3 takeaways from Golden Knights’ loss: absolute zeros
Had the Golden Knights been at full strength Tuesday, there almost certainly would have been someone different in front of the net waiting for Chandler Stephenson’s centering pass early in the second period.
Someone with maybe a little more offensive skill than a career bottom-six grinder like William Carrier.
But since the Knights were forced to use another depleted lineup against Winnipeg, the chance fell to Carrier in front of the net. And he partially fanned on the shot while staring at an open net.
The Knights lacked the necessary finishing touch against goaltender Connor Hellebuyck and were blanked 4-0 by the Jets at Canada Life Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba.
“That’s just a disappointing effort,” winger Jonathan Marchessault said. “Too much on the outside, making it too easy on their goalie. That’s the same problem we’ve had as a team for a bit.”
The loss was the second in a week to the Jets and the seventh straight on the road for the Knights, who have gone 121:12 without a goal.
After not being shut out in consecutive games before this season, they’ve been shut out in back-to-back games twice in the past 19 games.
“We’ve got to bear down,” forward Keegan Kolesar said. “We kept handing it to them for long stretches, but we just couldn’t find one.”
The Knights had a 17-4 shot advantage after the first period but were tied 0-0. Carrier also was denied on a pad save by Hellebuyck with about eight minutes left in the second, and the Knights hit the post twice.
Hellebuyck finished with 42 stops for his fourth shutout. The Knights fell to 5-10-1 when they post 40 or more shots on goal.
“Not getting out of that first period with a goal really hurt us,” coach Pete DeBoer said. “I thought we did everything right, but you’ve got to score to win games in this league. And we didn’t score on this trip.”
Here’s three takeaways from the loss:
1. Falling behind
The Knights didn’t allow a shot on goal for more than 15 minutes to start the game. Even with that head start they couldn’t take the lead.
The Knights have given up the first goal in eight consecutive road games and fell to 9-18-2 when the opponent opens the scoring.
“You’re not going to make it to the playoffs doing that,” Marchessault said. “We’ve been trailing all our games for the past month and a half almost now. It’s kind of hard on the body, definitely more exhausting. We’ve got to find a way to get the first few ones.”
2. Between the pipes
Goalie Logan Thompson started for the second straight night after taking the loss Monday at Minnesota and made his fourth consecutive start as Laurent Brossoit has fallen out of favor.
Thompson allowed two goals on the first 10 shots he faced, but battled long enough to give the Knights a chance to come back.
Pierre-Luc Dubois and Mark Scheifele scored in the second period for Winnipeg before Neal Pionk and Nikolaj Ehlers added goals in the third.
“He’s been great for us,” Marchessault said. “It’s disappointing not to be able to get one the past two games for him.”
3. Outside looking in
After Dallas’ victory over Edmonton, the Knights are out of a playoff spot with 16 games remaining.
Dallas, which has four games in hand on the Knights, is one point ahead for the second wild card.
The Knights return home Thursday to play Nashville, which holds the first wild-card spot. After that, the Knights’ next seven games are against nonplayoff teams Chicago, Seattle (2), Vancouver (3) and Arizona.
Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.