Vegas lost its third straight home game after falling behind 2-0 to the Florida Panthers. Tomas Hertly and Ivan Barbashev scored late, both goals making it a one-score game, but the Golden Knights couldn’t find the equalizer.
LAS VEGAS — The Golden Knights lost their third straight home game Monday night, as the two-time defending Stanley Cup champion Florida Panthers held on for a 3-2 victory.
Brad Marchand extended his goal streak to five games with his sixth goal in that span and 11th of the season, while Jesper Boqvist and Sam Reinhart also scored to lead the Cats.
Sergei Bobrovsky made 30 saves for Florida.
Tomas Hertl and Ivan Barbashev scored in the third period, both goals drawing the Knights to within one goal. Rookie Carl Lindbom made 17 saves.
Vegas’ second-period woes continued, as it’s now been outscored 8-1 in the middle frame over its last nine games. The Knights opened the season tied for the league lead after outscoring teams 10-4 in the second period, but have struggled to find any rhythm offensively after the first intermission.
The power play has also been an issue, as the Knights went 0 for 3 with a man advantage and are now 3 of 29 with an extra skater in the last nine games.
KEY MOMENT: With what would eventually be the “sign of things to come,” Mitch Marner’s first-period miss at a wide-open net seemingly set the tone for how the night would go for Vegas. Marner deked Bobrovsky and had a wide-open look for a lift of the puck into the net. Maybe easier said than done, but Marner put too much on the puck, which appeared to deflect off Bobrovsky’s skate high over the goal and into the net… the one protecting the crowd above the end board.
KEY STAT: Florida is now 5-1 against Vegas since losing to the Knights in the 2023 Stanley Cup. Prior to meeting in the Cup Final, Vegas had won seven of the first 10 regular-season meetings after entering the league. Then the Knights won the Cup in five games, culminating with a 9-3 demolition in Game 5. Since then, the Panthers have outscored Vegas 18-12 in winning five of six.
WHAT A KNIGHT: It’s hard to ignore what Lindbom has been thrust into since starter Adin Hill was sidelined with an injury on Oct. 20. Making just his fourth start, Lindbom (0-3-1, 3.25 GAA, .869 SV%) has now faced the Panthers, Colorado and Tampa Bay twice. In three of those games, Lindbom has faced former Vezina winners Bobrovsky and Andrei Vasilevskiy. And over his four starts, the Knights have provided the rookie with eight goals of support, 2.0 per game.
UP NEXT: The Golden Knights conclude their season-long six-game homestand on Thursday against the New York Islanders.
The Atlanta Falcons are in the midst of a brutal four-game losing streak after dropping another heartbreaker in Berlin in Week 10. Their triumphant win over the Buffalo Bills feels like a distant memory at this point. Sitting at 3-6 through nine games played, the playoffs have quickly begun to slip from their grasp.
With the season beginning to fall away for an eighth consecutive year, there are certainly growing frustrations in Flowery Branch and questions that are certain to start coming up. Granted, laying the last decade of struggles at the feet of Raheem Morris would be unfair – he has only been the head coach in Atlanta for the last 26 games – there is a growing urgency for this team to find its winning stroke.
Through 10 weeks, Brian Daboll (Giants) and Brian Callahan (Titans) are the only head coaches to get the axe, but they are certainly not going to be the only ones by the time this season ends. Not including those two franchises, there are 10 other teams with three or fewer wins this year, including the Falcons.
After the issues the Falcons have had, Morris’s name has started to pop up on various ‘hot seat’ lists, including Matt Verderame’s with Sports Illustrated. Verderame lists four different NFL head coaches, ranked by how hot he feels their seats are.
First, he has the Dolphins’ Mike McDaniel with a ‘hot seat meter’ of eight, followed by the Browns’ Kevin Stefanski with a seven, then the Bengals’ Zac Taylor with a four, and finally, Morris with a three.
As for Morris, Verderame says the following:
“The Falcons have an elite receiver, an elite running back, another quality back and a solid pass rush. They also play in the NFC South. And yet, Atlanta is 3–6 and looking at another long year that ends without a first-round pick, having already dealt it to the Rams.
“Morris has now been a head coach for four-plus years, first with Tampa Bay and then with Atlanta, and has a career record of 32–54 with no playoff appearances. Owner Arthur Blank is typically patient, as evidenced by Arthur Smith going 7–10 in three consecutive seasons before being dismissed.
“The problem for Morris? He’s in the midst of his third season, and none of them are likely to end with a winning mark. It might be time for Blank to make another change, seeking the Falcons’ first postseason appearance since 2017.”
While some of this criticism is warranted, Verderame is also a little off-base with a few of his comments.
First, the Falcons have only played the Buccaneers and Panthers (on the road) in the NFC South. The Bucs have been one of the NFC’s best teams this season, so it’s not exactly a ‘bad loss’ like he insinuated. The Panthers are also sitting at 5-5, with four wins in their last six games.
Using the division the Falcons play in as ammunition at this point in the season is a bit disingenuous.
Second, the Falcons are in excellent shape after dealing their first-round pick for 2026. While unfortunate that the pick is trending towards the top of the class, they acquired both Xavier Watts and James Pearce Jr. from the deal, two outstanding rookies. If they had to do it over again, they likely would.
Furthermore, this would be a critique of general manager Terry Fontenot, not Morris.
Finally, Verderame incorrectly states that Morris is in his third season as head coach. Although he held an interim tag in 2020 after the franchise fired Dan Quinn, Morris was hired in 2024 to be the head coach.
Last season, his first in Atlanta, the Falcons finished 8-9, just outside of the playoffs. However, with playoffs as the stated goal, 2025 was expected to be the year they got over that hump. They have not been to the postseason since that 2017 season, and it does not appear they will snap that streak this year.
Whether that costs Raheem Morris his job remains to be seen.