Golden Knights' loss to Predators: 4-1 defeat

The Golden Knights finally found the net again Saturday afternoon.

However, the breakthrough came too late.

Vegas gave up the first goal 40 seconds in, fell behind 3-0 in the second period, and dropped a 4-1 decision to the Predators at Bridgestone Arena. Shea Theodore ended the club’s eight-period scoreless drought with a power-play goal, but the Knights still skated away with a third straight loss.

Another early hole

Vegas actually carried plenty of the play.

The Knights outshot Nashville 40-20, won 58 percent of the faceoffs, and generated enough pressure to make this feel winnable. Still, they were chasing almost from the opening shift after Steven Stamkos scored on the Predators’ first shot at 0:40 of the first period.

That trend has become a problem.

“We can’t keep allowing the first goal on the first shot of the game,” Bruce Cassidy said. “We chase the game a lot. That’s been a problem.”

Vegas pushed back in the first. Brett Howden hit a post, Pavel Dorofeyev rang one off the iron, and the Knights piled up 20 shots in the period alone. Yet Justus Annunen turned them all aside, and Nashville took the one-goal lead into intermission.

Brett Howden said there was still plenty to like in the way Vegas opened.

“There was a lot to like about how we came out to play,” Howden said. “We’ve just got to do a better job of finding a way.”

Special teams swing it

The game broke open in the second.

A Theodore double minor for high-sticking gave Nashville an early opening, and Stamkos made it 2-0 on the power play at 1:24. Then, after the Knights failed to cash in on their own man advantage, Tyson Jost struck shorthanded at 11:56 to stretch the lead to 3-0.

That sequence changed the afternoon.

“Special teams,” Cassidy said. “They were much better than us in the second. Ended up being the difference.”

Vegas finally got on the board at 13:10 of the second when Shea Theodore scored on the power play off feeds from Ivan Barbashev and Howden. It was the Knights’ first goal since the Chicago game and snapped the drought at eight straight scoreless periods.

Any thought of a full comeback faded quickly, though.

Nic Dowd went off for slashing at 13:27, and Ryan O’Reilly answered on the power play at 14:53 to restore the three-goal cushion at 4-1.

Cassidy pointed to that stretch as the difference between pressure and execution.

“We scored one tonight. I guess that’s a positive,” Cassidy said. “Probably thought we had some decent chances in the first — a lot better than theirs — but we didn’t finish.”

Plenty of shots, not enough finish

Vegas kept firing in the third, but the finish never came.

The Knights put 10 more shots on net in the final period, and Annunen kept turning them aside. Theodore, Barbashev, Eichel, Dorofeyev, McNabb, Andersson and Howden all had looks, but nothing cut into the lead again.

That has been the larger issue during this slide.

“One goal in three games,” Cassidy said. “Some guys we rely on just haven’t got it done offensively, or are a little snakebit, or whatever the reason is, it’s not going in the net.”

Howden saw the same thing.

“I think we’ve had a lot of looks,” he said. “I think just bearing down around the front of their net.”

Vegas now heads to Dallas looking for a response, and there is no time left to wait for one.

“There’s no time to feel sorry for ourselves,” Howden said. “Good thing is we’re right back at it tomorrow.”