By Alan Snel of LVSportsBiz.com
LVSportsBiz.com photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
Arena announcer Bruce Cusick used his soft voice between periods one and two when he said, “Here are tonight’s first period stats.”
That’s because the Vegas Golden Knights’ first period performance against division rival LA Kings was putrid. The Kings gave the VGK a 4-0 beatdown in period one while outshooting the Knights, 18-10. Fans let the Knights know how they felt with the hometown faithful’s boos escorting the Golden Knights off the ice after the first 20 minutes.
In his postgame comments, VGK coach Gerard Gallant did not mince words about the team’s third consecutive slow start, which led to a Golden Knights’ 5-2 loss to the LA Kings Thursday evening at T-Mobile Arena.
“Same old story,” he said. Gallant used to term, “embarrassing,” to describe the team’s showing in period one. You can hear Gallant:
The Knights announced attendance at 18,281, right around average attendance of 18,276 a game after 25 home dates. That’s filling the venue to 105.2 percent of capacity thanks to the SRO areas.
The Knights came out flying in period two, applying pressure on the Kings. The LA team didn’t even get its first shot on goal in the first half of period two.
Reilly Smith scored an unassisted goal at 14:38, It was his 18th.
An then Max Pacioretty poured in a goal on a sweet feed from Paul Stastny and the LA lead was down to 4-2 at 15:44. It was Patches’ 20th goal.
In period three, the Knights continued to dominate the action and had a chance with a power play with 13:02 left. VGK didn’t convert.
The Knights pulled goalie Malcolm Subban with about 2:45 left in period for an extra skater. But they didn’t score and suffered another loss after another first period slow start.
The Kings mustered a mere two shots on goal in period three to finish with 23, while the Knights had 11 shots on goal in period three and finished with 45.
VGK remained stuck on 54 points. They play Columbus Saturday at 7 p.m. to end the seven-game homestand at the Big Ice House.
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