3 takeaways from Knights’ 1st loss: Olofsson hurt, Thompson shines

An area the Golden Knights struggled with last season was what coach Bruce Cassidy called “pockets of hockey.”

They weren’t outplayed for 60 minutes. Stretches in a game cost them.

The second period hindered the Knights on Tuesday, as they gave up three goals in just over three minutes in a 4-2 loss to the Washington Capitals at Capital One Arena.

“I think we made it tough on ourselves,” defenseman Alex Pietrangelo said. “We had a plan before the game. I don’t think we skated the way we needed to.”

Center Jack Eichel and right wing Victor Olofsson scored for the Knights (3-1-0), but goaltender Adin Hill gave up four goals — for the second time in three starts — on 22 shots.

Standing 200 feet away was Logan Thompson. The former Knights goaltender, who was traded to Washington on June 29, made 24 saves in his Capitals debut and earned his first win against his former team.

“Getting two points is the most important thing,” Thompson said. “Overall, that’s a great team win.”

The Knights were fortunate to get out of the first period with a 1-1 tie.

Washington (1-1-0) looked like the faster team. The Knights looked a step slow, especially in the neutral zone.

The Capitals also looked the more aware team early on.

Defenseman Zach Whitecloud had the puck taken away in the corner by forward Andrew Mangiapane, and he found left wing Jakub Vrana cutting to the net for the first goal at 6:02.

It was the third time in four games the Knights gave up the game’s first goal. Just like the previous two times, they got the response. Olofsson scored on the power play at 17:49 to tie it 1-1.

“Our execution wasn’t great early on,” Cassidy said. “We just never got to any pace in our game, and execution was very average.”

Then, the bad pockets showed up.

The Knights committed three consecutive tripping penalties — center Nicolas Roy at 18:33 of the first, defenseman Noah Hanifin 16 seconds into the second and defenseman Brayden McNabb at 2:36.

The Knights killed the first two, but not the the third, with right wing Tom Wilson scoring on the power play at 3:06 for the 2-1 lead.

Left wing Aliaksei Protas and defenseman Jakob Chychrun scored 57 seconds apart for three goals in 3:07 to make it 4-1.

“You’ve got to limit the damage there,” Cassidy said. “We eventually got to (our game) to give ourselves a chance, but that was probably too big a hole.”

Eichel scored 1:04 later to make it 4-2, but the Knights couldn’t generate anything else.

It’s not like the Knights were outplayed. Shot attempts were 42 apiece at five-on-five, and the Knights had more shots on goal for the game (26-22).

But a bad stretch cost the Knights. It was a constant theme last year. They now head to Tampa for the second game of their three-game road swing against the Lightning at 4 p.m. Thursday.

Here are three takeaways from the loss:

1. Olofsson injured

The result might not have been the Knights’ biggest loss.

Olofsson injured his left leg late in the third period and was helped to the locker room.

“It didn’t look good,” Cassidy said. “Hopefully it’s not too severe.”

Olofsson was seen on crutches after the game, NHL.com reported.

Olofsson was having a strong start to his Knights tenure after scoring his third goal of the season Tuesday. Two of those have come on the power play.

Right wing Brendan Brisson is available should Olofsson be out for an extended period of time.

2. Top line energy

The Knights’ top line, particularly Eichel and captain Mark Stone, has carried the offense to this point. It did again Tuesday, with Eichel scoring and Stone notching two more assists.

But Cassidy said it’s likely he overtaxed his two stars, especially with how much energy they spent on the penalty kill in the second period.

Eichel led all Knights skaters in ice time at 22:44. Stone was second among forwards at 20:50.

“They got a little tired,” Cassidy said. “That’s probably on me a little bit because of overuse. Some of it might be the travel day and some of it might be good checking on Washington’s part. That’s where we needed another line to give us some juice.”

3. Power play cooled

The Knights had their chances to get back into the game, particularly on the man advantage.

They had three more chances on the power play after Olofsson’s goal, but had only a combined two shots on goal.

It was rough enough that on the Knights’ third power play, the top unit was only on the ice for 23 seconds before the second unit came on.

The power play has been a strength for the Knights, but it wasn’t their best outing. Now with Olofsson hurt, the threat of his shot and one-timer goes away for the time being.

Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.