Meaning most of this mess:<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
Yeah, I know. Tough to watch. And doubly so when weighing that, at the risk of coming across as petty, the Golden Knights really aren’t all that glittery. They’d lost six of seven, they move like molasses, they can’t connect more than a couple passes at a time, they barely budge when being attacked at their blue line and, man alive, Adin Hill has to be the NHL’s bottom-feeder of starting goaltenders.<\/p>\n
That’s two points that needed to be taken, the absences of Sidney Crosby\u00a0and\u00a0Evgeni Malkin notwithstanding, and they needed to be taken with authority.<\/p>\n
I asked Erik Karlsson what, if anything, might actually be taken from this:<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
“Yeah, I don’t think it was as bad as the score was,” he’d respond. “But at the same time, I don’t think that our sharpness at the end was there. We didn’t really connect all the way through. It was one of those nights where it just wasn’t our night.”<\/p>\n
Sure wasn’t.<\/p>\n
I asked Rickard Rakell much the same:<\/p>\n
\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
“It wasn’t our best tonight,” he’d respond. “We couldn’t find ways to score more of the dirty goals, around the blue paint. The chances were definitely there. Had some good pressure in the offensive zone and created some looks, but it’s those second and third efforts we need more of.”<\/p>\n
Couldn’t agree more. And couldn’t have seen less of that.<\/p>\n
Hill would wind up with 24 saves on 26 shots, but that’s misleading. He faced 15 through two periods, and most of his action came after the Penguins trailed by three and pulled Silovs with nearly eight minutes left in regulation. The list of everyone who avoided shooting on Hill would take up too much cyberspace, but suffice it to say the team could’ve used a ton more of Karlsson’s approach (four shots, 14 attempts) or Egor Chinakhov’s approach (four shots, 10 attempts) than what anyone else was trying.<\/p>\n
“I think there were some sequences from today that we can look back at and there’s probably some other options that were there,” Dan Muse would answer when asked if his players had tried to get too cute at times. “It’s a fine line in this game. You want to make plays, but you also have to recognize pressure, and you have to read pressure, and you have to see the coverage. And I think that’s where we might have missed a little bit there today, is not recognizing some of those situations. That’s not just on the puck-carrier. That’s also also on the guy who’s supporting the puck, of the players who are supporting the puck and creating better options.”<\/p>\n
Yeah, no, sorry, I get that this was all uncharacteristic, but they got too cute.<\/p>\n
Whatever. It’s over.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Or maybe it was all some David Copperfield-style illusion.<\/p>\n
![\"Parker](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/gettyimages-2266229331-2.jpg\" "\\"Parker")
<\/p>\n
GETTY<\/p>\n
Parker Wotherspoon stays down, lamenting his role on a goal by the Golden Knights’ Colton Sissons.<\/p>\n
\u2022 Parker Wotherspoon’s been terrific up until the past week or so. He had three giveaways<\/a> here, one leading directly to a goal. He’ll bounce back, but it’s got to be soon, as he acknowledged afterward in saying, “I’ve got to clean that up.”<\/p>\n It can’t be overstated how much he and Ryan Shea have done to fortify the left defense in a season that could’ve been wrecked by that specific depth chart.<\/p>\n \u2022 Shea, in contrast, had secondary assists on both of the Pittsburgh goals, by Rakell and Ben Kindell. The latter was Kindel’s 16th, raising the real possibility he could top 20 at age 18.<\/p>\n \u2022 This, to me, was Vegas’ killer goal:<\/p>\n \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Absolutely, Dewar’s giveaway is gross. But Silovs’ over-commitment on Mitch Marner isn’t far behind and, if anything, it’s endemic of the epic one-on-one struggles he’s had in shootouts. Which, in addition to rebound control and stopping pucks behind the net (without handing them to David Pastrnak), remains prominent on the to-do list.<\/p>\n That’s not blaming Silovs for the loss. That’d be silly<\/a>. But no goaltender can give up 1 of 3 shots and get away without a fair share of the fault.<\/p>\n \u2022 It’s just way too easy to knock Ville Koivunen down. I’ll be blunt: It’s hard to compete in the NHL without NHL-level strength and sturdiness.\u00a0<\/p>\n And one of his giveaways led to a Vegas goal came in precisely such a scenario, when he was plain old bullied off a puck by 6-foot-1, 194-pound Pavel Dorofeyev, who’d even more painfully finish the play himself at the far end:<\/p>\n \u00a0<\/p>\n Can’t imagine a more emasculating shift.<\/p>\n \u2022 More goodness in this game from Elmer Soderblom. Still no points, but it’s easy to see what’d make a project of his scope worth the while. Oh, and check Friday Insider<\/a> for more on him.<\/p>\n \u2022 The Blue Jackets picked up a point in their 2-1<\/a> overtime loss to the Panthers in Sunrise, Fla., meaning the Metro’s now as cramped as it’s been in months:<\/p>\n NHL<\/p>\n Unsolicited advice for the local operation: Win in Salt Lake City. It’s the middle game of a five-game trip that’ll finish with first-place opponents in Denver and Raleigh, N.C., and no one wants to fly home to Pittsburgh with … well, one gets the idea.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/screenshot-2026-03-13-at-1.39.13\u00e2\u0080\u00afam.jpeg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/p>\n