Vegas looks to get back on track vs. LA
After seeing his team fall behind 3-0 in back-to-back games, Vegas coach Gerard Gallant is looking for a better start from his Golden Knights when they host the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday night in Las Vegas.
Vegas split the two games, rallying for a 5-4 overtime victory over the St. Louis Blues on Saturday afternoon, the first time in franchise history that the Golden Knights overcame a three-goal deficit to win a game. But Vegas wasn't as fortunate on Tuesday night against the Pittsburgh Penguins, who snapped the Golden Knights' four-game winning streak with a 4-3 victory.
"We can't allow four goals and expect to win a hockey game," Gallant told reporters. "Back-to-back games getting behind and we're pressing our luck doing that. We had beat a pretty good hockey team when it was 3-0 last game. We battled back and almost got there tonight but it wasn't good enough."
"That's two games in a row," center Paul Stastny said of the large early deficits. "We've got to be ready to come out and play at home. We just can't rely on our home record (14-8-3) or using the crowd at home. From the puck drop it doesn't matter who we're playing, whether it's a division game or one of the top teams in the East or anybody else, we've got to dictate play."
Vegas outshot Pittsburgh 34-16 in the loss as Marc-Andre Fleury allowed four goals for the third consecutive start, stopping just 12 shots.
"No one in this room and no one in this organization is ever going to blame him for losing a game," forward Reilly Smith said. "That definitely was a full team effort. We just have to come out with a better start."
Thursday night's game with the Kings will be the sixth game of a season-long seven-game homestand for Vegas, which enters the day tied with Arizona for first place in the Pacific Division. Following Saturday's contest with Columbus, the Golden Knights then play eight consecutive road games.
"You always love to play at home," Gallant said. "(Seven in a row), it's not great. Then you have to go on the road for eight in a row, but that's part of the schedule and I think a lot of teams have that."
Los Angeles will be playing the second game of a back-to-back that began with a 2-1 home loss to the Dallas Stars on Wednesday night. Anze Kopitar gave the Kings a 1-0 lead in the first period with his 16th goal of the season off a Tyler Toffoli pass but Dallas rebounded to score twice in the span of 37 seconds in the second period on goals by Jamie Benn and Blake Comeau for its fifth straight comeback win.
It was the third straight loss and seventh in nine games for the Kings, who occupy last place in the Pacific and will be playing their third game in the span of four nights.
"We equate it to a diesel engine," Kings coach Todd McLellan told NHL.com. "It's good when it's running, and you turn it off, it takes a little while to get going again. We're looking forward to playing a bunch of games and working our way out of that midseason slump, if you will, or whatever it is, but we'll work our way out."
--Field Level Media
