3 Key Takeaways From Wild's Game 1 Loss To the Golden Knights

The Minnesota Wild dropped Game 1 of their first-round series to the Vegas Golden Knights, 4-2. The home team quickly ran away with the back-and-forth battle, and a little surge of offense was not enough to completely recoup the score line, handing the Wild a first-game deficit in the playoffs.

It's not the greatest feeling limping into the playoffs because of the points earned in the first half of the season, and then falling in Game 1, but what can we take from that 60 minutes in T-Mobile Arena?

Vegas Powered By Power Play

Maybe it's just a coincidence that after playing the entire game at 5-on-5 until Vegas got their first chance on the power play, the game was fairly close. Waves of offense came from both ends, and any scoring chance was generated by trying to weave through a staunch wall of defenders. It was an incredibly tight game.

Until the Golden Knights managed to score just seconds into the first instance of special-team action on the night, and blew the doors wide open and took control.

The Wild had one chance on the man advantage but went the entire two minutes skating around, throwing three shot attempts towards the net and generating zero shots on goal. Then, just minutes later to close out the game, Brett Howden scored his second of the game for the Golden Knights and really put this game to bed.

If the Wild want to have any chance of winning this series, they have to nullify anything to do with Vegas's power play. They clearly are just murderers of the puck while having one more player on the ice than their opposition (or the Wild's penalty kill is that bad), and twice needed only seconds to convert Sunday night.

Matt Boldy Showing Off

Now, on to more positive notes. Matt Boldy used this opportunity to really show that his name deserves to be mentioned when considering this team's top players.

The 24-year-old winger scored both of the Wild's goals and genuinely looked like a playoff-ready dominant player, taking advantage of teammates' solid plays and capitalizing on his chances.

Boldy finished tied with Ryan Hartman for the team lead with nine shot attempts in the 60 minutes in Vegas. He delivered six hits, and both of his actual shots on goal ended up in the back of the net.

He won't continue shooting 100 percent in this series. Still, considering how stark the offense was from both sides as they were fighting for every inch of ice in each other's zone, the Wild can use someone with a good enough shot to hit on their chances.

One Killer Sequence

Pavel Dorofeyev might have killed the Wild's momentum with a split-second shot to give the Golden Knights the lead in the second period.

We already mentioned just how deadly the power play was for Vegas. However, more specifically, the first goal was scored in such a way that it essentially zapped any good feelings we had about this game.

Immediately off the face-off, the Golden Knights won the puck. Defenseman Shea Theodore recovered it at the point, skated to the top of the high slot, and faked a shot so hard that almost every member of the Minnesota Wild organization bit on it. Then, he sent it over to an invisible Dorofeyev, who put it in the back of a wide-open net.

It was miserable to watch.

The entire Wild team bit so hard that you could audibly hear them chomp down on the broadcast.

Whether you want to blame the entire penalty kill unit or just Filip Gustavsson himself for being at such an odd angle and being so aggressive off the face-off that his cage practically had a neon sign labeled shoot here, now!, you would sort of be correct. The movement from the team in front of Gustavsson was awkward, and the goaltender, unfortunately, was ill-prepared for a shot from that area.

It wasn't just that the goal gave Vegas the lead, and it would take Boldy scoring another one for this to not be the game-winning tally, but the nature of just how embarrassing it was sunk the game. It is like getting dunked on several times in a row and not being able to recover, and each time, it is more difficult to stand up from being posterized.

The Wild must dust themselves off and hope for a less suffocating game at T-Mobile Arena Tuesday night. If Kirill Kaprizov could just have a little bit more open ice, he could make more assists like he did on Boldy's first goal on Sunday night.

Puck drop is at 10:00 p.m. on Tuesday, so get some coffee brewing beforehand.