Undermanned Golden Knights Lose To St. Louis, 3-1, Wednesday; Tickets Were As Low As $19 Before Game With Attendance At 17,690
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Story by Alan Snel Photos by J. Tyge O’Donnell
Just the Facts: St. Louis Blues 3 Vegas Golden Knights 1
Golden Knights scoring: William Karlsson
VGK’s best player tonight: Robin Lehner in goal
Attendance: 17,690, lowest in nearly four years (fixed-seat capacity is 17,367)
Quote: “We know we need to play better” — VGK coach Pete DeBoer
St. Louis won their first three games of the season — all on the road.
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Golden Knights fans Kassie and Brian waited to buy their Vegas Golden Knights tickets a couple of hours before tonight’s VGK-Blues game and the tix cost only $25 per ticket.
For the couple, that’s affordable — comparable to the ticket costs of other sporting events like a WNBA Aces game, for example.
And a half-hour before the game, the Golden Knights AXS ticket resale price was down to $19. It’s interesting to see how fans are dropping ticket prices to unload them. It’s an upper bowl ticket in the last row. Attendance of 17,690 is a sellout (17,367 is fixed-seating capacity), but it was the lowest VGK attendance at T-Mobile Arena since December 2017.
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DeBoer is aware that the Knights need to tighten up the defense.
He mentioned after the game that there is sloppy hockey in the league during these early-season stages.
Looking on the bright side, DeBoer said the Knights did play better than in its last game, a humbling 6-2 loss to the Kings in Los Angeles.
Misfit Line member Reilly Smith said the team has to come out and view these games as playoff games.
“We can’t let the losses pile up,” Smith said after the game.
After defeating the Seattle Kraken here a week ago, 4-3, the Knights have two losses in a row.
The Knights play the Edmonton Oilers Friday and the New York Islanders Sunday at 7 PM — after the Las Vegas Raiders play the Philadelphia Eagles at 1 PM Sunday at Allegiant Stadium.
In period one, the Blues took the first seven shots on goal. But the Knights found their legs and began generating some scoring chances and shots.
The Misfits Line of William Karlsson, Jonathan Marchessault and Smith played outstanding. In fact, Smith fed Karlsson and Wild Bill poked in his own rebound.
The Blues had a healthy edge in territorial control of the ice in the first 20 minutes.
But VGK goaltender Robin Lehner was superb, standing tall in period one. He was rock solid as the Blues were stymied by Lehner.
After one period: Golden Knights 1 Blues 0
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In period two, Brandon Saad of St. Louis beat Lehner to knot the game at one.
Saad used to play with Colorado and was a thorn in the side of the VGK when the Avalanche played the Knights in last season’s playoffs round two won by Vegas.
But it was his new St. Louis teammates celebrating Saad’s tying tally in the middle stanza.
After two periods: Golden Knights 1 Blues 1
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As usual, many Golden Knights fans are not complying with the local and state indoor mask mandate. The Golden Knights do not require fans to show proof of vaccination to attend a game like the Raiders do, so it’s up to the ushers to remind fans to wear their masks.
The Golden Knights in-game camera guys and their own center ice jumbotron show fans not wearing masks inside arena during footage of fans during game breaks. Ushers told me fans dish out verbal abuse when asked to wear masks — or they just pay no attention to the ushers.
There were also a lot of empty seats with four minutes still to play with the Knights trailing only by a goal, 2-1.
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The Blues scored an empty-netter on Ivan Barbashev’s goal to seal the win.
Final: Blues 3 Golden Knights 1
The Knights held their own without two of their best scoring threats — Max Pacioretty and Mark Stone, both out with injuries. Plus, winger Alex Tuch remains out until early 2022 as he recovers from surgery.
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