3 takeaways: Golden Knights can’t overcome 4-goal deficit against Oilers

Less than 24 hours after Bruce Cassidy urged his team to figure out how to start on time, the Golden Knights fell behind yet again.

If only they could figure out how to turn the third period into the start of the game.

The Knights trailed by four goals midway through the game, managed to cut the deficit to one early in the third, but they couldn’t complete the comeback in a 4-3 loss to the Edmonton Oilers at Rogers Place on Sunday night.

The Knights were on the second leg of a back-to-back after losing 6-3 to the Calgary Flames on Saturday.

So were the Oilers, who was the worse for wear between the two teams. They lost 5-2 in Minnesota on Saturday and had to fly back home. They played six games in nine days.

Edmonton finished 4-2 in that stretch.

“I don’t really have a reason why we wouldn’t start on time,” Cassidy said. “What I saw was we didn’t execute or play with the same pace or compete the way they did. Why that was, it’s certainly nothing to do with a back-to-back.”

Edmonton jumped out to a 4-0 lead 7:45 into the second period after Oilers left wing Zach Hyman’s transition goal.

The Oilers already got two goals from Ryan Nugent-Hopkins and one from Connor McDavid.

But the Knights (16-8-10) made a rally, starting with Tomas Hertl’s power-play goal at 12:59 of the second.

Pavel Dorofeyev and Mitch Marner scored within 1:57 of each other to cut the deficit to 4-3 at 5:49 of the third.

The Knights dominated the final period, outshooting the Oilers 12-3.

“Our first periods have been good recently,” Marner said. “I think the last two, obviously, haven’t been ideal for us.”

Hertl finished with a goal and two assists for his first three-point game of the season, and Marner had a goal and an assist. Defenseman Noah Hanifin added three assists.

Goaltender Carter Hart made 17 saves and lost in regulation for the first time in six starts for the Knights.

McDavid and Nugent-Hopkins had three points each for the Oilers (18-13-6), who won for the seventh time in 10 games.

Here are three takeaways from the loss:

1. Slow start again

The Knights scored first in the first four games of their recent five-game Eastern road trip.

They’ve now given up the first goal for the fourth straight game.

There’s no exact science as to why they’ve fallen behind this badly. Puck management was an issue Saturday. Cassidy didn’t think it was as much of a problem Sunday.

It wasn’t like the Knights were low on chances. They had three of their five power-play opportunities in the first period. Hertl hit a post at 6:20 on their first man advantage opportunity.

McDavid opened the scoring with his goal less than three minutes later, using his speed to get behind the defense.

“When you’re playing against him, you have to be careful where your third forward is. You can’t get caught,” Cassidy said. “The goal he scored, I thought we were above, but he got behind us anyway and he has the ability to do that.”

The Oilers capitalized on their power-play chances. Nugent-Hopkins made it 2-0 at 14:37 on a backdoor tap-in off a cross-ice pass from center Leon Draisaitl. He added a second power-play goal at 2:22 of the second.

“You got to play with confidence,” Hanifin said. “You can’t sit back, especially against teams with that much skill up front. If you sit back and let them dictate, you’re going to be in trouble.”

2. Power play response

This would be a different conversation if the Knights converted one of their first three power plays.

Hertl’s post on the first attempt was their most dangerous look. McDavid wreaked havoc on the next two. He even created a chance on a one-on-four.

But they got pucks to the net on their next two. That led to Hertl’s goal to get them on the board, and Dorofeyev’s goal early in the third after collecting Hanifin’s rebound from the weak side.

“When we got the puck in the right areas, we made good plays,” Marner said. “I thought once we got our breakouts going, we were doing a lot of good things in the neutral zone, getting in the o-zone.”

The Oilers had nine high-danger chances at five-on-five through two periods, according to Natural Stat Trick. The Knights had four in the third period.

3. Dealing with injuries

The Knights had to go a second straight game without center Jack Eichel (illness, lower body) and defenseman Shea Theodore (upper body) in the lineup, and it showed.

They’re missing their No. 1 center and his 200-foot impact. They’re missing their No. 1 defenseman, who has become a reliable penalty killer and a one-man zone breaker.

“I think when you’re down some key pieces, sometimes it’s tough,” Hanifin said.

Hanifin played a game-high 26:27 and had four shots. Marner, who has seven points in his last four games, led all forwards by playing 23:59.

Both were excellent, but it took that rally before that was evident. However long Eichel and Theodore are out, the responsibilities fall on their shoulders.

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