Golden Knights start road trip with loss to Sabres

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Mark Stone stood in the middle of the locker room unwavering in his belief that the Golden Knights remain an upper-echelon team in the Western Conference.

Across the room, Marc-Andre Fleury echoed that sentiment.

But at the moment, the numbers tell a different story.

The Knights opened a four-game road trip Tuesday with a 4-2 loss to the Buffalo Sabres at KeyBank Center that knocked them out of a playoff position.

“It’s tougher (not to get frustrated), especially when you’re losing to teams that you know you’re better than. We’re a better hockey team,” Stone said. “We just have to find ways to put the puck in the net, and we’ve kind of gone stale the last bunch of games.”

The Knights dropped their fourth straight, their second-longest skid of the season, and have now lost more games than they’ve won with a 24-19-6 record.

Reilly Smith scored a power-play goal at 1:43 of the third period to tie the score 2-2, but Buffalo’s Jack Eichel scored a spectacular goal six minutes later to put the Sabres ahead.

Eichel stickhandled around defenseman Shea Theodore and flipped the puck past Fleury for his 28th goal of the season.

“He was coming quick, and he had the option of passing the puck on the other side, too. I think I played that too much,” Fleury said. “I should have focused more on him and let him beat us with a nice pass. I opened up too much for him to get the goal there.”

The Knights struggled to finish in front of Sabres goaltender Linus Ullmark, including a glaring miss by Chandler Stephenson late in the second period shortly before the Knights were assessed a bench minor penalty for too many men on the ice.

The Sabres converted on the ensuing power play, with Sam Reinhart one-timing a pass from Rasmus Ristolainen for a 2-1 lead with 18.7 seconds remaining in the period.

“Adversity at the end of the day can make a team stronger, and we’ve got to look at this as an opportunity to build our game as a group,” Max Pacioretty said. “Maybe when we were winning, things weren’t perfect and this could be a sign of we’ve got to bear down in all areas of the ice.”

Here’s what stood out from the loss:

1. Short-handed blues

Since Jan. 1, the Knights have the NHL’s worst penalty kill.

They’ve allowed a power-play goal in six straight games and have a dreadful 42.9 percent success rate (6-for-14) killing penalties in 2020.

Buffalo went 2-for-3 with the man advantage, as Kyle Okposo tallied in the second period to tie the score at 1 before Reinhart put the Sabres ahead.

“Their power play is (21st) in the league, so we should be killing those penalties,” Stone said. “At the end of the day, we’ve got to go back to the drawing board and see what it is.”

2. Weather the storm

After being outscored 10-0 in the first period of their past four games, the Knights placed a premium on getting off to a better start against Buffalo.

But they spent large portions of the first period in their own zone and were forced to rely on Fleury before turning the tables in the second period.

Tomas Nosek scored 1:55 into the second period for his first goal since Dec. 17, the first time in seven games the Knights notched the opening goal.

“Slow start for the first period obviously, but I thought we played better as the game went on,” coach Gerard Gallant said.

3. Marchessault returns

Left wing Jonathan Marchessault was back in the lineup after a five-game absence because of a lower-body injury and clearly was amped up.

Off the opening faceoff, Marchessault lined up Lawrence Pilut and decked the Sabres defenseman near the boards at center ice.

Marchessault logged eight shot attempts (two on goal) and had a minus-2 rating in 16:14 of ice time.

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