The Golden Knights’ four-game winning streak ended Monday night in a way that’s starting to look uncomfortably familiar: Vegas spotted Minnesota a 3-0 lead and never fully climbed out, dropping a 4-2 decision to the Wild.
It marked the third time in just seven games that the Golden Knights fell behind by three goals, a stretch that has included early holes against the Anaheim Ducks and Toronto Maple Leafs. Vegas managed to erase the deficit and beat Toronto, but that kind of nightly rescue act is not a sustainable way to live.
The talent is there. The margin for error, though, keeps shrinking.
The broader issue is bigger than one loss. According to NHL.com, Vegas dropped 11 games by three or more goals last season, and those blowouts made up 42.3% of the team’s 26 regulation losses.
That total ranked 28th in the NHL, with Boston, Tampa Bay, Dallas and Colorado among the teams in that same range. Before the calendar turned to January 2026, the Golden Knights had already taken six three-or-more-goal defeats.
This season, they haven’t actually lost by three yet, but the repeated 3-0 deficits are putting them on the same dangerous path.
Carter Hart absorbed much of the blame for the opening period, and the first 20 minutes were rough. He finished that frame with a .700 save percentage and, by the source’s assessment, should have stopped two of Minnesota’s goals.
Maxim Shabanov’s power-play goal, though, wasn’t one Hart could reasonably be expected to reach. Even with Spider-Man-like reflexes, he couldn’t have stopped it, since the Golden Knights just forgot he was on the ice.
Hart steadied himself after that. He made 12 saves in the second period, including a stretch when Minnesota outshot Vegas 11-1, then added five more saves in the third.
He still finished with an .889 save percentage, his second sub-.900 night of the season and, oddly, his second loss. Adin Hill remains 2-0-0, but his overall save percentage sits at .886, while Hart entered Monday with a .910 mark that took a hit.
Still, this can’t all fall on the goaltenders. Vegas needs better stops, sure, but it also has to stop handing opponents giant head starts.
The Golden Knights looked sluggish again against Minnesota, just as they did against Anaheim, and once the deficit gets that deep, even a strong push late may not be enough. It takes the whole group to dig that hole, and it takes more than one star to climb out of it.
If those openings keep piling up, the toll could show up not just on the goalies, but on the team’s legs and focus later in the season.
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The turning point came late in the second period, when William Karlsson delivered the goal that put Vegas in front for good. From there, the Golden Knights added to the cushion while Adin Hill backed it up with a composed 25-save night, highlighted by a first-period penalty-shot stop that helped keep the Predators from building early momentum. [Read more 🡒]
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