Golden Knights’ Lack of Regular-Season Emphasis Was Costly – The Hockey Writers – Vegas Golden Knights

Now that the dust has settled on the Vegas Golden Knights’ highly-disappointing first-round exit from the Stanley Cup Playoffs, it’s clear the club’s title defense campaign went wayside long before they locked horns with the Dallas Stars.

As you would expect from an organization with serious Cup aspirations, the Golden Knights did everything they could to knock off the top-seeded Stars. They looked poised for an upset out of the gate, taking both opening road games at American Airlines Center to head back to T-Mobile Arena with a 2-0 lead. They, however, then surrendered both home games en route to a collapse that culminated in a 2-1 Dallas victory in Game 7.

Sure, you can point to questions in net or the lack of production from guys like Tomas Hertl, William Karlsson, and Chandler Stephenson. Ultimately, though, Vegas positioned themselves as the effective No. 8 seeds in the West, setting up a challenging path that could have been avoided.

Golden Knights Took Regular Season For Granted

In hindsight, it’s pretty hard to believe the Golden Knights would wind up hanging on to the second wild-card spot — just six points clear of the St. Louis Blues — given how the season started. Still firmly in the honeymoon phase in the aftermath of their 2023 Cup win, they opened the season by snatching 23 of a possible 24 points over their first 12 games and setting an NHL record for the best start ever by a defending champion.

Perhaps that seemingly-invincible start was part of the problem. The other 60 games of the campaign produced a 34-29-7 record, a tepid mark featuring more losses than wins. Even as in-season headlines focused on the club’s injury updates and trade deadline overhaul, Vegas’ foray through the regular season was deemphasized with a postseason berth seeming inevitable. While they handled themselves well in head-to-head showdowns with fellow Cup contenders (they went 13-5-1 against the top six teams in the Western Conference), they played down to lesser rivals like the Anaheim Ducks, Calgary Flames, and Arizona Coyotes (3-7-1 combined).

Key Losses Down the Stretch

Even with lots to play for in the season’s waning days, the Golden Knights demonstrated the same maddening inconsistency they were plagued by throughout the entire campaign. After reeling off six wins in seven games to seemingly retake control of the No….