Down four of their top players, the Vegas Golden Knights could not overcome its lack of depth as they dropped their third straight game to the undefeated Edmonton Oilers 5-3.
It was announced before the game that defenseman Alec Martinez would not play against the Oilers after not returning to Vegas’ previous game against St. Louis. Martinez joined Max Pacioretty, Mark Stone, and Alex Tuch who are all on injured reserve with injuries.
“When we take Stone and Pacioretty and Tuch out of the line up, we know scoring isn’t going to come easily,” head coach Peter DeBoer said after the loss.
It appeared after the initial start that the Golden Knights were going to be fine while missing many key contributors. They had a couple of high danger chances, before Nicolas Roy deflected a Zach Whitecloud shot into the net for an early first period goal.
While Vegas would get its opportunities to score throughout the game, defending one of the leagues’ top-scoring teams served to be a bigger challenge throughout the game.
“It's defending and you can't give up four goals and win in this league,” DeBoer said. “I thought we defended a lot better but they're an opportunistic team and they get a look there, they're sticking it in the net.”
Edmonton went on the power play on a Reilly Smith holding penalty. 12 seconds later after a wild sequence in front of Golden Knights goalie Robin Lehner, Zach Hyman tied the game 1-1.
Vegas had a prime opportunity to take the lead back after back-to-back Edmonton penalties, giving the Golden Knights 98 seconds of five-on-three possession. But, the Golden Knights power play, which had not scored entering the game, could not break through.
“It's obviously an opportunity that we didn't capitalize on,” Golden Knights forward Reilly Smith said after the game. “Over the last couple of years, I think that’s the one spot that we could be better at. At five on threes, you’ve got to make sure that you’re getting good opportunities to score.”
Both teams traded goals early in the second period. For Vegas, they got another deflection into the net when Nolan Patrick tipped in a Dylan Coghlan shot attempt giving Vegas back the lead, briefly.
Shortly after, Hyman added his second goal for Edmonton on a one-timer from Connor McDavid. Leon Draisaitl put the Oilers ahead 3-2 after beating the Golden Knights on a rebound off Lehner in front of the net with 15 minutes to play in the second period.
Vegas trailed the rest of the period, but Nic Hague fired his shot past Mikko Koskinen and the Golden Knights had hope with a tied game at 3-3.
“(Hague) did make good plays for us and obviously he did on that goal,” Smith said. “It was a big goal for us in the game and definitely changed the momentum and the outlook for us. He’s a good young player that will continue to strive once he gets those opportunities.”
But the momentum was short- lived when Edmonton’s Zack Kassian broke free past the Vegas defense and put the puck between Lehner’s legs putting Edmonton ahead 4-3. The Oilers added an empty net goal from Draisaitl in the final seconds to make the final score 5-3.
Vegas had a power play when they trailed 4-3, but failed to score. After going on three power plays against the Oilers, the Golden Knights are not 0-of-nine on power plays this season.
“We’ve got four of our power play players on IR right now so we're working some different guys in and different units have different looks,” DeBoer said on the power play struggles.
He noted that it is still early in the season and that they have time to get it right. DeBoer does not want to overthink or change a problem that could easily be fixed when those four return from injury.
The Golden Knights did not escape the game injury free as Whitecould left the game in the second period and did not return. DeBoer did not have an update on him and he will know more after further evaluations.
Vegas outshot Edmonton 39 to 32, but they could not take advantage of their extra opportunities, especially on the power play. The Golden Knights are 0-for-26 on the power play dating back to Game 4 of the second round of last season’s playoffs.
“At the end of the day we have to work something in,” defenseman Shea Theodore said of the Golden Knights’ scoring struggles. “It's frustrating, we have a lot of moving parts, we have a lot of guys in and out. We just really have to start bearing down on some of our chances.”
Vegas has a short turnaround as they host the New York Islanders Sunday, Ocy. 24 at 7:00 p.m. It’s the beginning of a three games in four day stretch for the 1-3 Golden Knights who are looking to get healthy.
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