The Vegas Golden Knights looked stuck in an old Mitch Hedberg joke Tuesday night.
“The depressing thing about tennis is that no matter how good I get, I’ll never be as good as a wall.” For much of a 2-0 loss to Buffalo, that wall was Ukko-Pekka Luukkonen. Vegas kept firing, the Sabres goalie kept sending everything back, and the shutout loss dropped the Golden Knights into third place in the Pacific Division.
The wall won
Vegas did not play a bad hockey game. In fact, this was one of those nights where the process mostly held up, but the result did not.
The Knights outshot Buffalo 28-25, won 50.8 percent of the faceoffs, and finished with 28 hits. They also created enough second and third looks to feel like a breakthrough was coming. However, Luukkonen never cracked.
Dorofeyev missed an open rebound chance. Marner hit the crossbar late. Stone had looks around the crease. Hertl had chances in tight. Even when Vegas beat the goalie, the puck stayed out.
Cassidy did not see a repeat of the Dallas loss in terms of chance generation.
“No, I thought we got lots of pucks there, some rebounds,” Cassidy said. “We just misfired on them.”
He also made clear the offense was there more than the final score suggested.
“I thought we created more offense than we did against Dallas, to be honest,” Cassidy said. “Just didn’t execute well enough on the last play.”
That is where the Hedberg line fits. Vegas was not stuck in neutral. The Knights were active, sharp, and often on the front foot. Still, Buffalo’s goalie kept answering.
One mistake, one climb
Buffalo got the only goal it needed at 18:02 of the first period.
Josh Doan scored after a misplay behind the Vegas net turned into a scramble around Hill’s crease. It was the kind of harmless-looking sequence that swings a tight game, and Cassidy did not dodge it afterward.
“The difference in the game is a misplay behind the net, right?” Cassidy said. “It’s one of those things that happens a couple times a year. It happened to us tonight.”
From there, Vegas had to chase.
That part mattered. The Golden Knights had done a better job lately of playing with the lead. On Tuesday, they were back in a one-goal grind, and every missed chance felt a little heavier.
Good enough everywhere else
What made the loss more frustrating was how much of the rest of the game Vegas handled well.
Hill stopped 23 of 24 shots before Josh Norris added an empty-netter with 58 seconds left. The penalty kill went 2-for-2. Buffalo’s attack had its moments, but Vegas limited a lot of the clean second chances and defended well through the middle.
“I thought we played a good game. I really did,” Marner said. “We had a lot of good looks. Their goalie made some big saves, obviously, for them.”
Marner also liked the way Vegas handled Buffalo’s skill.
“That’s a team that creates a lot of offense when they get in the zone,” Marner said. “And I think we did a good job shutting it down.”
Hertl struck a similar tone. He did not love the finish, but he did like the overall game.
“Obviously, we had some good looks, hit some crossbar and stuff,” Hertl said. “Obviously, we have to bury more.”
He also added: “I think it was actually, from us, a pretty, pretty good game.”
That is the hard part of a loss like this. The tape will show plenty to like. The standings will not care. Vegas did enough defensively, got enough goaltending, and generated enough offense to win. However, on a night that felt like playing tennis against a wall, the Golden Knights never found the shot that finally got through.
Up next
Vegas wraps up its homestand Thursday night against the Utah Mammoth at T-Mobile Arena. The Golden Knights then head out for a three-game road trip that could shape the rest of the 2025-26 season, with the Pacific race still tight and little margin left over the final stretch.
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Dice City Sports editor Mark Hebert covers the Vegas Golden Knights, Las Vegas Raiders, Athletics, and UNLV baseball and softball. He has 24 years of journalism experience, is also a senior reporter at Exhibit City News, and previously covered the Dallas Stars and Texas Rangers. Follow him on X or connect on LinkedIn.
