The Vegas Golden Knights suffered one of the worst defeats in franchise history Sunday, falling 7-1 to the Ottawa Senators at Canadian Tire Centre. The loss matched the team’s largest margin of defeat and dropped the Knights to 25-14-12.
Just two days after an emotional win over the Toronto Maple Leafs in Mitch Marner’s return, the Knights were overwhelmed from the start. Ottawa outshot Vegas 17-8 in the first two periods, building a 4-0 lead before Rasmus Andersson scored his first goal as a Knight with 4:55 remaining to spoil Mads Sogaard’s shutout bid.
“It looked like an NHL team versus a junior team,” captain Mark Stone said.
Adin Hill tied a career high with seven goals allowed, stopping 13 of 17 shots through two periods before being pulled. The Knights have now trailed 4-0 after two periods twice on this four-game road trip, though they rallied to make it close in a 4-3 loss at Boston on Thursday.
“Just starting on time, really,” Jack Eichel said. “It’s been a recurring thing for us this year. You just don’t want to do it every night. That’s a desperate team over there.”
The Senators (24-21-7) were playing the second night of a back-to-back after losing 4-1 to Carolina at home, while the Knights played their third game in four days.
“I didn’t like our battle level at all, our compete, our races early on,” coach Bruce Cassidy said. “Typically we’re the team with pushback. We didn’t have that.”
Ottawa took a 1-0 lead at 9:25 of the first period when Fabian Zetterlund banked a shot off Hill from behind the net. The Knights had a chance to strike early when Marner was awarded a penalty shot 1:36 into the game after a hooking call on Tyler Kleven, but Marner failed to get a shot off.
“I’m sure if Mitch had it back, he would’ve had a different alternative,” Cassidy said. “The way the game played out, maybe it only makes it a 7-2 game.”
The Senators blew the game open with two goals in 16 seconds from Dylan Cozens and Jordan Spence at 6:07 of the second period to make it 3-0. Stephen Halliday added a goal with 2:10 left in the second, then Cozens and Halliday scored again in the third period 43 seconds apart.
Stone’s franchise-record 14-game point streak ended, as did Eichel’s 11-game streak. All but five skaters finished with a minus rating.
“It wasn’t a great night for us at all. Not good enough from everybody,” said Eichel, the team’s leading scorer. “We’ve got to be a lot better, and it starts with me. I got to be better, as well. We’ll take a look at this one and get ready for Tuesday.”
The Knights wrap up their road trip Tuesday in Montreal. Cassidy said with two weeks until the Olympic break, the team’s inconsistency is concerning.
“It certainly isn’t up to (my standard),” Cassidy said. “It’s late January. Is this a practice thing, or is it showing the hell up on time?”
