3 takeaways from Golden Knights’ loss: ‘We’ve got to stop the bleeding’

Zach Whitecloud is usually a fountain of enthusiasm and optimism no matter what situation the Golden Knights are facing.

When the defenseman sounds downtrodden and defeated the way he did Sunday, surely the rest of the team is feeling the pressure, too.

A season that started out with Stanley Cup hopes is threatening to spiral out of control, as the Knights reached the nadir of their struggles Sunday in a 6-4 setback to the Columbus Blue Jackets at Nationwide Arena in Columbus, Ohio.

“We have to find a way to get points,” Whitecloud said. “There’s no other way around it.”

With the trade deadline a week away, the slumping and injury-ravaged Knights look as if they are in need of a shake-up.

The loss was the fourth straight for the Knights, who are out of a playoff spot based on points percentage and in danger of missing the postseason for the first time in franchise history.

The road trip concludes Tuesday at Winnipeg, one of a handful of teams suddenly within striking distance of the Knights in the wild-card race with 21 games remaining. The Knights have never lost five straight in regulation.

“We’re four games into this trip, and I could argue we could have won every one of the games, but we found ways to lose,” coach Pete DeBoer said. “And that’s troubling. We’ve got to stop the bleeding.”

After struggling to generate goals lately, the Knights finally broke out against Columbus’ leaky defense. But goaltender Logan Thompson was unable to withstand the barrage of chances from the Blue Jackets in his third career NHL start.

The six goals allowed matched a season high.

Evgenii Dadonov scored late in the second period, his second goal on the trip, and Jack Eichel converted on a power play in the third to cut the deficit to 5-4. But the comeback attempt fell short, as Columbus goalie Elvis Merzlikins shut the door late.

“It’s the same old story,” center Chandler Stephenson said. “I’m sick of it. I think everybody is sick of it. Everybody has to kind of dig deeper … and just work. That’s the bottom line.”

Here are three takeaways from the game:

1. Something has to change

The Knights’ front office must decide what to do before the March 21 trade deadline.

The absence of captain Mark Stone has been difficult to overcome, as they’ve gone 4-9-1 since he was placed on long-term injured reserve with a back injury. But their struggles go back further, with 10 wins in their past 27 games (10-13-4) and a minus-12 goal differential since Jan. 1.

Left wing Max Pacioretty, who left Friday’s game at Pittsburgh in the second period, did not play and was one of nine regulars out of the lineup against Columbus. William Karlsson moved from center to left wing on the first line.

Forward Nolan Patrick was activated from injured reserve after missing the past 11 games with an upper-body injury.

“We didn’t play well enough for long enough to win this time of year,” DeBoer said. “We had moments where we tried real hard and did some good things, but overall our game wasn’t good enough for long enough.”

2. Action-packed period

The first 20 minutes was transported straight from the 1980s and featured five goals, 24 combined shots on goal and 10 penalty minutes. The only thing missing was a fight and someone wearing a Jofa helmet.

Patrik Laine gave the Blue Jackets an early lead on the power play before Jonathan Marchessault and William Carrier scored 4:10 apart to put the Knights ahead 2-1.

But the Blue Jackets turned the game around with two goals 30 seconds apart against the Dadonov-Patrick-Keegan Kolesar line. Columbus added two more goals in the second period against Thompson to go ahead 5-2.

“Obviously we can’t allow that many chances and allow that many goals to go in our net,” Whitecloud said. “That’s something we take pride in.”

3. Can’t slow Sillinger

The Blue Jackets’ second line of Cole Sillinger, Oliver Bjorkstrand and Max Domi did most of the damage, combining for four goals and nine points.

Sillinger recorded a hat trick, and the 18-year-old rookie became the second-youngest player in Blue Jackets history to accomplish the feat.

Bjorkstrand added a goal and three assists, while Domi had two assists and spent the rest of his ice time carrying out a personal grudge against Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo.

“We gave up too much for sure,” DeBoer said. “Good teams find a way to win all kinds of different games, right? You win 6-5, you win 2-1. You’ve got to be able to do both those things. Right now we can’t do either.”

Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.