{"id":362055,"date":"2025-12-18T08:50:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-18T08:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/362055\/"},"modified":"2025-12-18T08:50:08","modified_gmt":"2025-12-18T08:50:08","slug":"7-observations-golden-knights-fall-to-devils-in-goaltending-duel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/362055\/","title":{"rendered":"7 Observations: Golden Knights Fall to Devils in Goaltending Duel"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Wednesday, the Vegas Golden Knights (16-6-10) returned home to host the New Jersey Devils (19-14-1). They allowed the first goal in the second period and spent the rest of the night chasing the game. Pavel Dorofeyev<\/a> potted the equalizer on a late power play, but the Golden Knights fell 2-1 to the Devils in a shootout.<\/p>\n

As the more-rested team, the Golden Knights were rusty in the first period. They outshot the Devils 10-8, but the Devils generated 11 scoring chances to Vegas\u2019\u00a0seven<\/a>. However, the VGK escaped unscathed and entered the first intermission tied at zero.<\/p>\n

The Devils struck first, scoring 4:50 into the second period. Pressured by Connor Brown, Noah Hanifin<\/a> turned the puck over deep in the defensive zone. Brown corralled the puck, drove the net, and stuffed the puck in around Carter Hart<\/a>\u2019s outstretched pad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Golden Knights responded well and controlled the remainder of the period. They outshot the Devils 15-12 in the second and generated eight high-danger chances to New Jersey\u2019s five.<\/p>\n

Despite being outshot and out-chanced in the third period, the Golden Knights played well. Finally, they solved Allen with 4:11 remaining in the third period on a late power play. After a scramble, Mark Stone<\/a> got to a loose puck in front of the Devils\u2019 net. He found Pavel Dorofeyev all alone in the right circle, and Dorofeyev slammed it home.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Immediately after tying the game, however, the Golden Knights fell asleep at the wheel. Their defensive zone coverage evaporated, and they forced Carter Hart to bail them out with a few Grade-A saves.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In overtime, both teams had their looks. Mark Stone drew a hooking penalty, but the Golden Knights failed to capitalize on their 4-on-3 power play.<\/p>\n

In the shootout, Jake Allen stopped all three Golden Knights shooters. Jesper Bratt was the lone shooter to beat Carter Hart, and the Devils handed the Golden Knights a 2-1 overtime loss.<\/p>\n

7 Golden Knights Observations<\/p>\n

1. The Golden Knights allowed the first goal for the 17th time this season. After tonight\u2019s overtime loss, they have a record of 6-5-7 when allowing the first goal.<\/p>\n

2. The Golden Knights took the ice tonight without two key players: Jack Eichel<\/a> and Shea Theodore<\/a>. Per head coach Bruce Cassidy, Eichel has an illness; Theodore has an upper-body injury. Both are considered day-to-day.\u00a0<\/p>\n

3. This was a slow, sleepy game where both teams went through stretches of sloppy play. However, both goaltenders were fantastic. Jake Allen finished his night with 37 saves on 38 shots, a save percentage of .973, and a 3.71 GSAx<\/a>. Carter Hart finished the game with 32 saves on 33 shots, a save percentage of .970, and a 2.51 GSAx.\u00a0<\/p>\n

4. William Karlsson<\/a>\u2019s absence was felt tonight, badly. With Karlsson and Jack Eichel both out, they had Reilly Smith and Mitch Marner<\/a> playing center.\u00a0<\/p>\n

5. The Golden Knights should be thankful that Eichel is sick and not injured. If he misses any real time, it\u2019s bad news for their 5-on-5 game and especially the power play. Braedan Bowman started the night on the first power play unit, but Bruce Cassidy swapped him for Noah Hanifin after two failed opportunities.<\/p>\n

6. The record for the most overtime losses in a single season is 18, shared by the 2008-08 Florida Panthers, 2011-12 Tampa Bay Lightning, 2013-14 New Jersey Devils, and 2014-15 Philadelphia Flyers. The Golden Knights have gone past regulation 14 times in just 32 games. They\u2019ve also lost 10 of them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

7. There\u2019s no real reason to worry, because the Golden Knights are racking up OTL points like it\u2019s nobody\u2019s business. However, they have a record of 16-6-10. However, you slice it, they\u2019ve won 16 games and lost 16. That\u2019s probably not a sign of great things to come.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Wednesday, the Vegas Golden Knights (16-6-10) returned home to host the New Jersey Devils (19-14-1). They allowed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":362056,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5109],"tags":[88,201,58,40026,5,1041,576,151,5185,5184,4,2880,9,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-362055","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-jersey-devils","8":"tag-carter-hart","9":"tag-devils","10":"tag-featured","11":"tag-golden-knights-injuries","12":"tag-hockey","13":"tag-jack-eichel","14":"tag-new-jersey","15":"tag-new-jersey-devils","16":"tag-newjersey","17":"tag-newjerseydevils","18":"tag-nhl","19":"tag-pavel-dorofeyev","20":"tag-shea-theodore","21":"tag-vegas-golden-knights"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115739716743106487","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362055","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=362055"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/362055\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/362056"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=362055"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=362055"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=362055"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}