{"id":560797,"date":"2026-04-27T11:48:34","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T11:48:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/560797\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T11:48:34","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T11:48:34","slug":"golden-knights-are-unfazed-by-2-1-series-hole-maybe-they-should-be","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/560797\/","title":{"rendered":"Golden Knights Are Unfazed By 2-1 Series Hole, Maybe They Should Be"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\n

<\/a> (Photo Credit: Ken Boehlke, SinBin.vegas)<\/p>\n

With every team and every season, narratives come and go throughout the year. Eventually, a few stick and become the hallmark of that year\u2019s team. For this season\u2019s Golden Knights, the theme that defined the season is back, and it\u2019s being coupled with another one present from postseasons past.<\/p>\n

The trait that has shaped the 25-26 Golden Knights better than any other is their peculiar knack for winning in every way but on the scoreboard. Game 3 was a perfect example.<\/p>\n

In a jacked-up stadium experiencing their first taste of playoff hockey, the veteran Golden Knights came in and took it to the playoff-debutante Mammoth for the first 10 minutes of the game. They had all the offensive zone time, were flying through the neutral zone, landed 11 shots on goal, drew a penalty, and looked like they were ready to break through for a big start.<\/p>\n

But, it didn\u2019t happen.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Instead, a puck bounced off their goalie\u2019s face, then his pad, then his stick, and slid into the net. Moments later, they conceded on the power play, and before they knew it, the score was 4-0 Utah despite every analytic indicating things were going well for the road team.<\/p>\n

The Golden Knights were obviously upset about the loss, but still don\u2019t believe it\u2019s indicative of what\u2019s to come.<\/p>\n

If any team plays the right way and they do it consistently, they\u2019re going to come out on top eventually. That\u2019s how I feel. I mean, that\u2019s how I think life works in general. You do things the right way, you\u2019re going to be successful in life. I think hockey\u2019s the same way. -Nic Dowd<\/p>\n

The Golden Knights, to a man, from the players all the way up to the new head coach, do not seem concerned. The numbers back them up. At 5-on-5, VGK have 58% of the expected goal share in the series (per HockeyStats.com), that\u2019s the 2nd highest mark for any team left in the playoffs. They\u2019re also 2nd in shot attempts, 4th in shots on goal, and 2nd in high-danger chances (per NaturalStatTrick.com).<\/p>\n

So the comments from both coaches following the game make sense.<\/p>\n

I thought we took a step forward in how we have to play from Game 2. I liked a lot of our minutes tonight. I thought we had some scoring chances tonight. We still need to get some guys on track. But I want us to defend the proper way, that\u2019s the most important thing. If we defend the proper way, our offense will come, I have full trust in our guys in that way. -John Tortorella<\/p>\n

Their top lines are generating offense. They\u2019ve generated a lot of possession and some chances and their top-six generated a lot of those. Honestly, I think their top-six was good. They are tough to contain tough to keep off the sheet. -Andre Tourigny<\/p>\n

There\u2019s just one problem, and it\u2019s one no one in gold wants to address, at least not while there\u2019s still time.<\/p>\n

This isn\u2019t new.<\/p>\n

Last season, they failed to score for 127 consecutive minutes against the Oilers, despite generating more than four expected goals in Games 4 and 5. The year before, they took a 2-0 series lead then the goal-scoring faucet shut off as they scored two or fewer in each of the last five games in the series. Even the two playoff runs prior to winning the Cup, the numbers looked fine, the puck didn\u2019t go in the net.<\/p>\n

Ot, go back over the entire 2025-26 season. VGK were Top 10 in most metrics and somehow finished with the 13th best record in the league. Most of the blame fell on goaltending (which it probably will again if the series continues like Game 3), yet even with a goaltender playing at or above a league-average level, the same issue persists.<\/p>\n

Tomorrow night, in Game 4 at the Delta Center, there\u2019s only one thing that matters. Either the Golden Knights score enough to win, or their season is on the brink, and it\u2019ll become basically inevitable that their 9th season will end at the feet of the Mammoth.<\/p>\n

The Golden Knights have faced a 2-1 hole six times before. They\u2019ve won two of the previous six series, and both saw VGK even the series at two games.<\/p>\n

82 regular season games and the ghosts of prior failed playoff runs have plenty of fans (and one particular media member writing this post) spooked. The Golden Knights are not. They are not talking about urgency or desperation. They are speaking like a team that believes the tide will turn in time.<\/p>\n

The Golden Knights\u2019 mentality is probably the healthier way, and it may end up being the right way. They have 60 minutes to prove it, otherwise, they\u2019re going to run out of time before they even realize there\u2019s a problem, and that won\u2019t sit well with VGK fans.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Photo Credit: Ken Boehlke, SinBin.vegas) With every team and every season, narratives come and go throughout the year.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560798,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3],"tags":[1094,5,4,60,3154],"class_list":{"0":"post-560797","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-nhl","8":"tag-delta-center","9":"tag-hockey","10":"tag-nhl","11":"tag-nhl-playoffs","12":"tag-utah-mammoth"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116476517819816838","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560797","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=560797"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560797\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}