All progress achieved 24 hours ago by the Golden Knights did not make the trip home from San Jose. A bad defensive showing, paired by a rare problematic start for goalkeeper Adin Hill, placed the Golden Knights in an early hole they couldn’t pull out of in a 5-3 loss to the Nashville Predators at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday.

Vegas went home following a 4-0 win against the San Jose Sharks at SAP Center on Monday in a game they controlled throughout. Not only did they receive goals from four different scorers, but Logan Thompson had a 29-save shutout. The opposite happened Tuesday.

Hill allowed four goals on 39 shots, the most since giving up five in Montreal on Nov. 16. He’s let up seven goals in his last two games after surrendering seven total in the previous four starts since returning from a lower-body injury that held him out for two months. Those in front of him couldn’t solve Nashville goalkeeper Kevin Lankinen and his 22-save effort.

William Karlsson and Alex Pietrangelo scored for the Golden Knights (32-18-6), who dropped to 3-3-0 since returning from the All-Star break.

It’s the first time Hill has lost three consecutive starts as a member of the Golden Knights. He’s let up 12 goals in three losses.
Defenseman Shea Theodore returned after a 35-game hiatus following upper-body surgery in November. Theodore had an assist on Karlsson’s power-play goal in the third period and had one shot on goal in 20:51.

But for the good that Theodore’s homecoming brought, the Golden Knights did not escape untouched.

Mark Stone did not play in the third period due to an upper-body injury acquired likely from a hit by Nashville’s Yakov Trenin in the second period. Stone, who has had two back surgeries since 2022, did not appear to be favoring anything after the collision, but it was enough to not return.

The Golden Knights trimmed the margin to 4-3 with 2:59 left when Michael Amadio scored on a rebound, but Nashville’s Gustav Nyquist scored into an empty net with less than two minutes remaining for the two-goal finish.