The Vegas Golden Knights didn’t just lose 4-0 to the Utah Mammoth on Thursday night at T-Mobile Arena. They lost the way they were warned they would.

Coach Bruce Cassidy’s pre-scout emphasized weak-side coverage, the same issue he harped on after Tuesday’s 2-0 loss to Buffalo. Against the Sabres, the Knights handled it. Against Utah, they didn’t.

All three first-period goals came on broken weak-side plays, and the Mammoth scored on their first three shots. Goaltender Adin Hill was pulled after allowing three goals on three shots, replaced by Akira Schmid.

“Utah, very similar to Buffalo,” Cassidy said. “Half the pre-scout is east-west plays, weak-side coverage, weak-side coverage, weak-side coverage. We got beat twice in f—-ing weak-side coverage. If you want to bang the wall as a coach, obviously they didn’t get the message, so I got to do a better job there.”

The first goal came less than three minutes in when defenseman John Marino threaded a seam pass to captain Clayton Keller, who had no backdoor coverage. The second goal saw Brayden McNabb misplay a rolling puck, and four Knights converged on the puck while Keller stood alone on the weak side, roofing it over Hill’s shoulder. The third goal followed a Kaedan Korczak interception that turned into a 3-on-3; Utah’s Jack McBain was uncovered on the weak side and beat Hill.

“It was pretty clear on how we feel they can generate offense,” Cassidy said. “And they did. Good for them.”

The Knights were shut out for the second straight game, extending their scoreless streak to 147 minutes, 9 seconds. They missed the net 28 times after misfiring 20 times Tuesday.

“It’s one of those situations where you’re just looking at each other, like, ‘What’s going on here?’” defenseman Noah Hanifin said. “We had a lot of time to get back in the game. There were two and a half periods left. I think from that point on, we kind of controlled the game. Just again, we got to find ways to get the puck in the net here.”

With 13 games left in the regular season, the Knights head on a three-game road trip starting Saturday in Nashville. There’s little time to practice, and weak-side coverage must be fixed on the fly.

“We’re going on the road again,” Hanifin said. “We don’t have much time left. We got to start winning games here.”