Golden Knights ‘embarrassing’ in loss to Avalanche in Las Vegas

Referee Eric Furlatt managed to remain inconspicuous Friday until 2:24 remained in the third period and he skated to center ice to announce a penalty on Colorado’s Ian Cole.

By then, even booing an official from the Golden Knights’ infamous Game 7 playoff loss to San Jose had little appeal to remaining announced crowd of 18,420 at T-Mobile Arena.

The Knights were outworked, outclassed and thoroughly dismantled by the speedy Avalanche in a 6-1 defeat that prompted coach Gerard Gallant to give his squad a rare public tongue-lashing afterward.

“There wasn’t a lot of effort tonight. It was an embarrassing game for our group,” Gallant said. “(Colorado) took the foot off the gas and gave us a chance. Didn’t want to embarrass us. To a man, we’ve got to look in mirror and say, ‘Is that our hockey team?’ I don’t think it is. So, we better pick it up.”

Colorado center Pierre-Edouard Bellemare notched a career-high three points in his return to T-Mobile Arena, scoring 28 seconds into the first period after he intercepted an ill-advised pass from Mark Stone.

Matt Calvert and Nazem Kadri finished with two goals and Nathan MacKinnon extended his points streak to 10 games with two assists for the Central Division leaders.

“Today was a total no-show for me,” Gallant said. “The good thing about it, it was a team effort. It wasn’t just one line or one player.”

Here’s what stood out in the Knights’ loss:

1. Papering over the cracks.

The play of Marc-Andre Fleury camouflaged the Knights’ defensive deficiencies without Nate Schmidt (lower-body injury), especially on the most recent road trip when the goaltender smashed-and-grabbed four of the possible six points.

But Fleury was left stranded against the onslaught from the Avalanche. He stopped 22 of 26 shots before being pulled with 7:24 remaining in the second period in favor of Garret Sparks.

“I mean, Marc-Andre Fleury, I pulled him to save him,” Gallant said. “It was embarrassing the way we were playing.”

Gallant called the team’s first periods “atrocious lately,” and they trailed 2-1 to Colorado after 20 minutes. The Knights have been outscored 4-1 in the first period of their past three games and were outshot 11-6 by Pittsburgh on Oct. 19 in a goalless the opening 20 minutes.

“I think we got outworked in our building, which is unacceptable,” Stone said. “It’s not for a lack of talent. It’s a little bit of a work ethic thing.”

2. Flat-track bully?

The Knights fell to 7-5 and have one victory over a team with a true winning record (Pittsburgh). Calgary at 6-5-1 owns as many losses as wins.

The remainder of the Knights’ wins are over teams with a combined record of 12-23-4, including two over San Jose.

Each time the Knights have had a chance to notch a signature win, they’ve fallen well short. They lost 4-3 to Stanley Cup runner-up Boston and were thumped by Arizona, Nashville and the Avalanche (8-1-1).

“They were dominant,” Knights defenseman Brayden McNabb said. “They’re a good team, and they really showed us we have a long way to go.

“It was a humbling game.”

3. Something to build on.

William Karlsson had the lone goal for the Knights with 1:30 remaining in the first period to briefly tie the score 1-1.

But the way he scored against Colorado resembled so many from his 43-goal campaign in 2017-18, as Karlsson found open ice on the weak side and one-timed a pass from Reilly Smith.

The first-line center had one goal — an empty-netter in Pittsburgh — in the opening 11 games after signing an eight-year, $47.2 million contract, but that might be what gets him going.

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