Needless to say, this past weekend was one to forget for the Golden Knights. Between getting swept on the two-game Alberta road trip and losing Shea Theodore for at least a few weeks, the holiday season had been decidedly unkind. At the top of the team’s Christmas list was a get-right game, and get one they did.
Vegas erupted for seven goals on Tuesday night, their first time reaching the mark all season, en route to a dominant pre-break victory over the San Jose Sharks. Let’s take a look at how Vegas managed a decisively festive win over the franchise that’s become our perennial punching bag.
The Golden Period, or an early Christmas gift
The first period of this game will genuinely go down in Golden Knights lore for a long time. In what was by far the team’s best single period of the season, Vegas potted five goals over the course of it, leading 4-0 by the 15-minute mark alone. For only the second time this season, the Golden Knights chased a goaltender, knocking Yaroslav Askarov out of the game after a quick snipe from a white-hot Tomas Hertl; this goal put him up to six points in his last four games.
Pavel Dorofeyev forces a turnover and Tomáš Hertl gets the puck all alone in the slot. He doesn’t miss those chances, and we’ve got a goaltending change.
4-0, Golden Knights
— Hannah Kirkell (@h_kirk6) December 24, 2025
Pavel Dorofeyev contributed in a more unusual dynamic as a playmaker, with the usual sniper instead adding two assists. Per the broadcast, this was Vegas’ fifth five-goal period in franchise history; however, it was a bit more comfortable than the one last year. Vegas’s 13 skaters with a first-period point also set a new franchise record in that category. We’d said on Sunday that Vegas needed to seize the early momentum and not put themselves in a hole, and they did exactly that tonight.
No Theo, no Eichel, no problem
Vegas fans have been rightly concerned about Shea Theodore and Jack Eichel’s injuries, and the effect they’d have on the team’s scoring. Needless to say, many of those concerns were put to bed on Tuesday, with the offense exploding for seven goals.
That’s the first time they’ve hit that mark this season, and the first time since October they’d even scored six. To add to the fun, and for the sixth straight game, one of those goals was on the power play, somewhere that we expected Eichel and Theodore’s absences to affect severely.
In their absence, an ascendant Mitch Marner has taken the scoring mantle, as he continues his hot streak. Marner has historically been very good against San Jose, and Tuesday was no exception, with two goals:, including this netfront snipe:
Mitch Marner has his second of the night and the Golden Knights’ seventh 🤯 pic.twitter.com/heAYVTqXra
— Sportsnet (@Sportsnet) December 24, 2025
That now puts Marner up to six points in his last three games, nine in his last five, and 13 in 10 games since the start of December. The Knight’s biggest offseason haul in recent memory is living up to his billing.
The Sharks “rivalry” continues to be laughably one-sided
Remember 2019, when we thought we had an enemy for life after the not-a-major controversy? Needless to say, things haven’t turned out that way.
Vegas now rides a 12-game point streak over the would-be rivals, having not lost a game in regulation against San Jose since 2022. As a reminder, they’ve only lost in regulation against San Jose twice all-time. Even with the Sharks’ young talent bringing them out of the basement this year, Vegas has still been able to decisively handle them in all three matchups (or at least, two of them; thanks, puck luck).
Merry Christmas, everyone! We’ll see you on the other side of the holiday break, where the boys in gold await the league-leading, seemingly-unstoppable force that is the Colorado Avalanche. GKG!