Golden Game Gist: Reverse Retros Debut In Rough 5-1 Loss To Canucks

In their reverse retro debut night, the Vegas Golden Knights (16-6-1, 33 points) easily played their worst game of the season and lost to the Vancouver Canucks (8-10-3, 19 points) 5-1.

We’ll have a postgame discepting what exactly went wrong in about an hour, with comments from head coach Bruce Cassidy and some players. As for now, here’s how the game went down.

GOLDEN KNIGHTS LINEUP

Nicolas Roy was bumped up to the third line, and Jake Leschyshyn was re-inserted on the fourth line.

Chandler Stephenson- Jack Eichel- Mark Stone (c)

Reilly Smith- William Karlsson- Jonathan Marchessault

Paul Cotter- Nicolas Roy- Phil Kessel

Will Carrier- Jake Leschyshyn- Keegan Kolesar

Alec Martinez- Alex Pietrangelo

Brayden McNabb- Shea Theodore

Nicolas Hague- Zach Whitecloud

Logan Thompson/Adin Hill

FIRST PERIOD

• The Golden Knights struggled immensely on defense in the first period, especially with breakouts.
• Logan Thompson was forced to make some stellar saves, but the Canucks still put up two.
• VAN PP- Nicolas Roy took his first penalty of the period, going off for a trip.
• 1-0 VAN GOAL- On the powerplay, Oliver Ekman Larsson shot from the blue line, and Brock Boeser tipped in the puck.
• VGK PP- Mark Stone drew a penalty as Kyle Burroughs for hooking. Stone then had a huge rebound chance come to him after a Jonathan Marchessault shot, but he whiffed on the chance.
• Elias Pettersson started to take over the game with his speed; he had a breakaway chance on Thompson but was stopped.
• VAN PP- Slower than the speedy Pettersson, Phil Kessel tripped him trying to make a defensive play.
• VAN PP- Roy went off again for a high stick, and JT Miller and the Canucks powerplay made him and the Golden Knights pay.

SECOND PERIOD

• Simply put, the Golden Knights continued to look off in the second period.
• The Canucks were playing well. They played hard physically, had some good shot blocks, and some chances from Pettersson. But it was more of the Golden Knights beating themselves.
• All of the Golden Knights stars started to get frustrated and played off their games. Mark Stone and Jonathan Marchessault were the notable players in this funk.
• The Misfits had some zone chances and opportunities, but they would die with players falling down or passes landing at the feet of players.
• VGK PP- Oliver Ekman-Larsson went off for tripping. More frustrated chances for the VGK ensued.
• VAN PP- Reilly Smith went off for a high stick, and the Canucks promptly scored thereafter.
• 3-0 VAN GOAL- Elias Pettersson scored his second of the night on the powerplay off a one-timer.
• 4-0 VAN GOAL- Andrei Kuzmenko then scored after a behind-the-net pass from Nils Aman.
• VAN PP- Keegan Kolesar went off for roughing after a scrum near the Canucks bench.
• Out of the box, Kolesar had a wrap-around attempt, but his puck went right across the red line.
• 5-0 VAN GOAL- With literally 0.1 seconds left in the second period, Bo Horvat scored.

THIRD PERIOD

• The third period went about how you would expect.
• A scrum ensued in front of Thatcher Demko after Will Carrier and Tyler Myers shoved each other.
• The Golden Knights pushed and pushed toward a goal but lacked quality opportunities.
• FIGHT- Frustrated, Jonathan Marchessault dropped the gloves with Connor Garland.
• VGK PP- Garland got a tripping penalty and game misconduct for the hit that lead to the fight.
• FIGHT- Another fight ensued, this time between Keegan Kolesar and Dakota Joshua.
• 5-1 VGK GOAL- Jonathan Marchessault scored for the Golden Knights with 3:16 left.

VHN’s Player of the Game: Chance, the Gila Monster. He looked great in the reverse retros.

Up Next: The Golden Knights will leave Nevada for Ohio for a 4:00 p.m. game against the Columbus Blue Jackets on Monday.