An all too familiar site in the 3rd period. (Photo Credit: SinBin.vegas Photographer Brandon Andreasen)

After last night’s 6-3 loss to Detroit, Golden Knights head coach Gerard Gallant continuously talked about playing the full sixty minutes.

Well we had a real tough third period again. It was an awful third period. I thought we played a great game up until then. But in the third period, we struggled. -Gerard Gallant

The third period struggles Gallant spoke about starts with allowing four Detroit goals on twelve shots. The Red Wings down one, came out to win in the third.

They took advantage of the chances and they made us pay. We just didn’t look like we had the jump in the third period for some reason. It was disappointing because I thought we played a great two periods, but you can’t play 40 minutes or you’re not going to beat anyone in this league. We’ve got to play a full 60 minutes and tonight we played 40 minutes again. Transition is a big part of this game and it’s a big part of our team playing well. But tonight we fed their transition in the third period. -Gallant

Reilly Smith’s just chalking it up to being early in the season.

You got to nip those in the bud so they’re not stretched into five minutes or ten minutes. I think a lot of reasons why we, or other teams get into those stretches is because we’re not making a simple pass. Sometimes you’re trying to over complicate and guys are tired, so it starts to snowball. -Reilly Smith

The Vegas snowball began from the faceoff circle. The Golden Knights won only 42% on faceoffs all night, and lost 12 draws in the third period. Detroit maintained possession throughout the whole period which lead to multiple defensive breakdowns from Vegas. So how will Vegas fix tough stretches during a game?

You just got to regroup yourself on the bench. Each individual, whether you made a mistake should go back the next shift and reapply certain details. Making sure you don’t turn the puck over, making sure you’re forechecking and working hard for other teammates.”- David Perron, VGK forward

And it starts with Perron himself, who was very hard on his own play, especially the moment that led to Detroit’s 4th goal, the eventual game-winner. Both forwards were however fully aware that the team played poorly but it’s only game four so they’re not panicking. It is becoming a trend though.

I think as a team we need to eliminate the mistakes. It’s like the exhibition games. Every game that we lost in the exhibition games we made two or three big mistakes in the game. I think if we just keep playing a solid game that we did the two periods, we’re going to win more games then we’re going to lose. We gave Detroit the chance to score four goals in the period because of our mistakes. -Gallant

The best thing you can do is try to be easy outlets for your teammates and try to make that first pass. Because that really settles everything down. -Smith

Playing the full sixty applies to most leagues since most sports are 60 minutes of regulation play. Gallant speaks for Jack Del Rio and Marvin Menzies when he says his team won’t win unless they play the full game.

The only difference is, hockey is worth watching for the full sixty.