Golden Knights don’t play their game in opening loss to Jets

You knew things were different when a super-imposed dragon appeared from the ice and breathed fire on a Winnipeg Jet during the pregame show.

You really knew they were different when Nate Schmidt was actually booed inside T-Mobile Arena. The horror!

Playoff hockey returned to Las Vegas on Tuesday night, and the atmosphere led you to believe it never left.

So did this: The Knights and scoring in the postseason don’t really mesh.

Winnipeg rolled into town and rolled over the Knights 5-1 in Game 1 of this best-of-seven series.

Game 2 is Thursday night in Las Vegas.

Not their game

Which means the Knights — who had a whopping two shots in the third period — have about 48 hours to figure out how they can create more chances. Create much of anything, really.

The Knights hit everything that moved in the first period, being credited with 27.

But that hasn’t been their game all season. For the most part over 60 minutes, the Vegas breakouts and entries were nonfactors. The Knights forechecked well early and then not much at all. They were far too passive.

They needed to be hungrier on the puck. Needed far better puck management. Needed — where in the world have we heard this before? — any level of result on the power play. They were 0-for-3 Tuesday.

And when things were bad this season — and that wasn’t often — this is how everything looked.

“We have to be resilient,” said forward Jack Eichel, making his playoff debut and finishing with just two shots. “We just need to come back and be better the next game. Credit them. No excuses. We can all be better, and we will be.”

Schmidt is the former Knights defenseman and one of the more popular players in franchise history, one who assisted on Winnipeg’s third goal.

But he’s on the other side now. And no one is safe from 18,006 white-towel-waving crazies. But when you turn the puck over as the Knights did, leading to opposing goals, not even the most fervent crowd is going to make a difference.

The Knights just couldn’t get much of anything going against Winnipeg goalie Connor Hellebuyck, conjuring memories of past playoffs when scoring droughts meant the end of any postseason run.

You would have thought William Karlsson’s second-period goal to cut the deficit to 2-1 would have started something. It gave the Knights life and awoke a building just waiting to erupt. But it remained the one time Vegas actually did something of note when getting behind Winnipeg’s defense.

Many questioned how Knights forward Mark Stone would appear after missing the last three months following back surgery. The captain looked rusty in spots. He’ll be better as the series moves on.

Question is, how will his teammates react to the loss?

“Just go back and see what worked and what didn’t,” Stone said. “Not a great night for us, right? We need a better effort. I don’t know if being the No. 1 seed, we thought it would be easy, but we have guys who have won at this level and enough veteran guys to get this turned around.

“We need to win four of six and just be ready to go Thursday. We have to look ourselves in the mirror and just get it done.”

More intensity needed

So it has begun after a hiatus for the Knights, who missed the playoffs for the first time in franchise history last year. It’s a new beginning, breathing dragons and all.

Back to a time when a guy like Winnipeg forward Morgan Barron takes a skate to the face, leaves in the first period, gets 75 stitches and returns to the game.

That sort of playoff hockey.

“We need to have an intensity level greater than the one we had,” said Knights coach Bruce Cassidy.

They need to be — and play — like the team that finished tops in the Western Conference.

Ed Graney is a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing and be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on Twitter