Recap: The Golden Knights were looking to take a 2-1 series lead with a Game 3 victory in Utah. The Mammoth struck first midway through the opening frame to take their first home playoff lead in franchise history. Utah doubled their lead, on the power play moments after Brayden McNabb was whistled for a high-sticking penalty. After one period down, the Golden Knights trailed 2-0.
Utah added two more goals in the first ten minutes of the middle frame to take a commanding 4-0 advantage. At the 13:20 mark of the period, Jack Eichel tapped in a rebound for Vegas’ first goal of the game.
Vegas battled Utah in the final frame, had a few power play chances but could only get one ffrom Nic Dowd.
The Golden Knights fall behind 2-1 in the seven-game series by falling to the Mammoth 4-1 in Utah. Game 4 is scheduled for Monday night in Salt Lake City. Time is still TBA but it’ll be at night. (Recap by Jason)
Analysis: An old familiar foe reared its ugly head at a terrible time for the Golden Knights. They started the game about as well as you can both territorially and with opportunities to score. Unfortunately, as experienced many times this year, VGK could not solve the goalie and then allowed a weird one on the other end. It snowballed over the next 20 minutes and before they knew it they were in a 4-0 hole. No matter how much possession or even power plays you have, that’s nearly i mpossible to climb out of this time of year. (Recap by Ken)
Upcoming stories from Game 3 of the first round series between the Vegas Golden Knights vs Utah Mammoth at Delta Center.
- The rollercoaster can’t head down
Ken’s Three VGK Stars
*** Tomas Hertl
** Noah Hanifin
* Brett Howden
DeezNutz
Limp dick offense.
They had to score in the 1st period but instead ended up handing all the momentum over to the other team like they always do.
Goaltending was atrocious tonight but I put the blame solely on VGK’s lack of shooting/scoring talent. When you dominate with offensive zone time but can’t hit the net you allow the other team and their goalie to start feeling real good about their game and at that point you’ve already lost the game. This game was over in the 1st period.
Marner = ghost (Toronto fans are feeling vindicated now)
Hertl = absolute garbage (top 3 worst trades in VGK history)
Dorofeyev = ghost (I don’t want him on this team next season)
Eichel = the least threatening top line centre in the league. I don’t even expect him to score goals anymore he’s just overall disappointing.
Nic Dowd has more offensive talent in his pinky finger than our entire top 9 forwards this series.
How many grade A chances did Howden have? Thanks for nothing bum.
This team will not win the Stanley cup this year.
We have:
Hertl
Hanifin
Marner
Andersson
Stone
Eichel
Theodore
And this team still needs goal scorers.
They can win this series but that still doesn’t make them offensively talented enough to win a Stanley cup. 2023 was definitely a 1 off “magical run” bordering on flukey.
JB
As usual nutz you are over the top with hateful comments. For me I can’t say we played a bad game. Came out strong but just couldn’t get one in the net. Utah in turn got their four goals on first 8 shots. Whatever the problem is, we just are talented goal shooters. Just lift the puck a bit and we have 2-3 goals in the first period. I’m not counting us out yet, but it might not be our year?
DeezNutz
Sorry JB but the team did in fact play a bad game. I’m going to let you in on a little secret…in professional sports if you can’t score runs, get baskets, score goals etc. then you aren’t good enough to win championships it’s really that simple. If defense and goaltending were more important than hitting empty nets in hockey then defensmen and goalies would be making the most money. Yes all 3 components are important but if you can’t hit open nets in hockey then you aren’t an elite team.
Rob S.
You can’t say we played a bad game!? Did you change channels after the first ten minutes? That was an absolutely embarrassing performance! Per usual this season, this team does not seem to convert ANY opportunities no matter how strong the start. Then they give up a bad-bounce goal and, the next thing you know, it’s two and then three and–tonight–four.
Once again, we look old and slow: late to pucks, losing stick battles. Once again NOBODY CAN PUT THE DAMNED PUCK IN THE NET!! (This makes three years running and, prior to the Stanley Cup miracle, several years before that.)
We needed a scorer (or two), GMKM, not another shiny object (Marner, though I love watching him play) or yet another “puck-moving defenseman” (Andersson). Have you noticed that when they put our $35 million + “Mega” line on the ice together, we have two passers (Eichel and Marner) and one disrupter (Stone)? GMKM apparently thinks we can pass the puck into the net.
When Nic Dowd has more goals than the ghost of Jack Eichel, Marner, Doro, Howden, Hertl, and all of our defensemen combined, that’s a recipe for an early exit from the playoffs. The entire point of firing the coach was so GMKM could prove that this year’s chronic underperformance was due entirely to the coach and not to the top-heavy, mis-matched, and–by the way–cap-strapped roster that GMKM assembled.
When this season comes to its merciful conclusion soon, the Creator needs to sack up and fire GMKM and “retire” the President of Hocky Operations (McPhee). If he doesn’t, the bloom will be truly off the rose–and sellouts may be hard to come by next year.
Anthony
I totally agree with you, Rob, except for calling the 2023 Cup a miracle. During those playoffs, the team was perfectly balanced with four really strong lines. We had the “Misfits” playing like men possessed, genuine chemistry between Marchie and Eichel, guys like Roy, Stephenson, and Karlsson. And that defense was incredible with Petro, Martinez…
For years now, this team has been desperate for an elite-level goal scorer like Necas. Instead, they went out and got another elite playmaker in Marner, even though we already had Eichel. And now, they’ve picked up Anderson, despite the fact that bolstering the blue line shouldn’t be the priority when we still lack a high-quality finisher.
This team looks great on paper, but it’s just not coherent or balanced in terms of skill sets. We’re going to pay for it with disappointing results for years to come because of these long, expensive contracts. If we don’t have a (miraculous?) wake-up call during these playoffs, the front office has to go.
My heart still wants to believe we’ll take the series in six and that they’ll find some pride. But my head says that no matter the outcome of this first round, this VGK squad has too many issues to hope for a glorious finish in June…
And if we fail miserably this year, I just hope the Oilers do the same.
Go Knights Go!
(And Go Ducks against the Oilers!)
knights fan in minny
Limp *dick Poster like you little nutz
Richie-Rich
R1 G3 Analysis UTA 4, VGK 2
Utah leads the series 2 Games to 1.
We had many more shots on goal, but the energy and aggressiveness was all Utah for most of the night when it counted.
Our top 6 isn’t producing and the Tort-effect has vanished. Carter Hart looking more like Hill lately than a season savior.
Major point that I have is that the FO brought in Marner to solve the lack of scoring. This move hasn’t paid off.
Pick the problem:
1- Lack of top 7 scoring.
2-Lack of goaltending.
3-Lack of desire.
4-Coaching
or 5- Utah is just the better team overall.
JB
Well the ducks beat @#$& oilers again,so theirs that!
Larry
Agreed!! Eases the pain a little bit lol
leonard wise
This all points to the front office. I hope our owner is getting the pink slips ready for upper management. As for the game you have play makers who make the most of their opportunities (Utah). Then you have players who have open shots at the net Howden and Hertal and don’t convert early on. The fact that Dowd has outscored Eichel, Marner,Doro and Hertal is a disgrace. Even if Hart had stopped 2 of those goal Utah would become more aggressive and find a way to win. This series is over and the fact that the whole team and coach thinks they did well when they never were in the game is insulting.
Henderson One
Let’s hope it is a quick ending and we don’t have to pour more of our money into this Ghost team.
rb7
a little more of this and Vgk will be playing at Lee’s Family Forum and HSK will be at T Mobile.
gotta go upstairs to score, and Hertl and Howden failed miserably when it could have changed the game.
Skip
So long McCrimmon, Hart, and Tortorella!
NAM
None of those things will happen. KM should be tar and feathered and then fired, but he won’t. Then KM will hire Torts in the offseason, because he fired Cassidy and brought Torts in. He has to hire him full time just to save face. He can’t be wrong, ever. I has show that time and time again. Hart isn’t the problem on this team and he has one more year. I don’t see them working hard to trade him, especially with KM around, again ego, but I don’t see Hart as a problem. I see the millions of dollars of high end top heavy players that have no ability to get it done, as the problem. Personally I would be fine if they gutted the FO and every player that can be moved (or even can’t be moved, if possible), but they won’t do any of it and in terms of those awful no-move-clauses they can’t. Nothing will change.
Hdbiker7851
Sooner the better
Rob S.
By the way, where the master of rose-colored VGK optimism, Pistol Pete? Haven’t seen him on the board since Game 1.
TS
WHAT THE HELL!!!!!
These players don’t deserve a cracker jack prize, let alone the CUP! The grand Tortorella experiment was too little, way too late– he can’t change imbedded bad habits in a month….this team needs new mind-set or a major rebuild! Their bad habits are ingrained!
I’ll suggest it again: HYPNOSIS!!
Rrale
The VGK did outshoot Utah last night by a wide margin. In Ken’s article he has putting the puck in the goalie’s weak spot. Up near the ears. This appears to be our shooters (or lack of shooting) main problem. Shoot at the pads or chest and pray. Or just flat out miss the net. I agree with the above comments about too many play makers on the team, need one or two goal scorers.
Perhaps a good trade this summer is Doro to Caps. This way Doro could learn how to stand in one spot and wait for his shot from one of the best. Draft pick(s) would be fine for a return.
Trade Hill to whichever team would take him.
We do have some young players that might be able to fill the shooter role on HSK next year. This would also help with cap and make our team much younger.
Unless this year’s team can figure out how to score in the next few days then off-season time.
Larry
I actually think regardless to what happens the remainder of these playoffs, and I haven’t given up the ship on this series quite yet, that we will have a better, younger and faster team next year, with the inclusion of some HSK players, the off-loading of some dead weight, and that may very well include some in the Front Office.
Even if he should magically score 15 goals the remainder of the playoffs, I would be way open to trading Pavel and trying to sign Andersson , I think the Flyers would be a good place for him, and for us they have a lot of draft picks that could come our way.
Hdbiker7851
Sad loss but at same time rather laughable – Tort is faced with the same problem Cassidy put up with for 74 games – overpaid under performing preadonas with inadequate desire to win. The Tort/Mccrimmon solution shows the creator fired the wrong person. Talent and skill versus youth, speed and desire if likely going to win out sad to say. Not over till the fat lady signs but she is loosing her voice.
NAM
I will say this, when that fat lady does “sign” it will be for too much and with a no-move-clause. She will get comfy in this country club atmosphere and lose the desire to win, but still know the pay checks will come.
Anthony
I’m shocked. Truly.
Look at what these so-called Vegas fans in Utah are doing… They’re trading their VGK gear for Mammoth jerseys!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXhuRH-iRgm/?igsh=MW5nZnU1bjE0YWZqNg==
TS
There are a LOT of Utah transplants here in Vegas. They supported the VGK, as did the folks in Utah, until Utah got their OWN team, so many are now ” former” VGK fans). Not surprising.
TS
Nam, Chuckles!!
Hdbiker7851
That’s sings not sign – but l guess you got the point
NAM
As someone that typo’s all the time I definitely understood what you meant, but it struck me funny.
Larry
I’ve said it before…. Too many times I know!!…. and I’ll scream it 1 last time so that it can reach the people in charge who can enact a change….get Hertl off that damn bumper or even off the ice….. or get that 20 goal regular season PP scorer Dorofeyev off the ice and put Anderrson out there… it will create movement with him and Marner and help remove the utter stagnancy that has enveloped that first unit,…. we don’t get that many opportunities on the Power Play so we simply have to make it an effective weapon again otherwise the series and the season will be lost.
still believe
Saw something somewhere today that Tortorella might be or has changed the power play unit, dont know any of the details butmaybe he heard you after you kept repeating it, hey anything is worth a shot right now
still believe
I read somewhere yesterday that tortorella is thinking about or has actually made a change or changes to the first unit power play, it wasn’t said what they were but maybe or hopefully it is something that will bring at least bring some life and danger to those 5 rather than aggravation to those of us watching.
Richie-Rich
All these moves would have been magnificent – had they worked.
Bringing in Hart – desperation
The coaching change – desperation
Moving Dorofeyev to L3 – desperation
Changing PP1? – more desperation
Don’t get me wrong – I am a rabid fan. But that doesn’t mean that criticism isn’t warranted. Top 6 has been absent from the scoreboard. The Marner move hasn’t panned out. A full regular season and 3 playoff games as evidence.
Larry
I was not on board about the Marner signing as I would rather have used that money for 2 $6 million dollar wingers, but he had a good season and is a very good player, not worth THAT kind of money, but then again look at the people who are in charge.
I am not pointing fingers or laying blame at Marner’s feet at this point of the series, he is out there working hard every shift both defensively and offensively. While I like Howden as a Swiss Army Knife up and down the lineup, he is really NOT a top 6 winger, and the other linemate( #16) is essentially a non-factor at 5×5 thus negating Marner’s ability to create and/or score as the defense is able to essentially concentrate on him.
We can only hope these issues are being worked on and addressed if VGK is going to move on to the next round where they would have to be even better and sharper.
knights fan in minny
Vegas is just not hungry The mammoths are a hungry team They have a pretty good goalie to We know one person is really enjoying this Mr Nate Schmidt
Hdbiker7851
Well, well, well – finally someone other than myself sees what’s happening and the problem in a nut shell.
Vic
First goal hit Hart and the mask and bad luck into the net. Also, what must Alec Martinez have been thinking when he saw #4 turn away from blocking the goal scoring slap shot? Eichel with three hits and a goal and we lost. Go figure.
NAM
Just a quick sampling from games I have been watching, but paying Doro w/ arbitration is probably going to be in the range of these current scoring players:
Jason Robertson DAL
Wyatt Johnston DAL
Matt Boldy MIN
Dylan Guenther UTA
This is just from the two series I am watching. The comparison isn’t even close. One is an AHL player with a good shot, the others carry play and come up clutch night after night and elevate their game in the playoffs.
Does KM make yet another stupid mistake or do we move on. Inquiring minds want to know.
Antoine
I’m shocked. Truly.
Look at what these so-called Vegas fans in Utah are doing… They’re trading their VGK gear for Mammoth jerseys!
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DXhuRH-iRgm/?igsh=MW5nZnU1bjE0YWZqNg==
rb7
I blame Theodore…… everything was going ok in this series until he stood there flatfooted and allowed Guenther to fly right by him and then did nothing to help at the goalmouth. That goal turned a 1-0 series lead and a tie game at home into a loss, and major belief and confidence and momentum for Utah.
Then in game 3, the Vgk played well in the first half of the first period, but the poor shooting choke jobs by Howden and Hertl squandered the Vgk momentum, and then the return to Cassidy and Hill days ensued.
game 4 will decide the Vgk postseason….will they get back into the initial Torts and Hart mindset and success, or will the up and down season elevator go from penthouse to outhouse for the final time this season.
FG
Last year the team was a paper tiger, buoyed by a fast start, strong PP and weak Pacific. They were exposed in the playoffs, and the goal to improve this year should have been to improve scoring. Instead, they added another playmaker in Marner (whom I think is awesome but isn’t a scorer), resigned Smith, Saad and Holtz (how does that look?), then traded for Andersson, Dowd and Smith. How is that supposed to improve a team to score more in the playoffs. At least Dowd is, but this team is exactly who we have seen all during the season. It is very unlikely they will win three of four against this team. They have significant cap constraints next year, and the veterans will be a year older. The SC Window is closed and they are now have descended into a mid borderline playoff team.
Hdbiker7851
Well, well, well – finally someone other than myself sees what’s happening and the problem in a nut shell.
Richie-Rich
I think it was too much to ask, too much to hope for that simply a coaching change was going to turn this team around. We must have been delusional to think that, but the 7-0-1 run at the end of the season fooled us all into thinking so.