The moment that really slipped through Vegas’ fingers in that 2019 First Round didn’t happen in Game 7. It happened two nights earlier, with the Golden Knights staring at a chance to finish the San Jose Sharks and move on.
Game 6 at T-Mobile Arena had the kind of energy teams dream about in the playoffs. Vegas was on the power play, the building was shaking, and the home crowd could already taste a Second Round berth.
Instead, Tomas Hertl flipped the script. He raced up ice, wasn’t forced to the boards, used his size to protect the puck, and beat Marc-Andre Fleury with a wrister for the game-winner.
Hertl was having fun "like it must be always" and San Jose stayed alive.
That’s why there’s a real case that Game 6 was the missed chance, not Game 7. The Game 7 controversy gets all the attention because Cody Eakin was hit with a cross-checking major on Joe Pavelski - a call that shouldn’t have been a major - and the Sharks cashed in with four power play goals. But Vegas put itself in position to avoid all of that, and then let the opportunity slip.
You can point to Martin Jones, too. The former Sharks goaltender was brilliant in that Game 6, turning aside 58 of 59 shots and refusing to let his team get eliminated.
Jones had a strong postseason résumé overall, with a 2.36 GAA and a .917 save percentage in his playoff career. But that 2019 run was a different story.
He finished with a 3.02 GAA and an .898 save percentage, and he was even pulled in Game 2 after stopping just four of seven shots against Vegas.
Still, the larger issue for the Golden Knights was simple: they didn’t finish. Their power play was productive in the series, clicking at 27.6%, but it went quiet when it mattered most, failing to score in five chances over the final two games. If you’re trying to close out a series, that’s where the killers have to kill.
Instead, Hertl’s shorthanded strike gave San Jose new life. The Sharks took the series, and that loss marked the beginning of the end of Gerard Gallant’s run in Vegas. In a twist, former Sharks coach Pete DeBoer later replaced him.
For Golden Knights fans, though, the bitterest memory still comes back to the same place: a power play that didn’t deliver, a game that got away, and a rivalry with a Pacific Division foe that took shape right there.
In Other News...
Jack Eichel Is Forcing A Golden Knights Debate Fans Never Expected
Since arriving in November 2021, Jack Eichel has done just about everything the Golden Knights could have hoped for, and then some. He has become one of the franchises defining players, capped by a 94-point season in 2024-25 that set a new team single-season scoring record and reinforced how central he has been to Vegas attack.
He was also the engine of the clubs 2022-23 Stanley Cup run, leading the NHL in playoff points and putting himself in the same conversation as some of the most important names in Golden Knights history. With Jonathan Marchessault, William Karlsson and Mark Stone all part of that broader legacy, Eichels rise has quietly pushed the organization into a debate it probably never expected to have this soon. [Read more 🡒]
Jack Eichel Is Giving Golden Knights Fans A Real Argument Again
Jack Eichel is back in the middle of a familiar kind of conversation for Golden Knights fans, the sort that turns into a barstool debate as soon as rankings and projections start getting tossed around. Harman Dayal of The Athletic slotted Eichel and William Karlsson as Tier 3 centers, a placement that naturally drew some pushback from a fan base that has watched Eichel become one of the most important players in the lineup. Around the same time, Bleacher Report put a little more shine on the picture by projecting Eichel as a candidate to become the first player in franchise history to hit 100 points in a season.
The backdrop makes the discussion even livelier because Eichel is not being measured in a vacuum. San Joses Macklin Celebrini just signed a five-year deal worth an $18.8 million annual average value, a figure that comes in higher than the contracts of both Mitch Marner and Eichel. For Vegas, it is another reminder of how quickly the market around elite talent keeps changing, and why Eichels value can look different depending on whether the argument starts with rsum, role or pure ceiling. [Read more 🡒]
Golden Knights Have Turned Sharks Rivalry Into Pure One Sided History
The Golden Knights meetings with the Sharks have long since stopped looking like a true back-and-forth rivalry. Vegas has turned the regular-season series into a rout, piling up a 31-2-5 record against San Jose and steadily building a gap that has changed the tone of every matchup between the two teams. What once looked like one of the NHLs flashiest new feuds has instead become a reminder of how quickly the balance of power can shift.
The bigger picture only sharpens the contrast. Vegas has already made multiple Stanley Cup Finals trips, while San Jose has reached that stage just once, and the difference in playoff pedigree has only added to the one-sided feel. Whether that makes the rivalry less intense or simply more lopsided is part of the debate now, but for the Golden Knights, the results have done most of the talking. [Read more 🡒]