Is panic warranted for the Vegas Golden Knights?

After taking both Games 1 and 2 in Dallas, the Vegas Golden Knights seemed to be in a great position in their first round series against the Stars. But after dropping both games at home, they are panicking, and it shows in some of the changes they made to their lineup for Game 5. But were those changes necessary?

Ken Boehlke joined Tyler Yaremchuk on Daily Faceoff Live to talk about the Golden Knights’ changes to the lineup, and whether they were needed after their performance in Games 3 and 4.

Ken Boehlke: I was not sure what we were going to get and there is a lot going on.

Adin Hill is the starter. He’s going to make his first start in the postseason after Logan Thompson was phenomenal in Game 3 and I didn’t think he was that bad in Game 4. Pretty wild that they’re doing that.

There’s a shakeup to three of the four lines, to two of the three pairs. There’s multiple lines that have never played together, there’s one pair that hasn’t played together. There’s a lot going on.

Tyler Yaremchuk: So considering how the first two games went, they obviously win both on the road in Dallas, they drop both at home. Is this level of panic warranted? Did their play fall off that hard in Games 3 and 4 that they should be doing this?

Ken Boehlke: Game 3 was really bad, Game 4 was really not as bad. They had two different leads in that game, they just didn’t really have the push in the third period that you would expect from a team trying to get back into the game. I understand where it’s coming from. They have not been the better team at 5-on-5, and when they’re good, they usually are the better team at 5-on-5, so I get it.

But, it’s a lot. It’s a new first line, It’s a first liner going to the fourth line. It’s still having the situation where William Karlsson can’t take draws, you have to have an extra center with him. They’re putting in a rookie that hasn’t played in a playoff game at all in Pavel Dorofeyev. So there’s quite a bit going on. Noah Hanifin and Ben Hutton are playing together, that’s never happened. There’s a lot going on.

Is it worth it? Was it necessary? I’m on the fence there.

You can watch the full episode here…