Golden Knights face battle to make playoffs during final 2 months

When the Golden Knights lost four of their first five games to open the regular season and the sky appeared to be falling, coach Pete DeBoer assured they were not a 50- or 60-point team that was destined to miss the playoffs.

He was right about the first part, as the team overcame injuries to dig out of that early hole. But, shockingly, the postseason is far from a certainty for one of the Stanley Cup favorites.

The Knights have been in a tailspin since the All-Star Game and continue to fall further behind in the Pacific Division standings. With two months left in the regular season, they have to find answers or risk the fallout that will come from failing to meet their enormous preseason expectations.

“It’s adversity that we’re facing,” winger Jonathan Marchessault said, “and we better get out of it.”

Following Saturday’s 3-2 loss to league-leading Colorado, the Knights (29-20-4, 62 points) have dropped five of their past six games but remained in third place when Edmonton lost Sunday at Carolina.

To illustrate how tenuous the Knights’ grip is on a playoff spot, one point separates the Knights from the Oilers, who are out of a playoff spot.

Anaheim, which has played two more games than the Knights, is three points back.

The Knights continue to be plagued by injuries and were minus three of their top nine forwards and starting goaltender against the Avalanche on Saturday. Regardless, the 1-1-3 neutral-zone system stifled Colorado’s offensive attack for a little more than two periods.

But they were unable to close out the game, allowing two goals by the Avalanche in a 26-second span of the third to overshadow an otherwise strong performance.

“We fall asleep for a couple minutes every game and lose the game there,” Marchessault said.

Since the All-Star Game, the Knights are 2-4-1 and struggling to produce goals. Despite ranking second in scoring chances (34.6) and sixth in shot share (61.07 percent) per 60 minutes at five on five, according to NaturalStatTrick.com, that hasn’t translated into offense.

Their 2.0 goals per game during that span ranked 30th in the NHL entering Sunday. That’s mostly the result of poor finishing, with a shooting percentage (5.56) that ranked 29th.

“You want more goals,” DeBoer said. “You want more looks.”

The absences of wingers Mark Stone (back injury) and more recently Max Pacioretty (undisclosed) contributed to the scoring slump. Also, the timely goals that carried the Knights when injuries hit early in the season seemed to have dried up.

Center William Karlsson has one goal in his past 12 games and seven overall, not enough for someone making $5.9 million per season.

Evgenii Dadonov hasn’t lived up to his billing as a play-driving winger who would boost the power play and has no goals in his past 13 games. Nicolas Roy doesn’t have a goal in 13 games, either, and it’s been even longer for winger Mattias Janmark (15 games), who was injured Friday at Arizona.

Center Jack Eichel has four points in five games since being activated, but he can’t be expected to carry the offense after almost a year away and a little more than three months removed from artificial disk replacement surgery on his neck.

The Knights play 29 games in 60 days to close the season starting Tuesday against San Jose and have a favorable schedule the rest of the way with 19 games against non-playoff teams.

That’s plenty of time to prove they’re better than their record and avoid the embarrassment of being part of the Shane Wright draft sweepstakes.

“We’ve had (adversity) all year with injuries and whatnot,” defenseman Brayden McNabb said. “We’ve handled it well in the past, and we’re in it again.”

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