to sort through what went wrong late against San Jose. The Golden Knights have changed coaches again, and the message hasn’t changed: they need to make an impression when the games count. After a preseason finale that started well enough and ended poorly, that work feels a little more urgent.
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Jack Eichels Place Among NHL Stars Puts Vegas Pressure Back In Focus
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For Vegas, the ranking is less a celebration than a checkpoint. Eichel has topped 90 points in back-to-back seasons and has shown he can tilt games when healthy, which is exactly why his value stretches beyond the score sheet and back into the pressure that comes with being the teams centerpiece. The Knights know what he looks like at that level, and they also know how much their margin changes when he is or isnt able to stay there. [Read more 🡒]