Golden Knights Takeaways: Marchessault Blames Powerplay, Meier Plays Villian

After nine-straight wins, the Vegas Golden Knights lost their second-straight game Tuesday night against the San Jose Sharks 5-2. The score was less indicative of the game, as two empty net goals were scored.

Here are Vegas Hockey Now’s takeaways from the game.

Golden Knights Takeaways

Powerplay Blunders

Jonathan Marchessault blamed the Golden Knight’s loss on their two late powerplay chances that failed to score when the game was tied at two.

“In the third period, our powerplay lost us the game, and their powerplay won them the game,” said Marchessault.

After the VGK went 0/2 and 0/3 on the night, Reilly Smith took a tripping call on Timo Meier. Naturally, Meier scored the go-ahead powerplay goal for the Sharks.

“We’ve got to find a way to score a goal. We had three power plays. And I think it’s on us to find a way. I think our powerplay is much better than last year’s. But we have got to be able to take over games sometimes, and tonight it was right there for us, and we didn’t,” said Marchessault.

Head coach Bruce Cassidy doesn’t think the powerplay was the sole reason the VGK lost, saying that the second Sharks goal to Matt Nieto should never have happened.

“It was a third-period breakdown. The powerplay answering your questions is part of it, but to me, it’s not the reason. Our special teams, in general, let us down late. A lot of your top guys are on that. But I thought the second goal give them life, and that should never happen if you’re a good hockey club,” said Cassidy.

Meier v Vegas

The game-winning goal Tuesday night went to Timo Meier, who has become quite the hated player in Las Vegas. As a star player on a division rival, Meier has six goals and five assists for 11 points in 23 games against the Golden Knights.

Last season he essentially crushed the Golden Knight’s playoff hopes with a buzzer-beater goal that propelled the Sharks to a shootout victory as the VGK were hunting down a playoff spot.

He also leveled Zach Whitecloud from behind in international play this past summer at the World Championships.

Injury Scares

Don’t look now, but the Golden Knights have been surprisingly healthy this season. Will Carrier and Keegan Kolesar are the only players to miss games unless you count Laurent Brossoit.

This nearly changed Tuesday night with Mark Stone taking a shot to the groin and Paul Cotter catching a stick in the face. Both players remained in the game but could have sustained injuries in the game.

We’ll see if both Cotter and Stone attend Golden Knights practice tomorrow at 11:30 a.m.

No Panic

A loss is a loss, and no team enjoys them. But for the 13-4 Golden Knights, Tuesday night’s game is one they take the good, learn from the bad, and then essentially throw out. It’s a long season.

“By no means is there any panic in this group. I think it’s still early in the season. We’ve gone on long stretches, and we’ve had a lot of bounces, and some nights are tougher. I think it is just something we have to regroup here and get ready for the next game,” said defenseman Shea Theodore.

The VGK have one game left on their current homestand against the Arizona Coyotes on Thursday at 7.

We know we need to play better. It wasn’t good enough. But, you know, then again, there’s some stuff that we did that was that was okay. We’re not gonna sit here and be all negative on each other. We know we’ve got a good hockey team; we’ve just gotta get back to doing what we do,” said Alex Pietrangelo.