LAS VEGAS — The Pittsburgh Penguins’ (3-5-1) season is slipping and sliding away. After a boisterous 2-0-0 start, the Penguins are now 1-5-1 since. The Vegas Golden Knights (8-2-0) thoroughly dominated most of the game, winning 6-2.
The Penguins’ Vegas misadventure began with the first shot of the game and never improved. Even when the Penguins threatened to make it competitive by scoring a second-period power-play goal, Vegas scored 71 seconds later to keep full control.
Sidney Crosby’s deflection goal on the power play snapped an 0-for-20 streak. The Penguins’ good news began and ended there.
Indeed, the Penguins were not flat, but they were clearly the inferior team from the puck drop as Vegas flexed superior speed, structure, and, ultimately, even talent by pulling away while the Penguins could do little to stop them.
Penguins rookie goalie Sergei Murashov started and was generally helpless against odd-man rushes and wide-open players in point-blank range. Murashov stopped only 10 of the first 15 shots he faced and 19 of 24 overall.
Murashov was probably owed an apology by teammates.
Vegas goalie Adin Hill was largely untested, stopping 16 of 18.
Penguins defenseman Sam Girard was injured midway through the second period as he raced to cut off Brett Howden, who had gotten past Girard’s defense partner Kaedan Korczak for what would have been a breakaway. Korczak held Howden, but Howden then tripped Girard, who slammed into the end wall at full speed.
Girard lay on the ice for several moments before trainers helped him up. Girard left the game and did not return.
Goal Recap
1-0: The old specter of first shot, first goal reappeared. Just 66 seconds into the game, the Penguins’ track-back was more spectator than defense as VGK defenseman Rasmus Andersson breezed by Evgeni Malkin, who almost looped out of the zone, and was unabated to the net. Andersson (2) whipped the shot past Murashov at 1:06.
2-0: The Penguins’ track back was again chasing Vegas after another crisp breakout and transition with speed. Penguins center Tommy Novak double-covered the puck carrier, leaving Noah Hanifin (2) wide open to beat Murashov from the low slot at 4:02.
3-0: Vegas made the game nearly insurmountable later in the third period. After referees gave Sidney Crosby a tripping minor (though it was probably Declan Carlile), Vegas pressured the Penguins’ PK for nearly two full minutes before Mark Stone (7) used his skate to deflect Trevor Connelly’s point shot through Murashov’s wicket at 17:46.
3-1: After Hanifin interfered with Penguins center Ben Kindel, the Penguins quickly scored a power-play goal when Crosby (3) deflected Tommy Novak’s shot from the right circle at 5:54.
4-1: The Penguins’ life was short-lived when Crosby turned the puck over at the offensive blue line, and Trevor Connelly raced up the ice for a two-on-one, kept the puck, and roofed a wrister past Murashov at 7:05.
5-1: In the seconds following the 4v4 from Korczak’s and Howden’s minor penalties that injured Girard, all four Penguins converged on the puck in the defensive zone, but none won the battle. Only Kindel realized the imbalance and dropped back, but Vegas outnumbered him three to one in the slot, and Brayden McNabb slipped a quick pass to Shea Theodore (5), who blasted the wide-open one-timer past Murashov at 11:17.
5-2: Early in the third period, Vegas relaxed and allowed Novak to skate through several defenders as the puck glided through a few sets of legs. Novak reconnected with the loose puck near the net. Hill didn’t hold the shot, and Ville Koivunen (2) lunged to knock the puck across the line.
6-2: Empty netter.
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