Brandon Wade / Associated Press
Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Adin Hill eyes the puck on a scoring shot by Dallas Stars center Radek Faksa during the third period in Game 7 of an NHL hockey Stanley Cup first-round playoff series, Sunday, May 5, 2024, in Dallas.
Monday, May 6, 2024 | 1:30 p.m.
Hockey season usually doesn’t end this early in Vegas.
For just the second time in franchise history, the Vegas Golden Knights were eliminated in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs, this time to the Dallas Stars in seven games.
Vegas had a 2-0 series lead before going 1-4 in the final five games, nearly getting reverse swept by the Stars.
While the Golden Knights took the top team in the west to their limit and kept every game close, here is why they fell short.
Long-term injured reserve hurt Golden Knights in the end
Twenty players were put on injured reserve this season, some multiple times. Nine players required surgery ,coach Bruce Cassidy said.
The Golden Knights used that to their advantage, going $8.72 million over the salary cap to sign multiple players and had a handful of players on IR return by the time the playoffs came around.
Captain Mark Stone, who suffered a lacerated spleen in February, was activated off long-term injured reserve before Game 1.
Forward William Carrier was activated off long-term injured reserve ahead of Game 1 after suffering an upper-body injury in late March.
While Vegas was getting all of its talent back at the right time, the team struggled to adjust to playing with a full roster again.
“I give our guys a lot of credit. They played through a lot of injuries and trying to find chemistry with guys in and out,” Cassidy said after Game 7. “It took its toll eventually — some of those surgeries.”
“You’re correcting a problem, but it takes a while to get back up to speed,” he said.
While Cassidy made multiple line changes after dropping Games 3 and 4 and switched out Logan Thompson for Adin Hill in goal, it didn’t slow Dallas.
IR also played a role in Vegas’ seeding going into the playoffs.
The Golden Knights were nearly a completely different team in the playoffs but still had to face the top team in the West due to a 3-4 stretch to end the regular season.
Vegas was in a narrow battle with Los Angeles for who would get the No. 3 seed in the West to face Edmonton and who would slide into the final wild-card spot.
A 4-1 loss to the Ducks, one of the worst teams in the league, in the Golden Knights’ final game of the regular season sealed their fate.
Vegas had 2-0 lead in series and didn’t close out
The Golden Knights had a chance to end the series in four games.
They took Games 1 and 2 on the road and were coming back home with a chance to sweep Dallas.
Cassidy said that Vegas’ worst performance was in Game 3, where Thompson was peppered by 42 Star shots, and the Golden Knights lost 3-2 in overtime.
In Game 4, the Golden Knights competed for the majority of the game, but a second-period fall-off cost them the game, losing 4-2. That tied the series and sent it back to Dallas.
In game 5 the team lost composure after a penalty on Alex Pietrangelo led to a game-winning power-play goal by Jason Robertson in a 3-2 loss.
With its back against the wall, Vegas avoided elimination with a 2-0 win in Game 6 but eventually fell in Game 7 after Dallas scored the game-winning goal less than a minute into the third period.
Pietrangelo said after Game 7 that the team struggled to adjust to the changes Dallas made after Game 2.
“I don’t think we adjusted well enough right away,” defenseman Alex Pietrangelo said. “That’s on us as players to find a way up 2-0 to get the job done.”
“We made mistakes along the way, but credit to them. They had a good season and good players,” he said.
Stars adjusted to Vegas’ aggressive approach
One of the biggest adjustments Dallas made was to the Golden Knights’ aggressiveness, which was their bread-and-butter last season en route to a Stanley Cup.
Vegas averaged 44 hits a game compared to Dallas’ 32. In the first three games of the series, the Golden Knights had at least 47 hits.
But that number dwindled deeper into the series, and the penalties rose. In Games 3, 4 and 5, Vegas took one more penalty than the Stars did.
In Game 4, Dallas scored a game-tying goal on the power play, and in Game 5, they scored two game-leading goals on the power play, which included the eventual winner.
The Stars also out-hit Vegas for the first time in the series in Game 7, 48 to 25.