Recap: Nashville took control early on in the game spending extended amounts of time in the Vegas’ end. In his NHL debut, Golden Knights goaltender Logan Thompson kept the Predators off the board with some timely saves. Vegas couldn’t generate much of their own offense and the period ended in a scoreless tie.
The Predators continued to pressure the Golden Knights and it paid off immediately. Nashville broke the scoreless tie 2:41 into the 2nd period and added another four minutes later. Vegas was awarded a late power play but failed to convert. Nashville took a 2-0 advantage into the second intermission.
The Predators took a 3-0 lead six minutes into the final frame but later the Golden Knights answered back. After two failed power plays William Karlsson scored his 4th of the season to get Vegas on the board. Shea Theodore got Vegas closer but the Golden Knights couldn’t even the score.
The Golden Knights record drops to 22-13-1 falling to the Predators 3-2. Vegas will next face the New York Rangers on Thursday night, welcoming back former coach Gerard Gallant and forward Ryan Reaves. Puck drop is set for 7 PM. (Recap by Jason)
Analysis: The Golden Knights just didn’t have it tonight, at least while the game was anything but 6-on-5. Once VGK pulled the goalie they started scoring (where have you heard that before?) but aside from that they were thoroughly outplayed by the Predators. Logan Thompson was excellent in his first career start. (Recap by Ken)
Upcoming stories from the Vegas Golden Knights vs. Nashville Predators game at T-Mobile Arena.
- With and without Chandler Stephenson
Ken’s Three VGK Stars
*** Ben Hutton
** Jonathan Marchessault (for the door slam)
* Laurent Brossoit
VGK with their net empty tonight – Elite
VGK in every other situation tonight – Not Elite— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) January 5, 2022
Not sure which part of this is the best. The F You, the slam, or the disappointed head shake at the end. Terrific stuff all around. https://t.co/sMj2qQMJwI pic.twitter.com/viDpM2CLrW
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) January 5, 2022
Someone in Nashville must have tweeted the word shutout.
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) January 5, 2022
Hasn't been Pietrangelo's night.
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) January 5, 2022
Hdbiker7851
Pretty simple you can’t sleep for 50 minutes and get down 3 and expect to win or even things up the last 10. They were out played and did little but ice the puck to get out of their end much of the game. Thompson made some key saves but could stop them all as defense was more than a little lacking. Thursday should be interesting – hopefully vegas shows up with winning on their mind.
Jason S.
Brossoit gets first star and he didn’t even dress?
Daryl
Petra is responsible for two turnovers which directly led to two NASH goals. The team is on an 0-10 PP slump. Overall, the team did not look good at all. Thompson made some great saves but he was overwhelmed with bad defense.
hdbiker7851
Daryl your being very kind – bad defense – no defense would be more accurate – the whole team was lack luster except for the final 10 minutes. Watching the PP was painful they should be ashamed of themselves – they are a much better team than they demonstrated last night and their losing streak will continue if they don’t get their shit together ASAP. I am sure the Rangers will come in here with winning on their mind and it will be interesting to see what kind of a welcome GG will receive.
Daryl
Tomorrow will definately be a very interesting game…. Very high emotions!!!
Pistol Pete
Decent debut by Thompson. Give him the tip-in and it’s 2 GA. Let’s see how he does against the Rangers, assuming Lehner and Brossoit remain out.
Looking forward to Thompson talk on tonight’s Goalie Interference!
Pistol Pete
Another game of lots of shots and not enough finishing
THE hockey GOD
last two games
no 7 was terrible
and officiating was terrible.
no. 27 didn’t have best of nights either despite getting on score sheet
I give goalie an ok effort, he could have done better on one of the goals. PLays like a mirror image, younger version of RL.
Justin
Thompson was very good. Very quick reactions and good positioning. Gets up quickly after he has to drop to his knees.
He was under extremely heavy fire or high danger chances through much of the game.
Hate to bring it up, but no way RL would have let in only 3 goals in that game, would have been more like 5 I would venture to guess.
Let’s hope Thompson can continue to develop and be a good contributor in years to come, maybe even a #1 goalie.
Give the preds credit you could see why they’ve been a top team lately.
Pistol Pete
Justin, hopefully Thompson gets the Rangers start on Thursday. I have not watched the game yet but I’ll take at face value what you say about his quickness and positioning. If he has NHL starter potential and further develops it over his next few starts he’ll stand to supplant Brossoit. There may be those with elite knowledge in the area of NHL goaltending who will say that is not likely to happen within what remains of this season—I’m just looking for a savior as this season’s GA is way high and some of it is goaltending.
Vic
That’s two easy ones in a row, Arnold Rothstein. Do we go for the hat trick Thursday night?
Give the Preds credit, they had a great battle plan, won most of the battles and stopped up the VGK in every zone.
Does #55 ever get a night off? Why not?
Arnold Rothstein
Vic, the number crunching is on going !
The undefeated TEAM ARNOLD is still rolling !
LVsc
Thompson was fine. His veteran dman Petro was NOT. and I am a fan of #7, but not gonna gloss over his occasional gaffes.
Petro stood there and allowed 2 Preds to stand in front of LT on the PP and tip in a shot
Then Petro stunk the place out by shooting the puck right into the pads of Forsberg, and then getting owned on a fancy move by Forsberg, and getting left in the dust.
btw, that is the same Forsberg who was traded by McPhee in his stupidest move while he was GM in Wash. Forsberg is a talented power forward, one of the best in the league.
the Preds now have a gritty, big, aggressive, defensive minded team with an outstanding goalie. They will be a factor in the playoffs this year.
also, the Vgk Pk is now a big problem. they are giving up goals every game on it. The forwards are just running around aimlessly and accomplishing nothing, because they don’t block passes or shots, so their so-called “pressure” is a useless waste, just pulling them out of position.
Lots of shots by Vgk, mostly long ones from the point, but little results….It is tough to get any scoring though when your entire first line is on the injury list. The opponent just focuses on the misfit line and tonight Smith missed a lot of chances.
Tim
On an above comment Pistol Pete was spot on. Most games we out shoot the opponent problem is we don’t get the goalie moving right to left to create good shots. I’ll relate this to other sports in football you rack up yardage between the 20 yard line’s but you get in the red zone and die. In baseball you beat up on chump teams but when you have a couple of men on base against a good team you can’t drive them in. Not being negative but do the math two years ago we had no answer for Anton Khudobin, last year we had no answer for Carey Price, this year we lose to Tampa, Winnipeg, and Nashville all with Vezina type goalies. Thats just the reality we can take all the shots we want into there breadbasket or pads but the fact is there easy to block. The Rangers again with a good goalie we’ll have trouble if they go ahead 2 zip you might as well go watch a movie were not coming back similar to last night when Nashville was up 2 zip and the way Saros was playing we had no chance. Thatcher Demko will be another challenge when we play Vancouver. This is why we can’t win a Stanley Cup we just don’t have the punch or skill to beat a good goalie. As I’ve explained above this has happened time and time again and they still haven’t figured it out. It’s not the number of shots it’s the quality of shots. On another note I think Logan Thompson did a good job that one deflection that went in you can’t help so with first game jitters I thought he was fine with a promising future.
Blitz
The big talk for me last night was Thompson. We all wanted to see it. First game ever, he was good. All 3 goals stunk of bad defense. I do wish he would have stopped them, but I am not going to blame a goalie when the defense has their thumb up their ass. I am looking at you #7. Thompson is fluid, quick, and springs up very fast after going down (nothing like RL, mirror or not, no kneeling either). First game ever in the NHL and looks exactly like the other two goalies on this bad defensive team. Oh what to do with the money?
How many times did Cogs fall down last night? I am guessing you could make a Benny Hill clip out of it. When we go back to healthy if Cogs is our number 7 d man and Hutton gets sent packing I am going to be pissed. Hutton was solid again defensively last night when others were not. He didn’t play for a really long stretch, not sure what was up with that?
What a shit effort! Sorry, no pass given here for the last 3 min of the game. The rest of it was lallygagging. A couple of weeks back Steve Spott said the issue with the PP was mental and the team needs to have the mind set that they are going to score on the PP and go out there and do it. I thought, at the time, what total BS. Then I watched last night at the end of the game where the team actually wanted to score and looked dangerous, coming in waves. Maybe he is right! You watch the power play and it looks slow and dudes are trying to finesse passes, but obviously thinking too much about it and not aggressive at all. Go out there, take your 5 guys, and over power the other team! Get your nails manicured, and your hair styled later. F#ck!
LVsc
totally agree on Hutton and Coghlan. remember, it was McCrimmon who said last summer that Coghlan has to play more this year. First of all, he ain’t the coach, so butt out. second, Coghlan has to EARN a spot, and he has not done it, he is too weak in his own zone to be an nhl dman regular. I agree, Hutton should be kept over him.
THE hockey GOD
hague took a year to get it together, give the kid a few more games under his belt before throw to sharks. Still has plenty of time to muscle up
Galdom
Thompson was solid. Very competent
THE hockey GOD
no 52 and no 7 rushed their shots, embarrassing.
No 27 wasn’t much better.
no 17 is inconsistent, gets out of position too much.
The D is over worked, under staffed, crunched into back boards too often because the forwards are “cherry picking”. And I don’t mean that in , the, well let’s leave it at that.
Expect a turn around in next game after dead cat bounce.
The officials sucked rotten eggs the last two nights, a bad home team didn’t help make their calls easier.
Daryl
The officiating was bad for both trams equally… In the last game the embellishment call was horrible but so was the high stick call against NASH
THE hockey GOD
the call on 81 was terrible
as well on boris
the linesmen were terrible on face offs
that was a slashing call on VGK player, not a high stick, it still was a penalty officials just called it by the wrong name, and it looked like the edge of blade caught the player in area of chin or adam’s apple because player’s head immediately snapped back. It was a penalty either way.
ice was sloped, and fans were not happy with officials most of the game
Daryl
I’ve been to a lot of games…. I’ve always laughed at the home teams fans who cry about officiating. It’s as if they don’t think their team ever committed a foul. It doesn’t matter which team it is either. Almost like some players who cry about every time they get put in the box and have to slam the door lol
mcart
a cynic would say that the Vgk do so well with the goalie pulled, that they ought to do it for 60 minutes each night.
that would allow them to dump RL and his $5 mill cap hit
Henderson One
The lazy way this team played last night was the same reason Gallant got fired a couple of years ago. How does this team do on faceoffs.
? Do any of you have analytics on that?