Knights finish critical homestand on down note

Well, that didn’t work out too well.


Bruce Cassidy may have gone to the well one too many times with Adin Hill as his starting goaltender Thursday. Hill, who was starting his sixth straight game, allowed three goals on three shots and was pulled 8:12 into the match against Utah at T-Mobile Arena.

It was a disastrous evening for the Golden Knights, who are trying to keep pace with Anaheim and Edmonton in the Pacific Division but were a virtual no-show against the Mammoth, which is battling for a playoff berth in this, its second season in Salt Lake City.

The 4-0 loss wouldn’t be so hard to accept if the Knights had started on time, got some coverage in their own zone and yes, had their goaltender come up with a couple of stops early while his teammates tried to find their footing.

But none of it happened. As a result, Vegas finished what was a critical four-game homestand with two straight losses and saw its offense sputter with no goals in those two defeats.

In fact, the Knights last put one in the other team’s net last Saturday in the second period against Chicago. That’s 148 minutes, nine seconds and counting without scoring. Thursday, just 28 shots on goal as Karel Vejmelka turned them all aside.

“I’m concerned that returned down opportunities to shoot,” Cassidy said. “We had 28 missed shots. We need to hit the net more.”

And you can’t blame it on injuries. The Knights are as healthy as they’re going to be at this point and it’s a matter of everyone pulling their own weight. If you’re Jack Eichel, Mark Stone and Mitch Marner, you are expected to put the puck in the net. If you’re Shea Theodore, Rasmus Andersson, Noah Hanifin and Kaedan Korczak, you’re expected to prevent the other team from scoring.

“You give up three in a row it puts you on your heels,” Hanifin said.  “We had a lot of time to get back in the game, two and a half periods.”

If the Knights are counting on Nic Dowd, Cole Smith, Braeden Bowman, Keegan Kolesar and Colton Sissons to bail them out, then they’re in big trouble. And while they’ll probably still get into the playoffs, how much confidence do you really have that this team can make a serious run at the Stanley Cup?

In case you stopped looking at the NHL standings, the Knights still have an overall losing record this season — 31-23-14 —and they should thank their lucky stars they’re in the Western Conference and not the Eastern. Those 76 points would not be good enough right now to qualify for the playoffs in the other conference.

 Thursday, the closest Vegas came to scoring was near the midway point of the second period when Jeremy Lauzon wired one from the point that hit the left post. And it didn’t even count as a shot on goal. They hit the post two other times in the third period. And when you’re scuffling to score, that’s what tends to happen. The shots you think are going in stay out.

Lauzon tried to jump-start his team later in the second as he squared off with Utah’s Lawson Crouse and earned a clear-cut decision. But that would be the only thing Vegas won on this night.

Did Cassidy roll the dice once too often in starting Hill? Did he get lulled into a false sense of security in thinking his team played well against Buffalo Tuesday in losing 2-0 that he didn’t need to change things top, like perhaps putting Reilly Smith back in?

Yes, Vejmelka played well. As well as Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen did for the Sabres Tuesday? Not quite. But good enough to frustrate the Knights, as was the case when Ivan Barbashev slammed his stick to the ice in disgust after a missed opportunity in the second period.

So as the games start to dwindle — 14 remain — the question is: Can this team find its overall game often enough to finish with some real momentum, secure its spot in the playoffs and go into the postseason playing the kind of hockey required to be serious Cup contenders?

It starts Saturday in Nashville.

“We’re going back on the road and we don’t have a lot of time left,” Hanifin said. “We’ve got to start winning some games. We’ve got to find ways to get some points.”