3 takeaways from Golden Knights’ loss at Minnesota

Three takeaways from the Golden Knights’ 4-2 loss at Minnesota on Thursday:

1. Sbisa’s back.

Defenseman Luca Sbisa returned to the Knights lineup after missing the past seven games with a lower-body injury. Sbisa was paired with Nate Schmidt on defense, while Brad Hunt was scratched along with Jon Merrill.

“Honestly, I felt pretty good,” Sbisa said. “In the first (period), my legs and my lungs felt terribly, but I knew if I keep going it’s going to get better. I think in the second I felt pretty good and then in the third I had a few long shifts and got tired again.

“But overall, I felt pretty good. Injury held up. Pretty happy with my first game back.”

2. Moving forwards.

As expected, Knights coach Gerard Gallant stuck with the line combinations he debuted in the third period of Tuesday’s loss to Dallas.

Former Wild players Erik Haula and Alex Tuch skated with James Neal, and Brendan Leipsic moved to the line with Cody Eakin and Oscar Lindberg.

The Haula-Tuch-Neal line generated three shots on goal. Leipsic hit the post early in the first period and also was stopped by Wild goaltender Devan Dubnyk on a 2-on-1 with Cody Eakin midway through the second.

“Honestly, personally I’ve got to be a little bit better,” Tuch said. “I made some nice plays tonight, but I’ve got to be consistently better.”

3. The Killers.

Minnesota entered play with the No. 4 power play in the NHL at 24.3 percent. But the Knights played a disciplined game and were able to kill off both of the Wild’s man-advantages.

“We played well, we worked hard and competed hard,” Gallant said. “If we do that most nights on the road, we’ll get some points.”

More Golden Knights: Follow all of our Golden Knights coverage online at reviewjournal.com/GoldenKnights and @HockeyinVegas on Twitter.

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