(Photo Credit: @EdmontonOilers on X/Twitter)
Two games, two similar scripts.
The Golden Knights dug themselves a deep hole by starting slow, then managed to turn it around and make a game of it, ultimately falling short.
What you’ve seen out of this team is poor starts and great finishes all year. Starts can be in us, we’ve had good starts, so it’s there, but obviously it’s my job to get it out of them. And it’s their job as professionals. They’ve watched the same movie too, and at some point it’s like ‘ok guys, let’s put an end to this.’ -Bruce Cassidy
This franchise has done well at steering clear of frustration, but it’s clearly sinking in following the last two games in Alberta.
As far as the start, not good enough again, and now we’re paying the price. Let’s learn from that. I’ve used that line a lot.
As a coach, you are sort of like, ‘do we have to revisit this again?’ And the players do they want to hear it again? So just own it, just frickin’ own it, and let’s move past it and correct it and build our game that we know we’re capable of doing. -Cassidy
VGK have allowed the first goal in four consecutive games and have trailed at some point in 11 of the last 14 games. They’ve allowed the first goal in 20 of their 34 games, the fourth most in the league. They also currently rank 29th in the NHL in time spent leading ahead of only Los Angeles, Nashville, and Seattle. The Golden Knights have held the lead for a measly 25.5% of the time this season.
Before this past road trip, the deficits typically haven’t extended beyond one or two goals. With Jack Eichel, Shea Theodore, and William Karlsson all sidelined in the last two, it’s ballooned to four goals each game.
When you’re down some key pieces sometimes it’s tough but you can’t defer, you have to attack the game. When we do that we have success and we’ve shown that. -Hanifin
Although it continues to irk the team as to why they can’t get going early in games, their ability to recover and often erase the early failures has been nothing short of remarkable.
With this team, so much talent, we’re never out of a game. That’s the beauty of playing for the VGK, we’re always in games even if we’re chasing from behind. -Lauzon
Next up is a four-game homestand against Western Conference opponents, including the best team in the NHL by a wide margin, the Colorado Avalanche.
VGK must find a way to stem the flow of the slow starts because if they don’t, their comfortable position in the standings will vanish as the calendar flips to 2026.
Walt
It would help to quit acting like Losses are not losses……and comebacks that fall short are not victories.
I have never seen the players celebrating after an OT or shootout loss, and not after a regulation comeback loss either.
iow, the pollyanna treatment of losses only encourages more of the same.
err on the side of urgency, not cheerleading for losing.
incidentally, OTL stands for overtime LOSS
Bettman’s loser parity point cannot erase that.
Pistol Pete
Nobody is saying an OTL is not a loss it’s just not a regulation loss like these last two games. We get your point that an OTL is not celebrated like a win but ask the players if they would not have been happy to squeeze a point out of the Oilers game. OTL’s this season have been custom made for the team’s recurring position of rescuing a loss in regulation. Did not happen yesterday.
Vic
Agree Walt. Stats are nice but points, making the playoffs, getting healthy and peaking at the right time are what counts. When the team loses, it doesn’t matter much to me that they tried hard or so and so had an assist. Remember the old saying….Ties are like kissing your sister? The VGK are running out of sisters.
Emmanuel
I wish they went back to ties…..maybe im just old-fashioned.
Jake
Short on depth scoring
Short on goaltenders “winning” games that they don’t “deserve” to win.
Short on youthful talent and speed.
Short on “desperation” starts to games.
Short on hard forechecking which creates opportunities.
Short on holding onto the damn puck, especially in their own zone.
I guess that’s enough
Pistol Pete
“Short on depth scoring”
You mean the fourth line? That would be true though with full health it would help to have Howden on it. Eichel/Hertl/Karlsson lines good.
“Short on goaltenders “winning” games that they don’t “deserve” to win.”
Blah blah blah.
“Short on youthful talent and speed.”
This team is not slow.
“Short on “desperation” starts to games.”
Correctable.
“Short on hard forechecking which creates opportunities.”
Not true. All teams have their ups and downs.
“Short on holding onto the damn puck, especially in their own zone.”
Not true. All teams have their ups and downs.
Different fans see games different ways.
knights fan in minny
I like your dedication Pistol Pete You can talk till you’re blue in the face but people are gonna whine about everything when they lose a few games No one is twisting their arm to watch the games tell them just to turn the channel
Jake
Objective looks at teams are the way to improve:
Observe performance, identify the problems, gather information, consider options, enact plan for improvement, evaluate progress and adjust again.
It is business, professionalism, not whining.
Coaches and players do it, fans are allowed to do it too.
Thanks for allowing my observations.
Pistol Pete
We are not coaches and players we are fans who are less in the know. Disgruntled fans whine.
hdbiker7851
Hi PP – your optimism is great but I truly believe you believe more of the negative than you care to admit. They have issues which obviously are not easily correctable. You can lead a horse to water but can’t make they drink – this is the situation Cassidy is faced with. The conversation with the players by the media and their assessments of what’s necessary to correct things are not transferring into action. Talk is cheap turning that talk into action is what’s necessary. I know from some of your posts you know there are problems but have difficulty in admitting they exist. The team needs to put on their big boy pants and prove they are worthy of less criticism. I notice that Cassidy is not as critical of their performance than in the past which I am not sure is in their best interest. Time to kick it into gear and play the hockey they are capable of playing. Go Knight Go.
KnightWatch
Always appreciated the fact that Cassidy is a straight shooter on camera.
Have noticed a slight different tone but still calls them out when warranted. If it’s the same behind the scenes maybe this is a let’s try something different approach to see what might sink in.
Larry
Jake, thank you for this descriptive and well-thought out post
Tell it like it is and hoped to be, rather than how it is imagined to be.
KnightWatch
I’m inclined to believe that the veterans are so sure of their game that slow starts aren’t of much concern (to them). That it’s become muscle memory, we can start slow, kick it in gear and all is fine.
Unfortunately it’s contagious and others follow suit. Just as when they play like we all know they can, the whole team buys in and great things happen.
The past few seasons they got away with it. Unfortunately they haven’t accepted that personal changes and father time is not allowing those comebacks as often or as “easy”. Especially when key pieces are missing.
Think all agree there will always be ebbs and flows in a season.
it’s how you manage them that matters.
hdbiker7851
Muscle memory or not the game is 60 minutes minimum and the sooner that kicks into muscle memory the better. They have proven they don’t have the same capacity to come back that existed previously and in one way or another acknowledge that in interviews. It is so obvious when they decide to pick it up they are a different team but continuing to have to dig out of the hole they create is not a sustainable solution. That is not a playoff Stanly Cup attitude destined to fail. Competition is on to their thinking and continues to capitalize – it’s not going to change until VGKs changes their mind set.
Pistol Pete
Looks like Ducks and Kings fans have something to cry about like a number of the poster fans here at SinBin. Their teams lose at home that is at home to last place teams that is last place teams and lose as in LOSE = zero points. So you see the sky falls in not just SinBin VGK land but elsewhere. Lots of whining happening in Southern Cal about now!
Oh right, the Knights are old and slow no energy no fight no desire to win. Can’t forecheck can’t hold onto the puck in the O Zone. Can’t defend special teams suck, They just all around suck! Players are overpaid coach can’t figure it out FO is clueless hopeless sums it up right SMH?
larry
Good news fellow VGK fans, it has dawned on me after the final scores were posted tonight, that no matter how bad we have looked and/or played, we are luckily and gladly residing in the Pacific Division and to that end we are indeed fortunate!
Pistol Pete
Pacific is not the only place something like that can happen.
Emmanuel
Ducks have regressed recently & I suspect the Sharks are a Celebrini fugazi.
Im thinking Oil & VGK make the final cut not sure who will be the 3rd team. A 4th Pac team getting in is less than 50% likely.
Pistol Pete
Team has unaddressable systemic issues? How about the fans? I say when they don’t support the GM acquiring basically for free a point a game player for a fair salary I would say THAT is unaddressable systemic would you not agree SMH?
Pistol Pete
Something here is systemically amiss when not one Marner skeptic not a single one notes and gives the guy credit for being positioned in the greasy area to bury goal #3!
Larry
I can think of $12 million reasons why no one would have given him credit for scoring a goal into a wide open net, it’s his job to produce wherever he happens to be on the ice, and even more so while there are important Golden Knights that are sidelined at the present time.
Larry
Pete, you may think of those who have different opinions than yours ‘disgruntled whiners’, I think almost everyone who posts here is a dedicated and concerned VGK fan, offering their opinions as to what they see and hope for, this is not whining, this is discussing in an open forum.
JB
Damn Pete, I don’t know. I surely agree with the positive fan you are. I appreciate that. But you ARE just a fan, like we all are here. Why criticize every single opinion of others? No need for that! Please stop.
Pistol Pete
Criticizing how the team is constructed, plays and is managed is best left up to those who are qualified in the industry not the fans which is exactly why I leave the criticizing up to others. For me it is folly to criticize when I don’t have experience in the NHL. I am a fan. I am not McCrimmon and McPhee both of whom played the game at the collegiate level and McPhee in the NHL. Between them they have decades in management. I am not qualified to tell them or Cassidy how to do their jobs especially given the success the three have in winning a Cup
and I respect how they bring their experience to bear in getting results. I just try and enjoy the team while they remain somewhere near the top, stay positive and hope things work out. Hope is all I have. To complain about things I can’t change is folly.
I get the point on keeping my mouth shut with respect to what posters post. Let folks say what they must and when I disagree which is quite a bit of the time just let it go.
NAM
Dude STFU!
Pistol Pete
Touché!
Larry
Pete, no one ( I think?) is asking you to keep your mouth shut and not offer your insights to this forum, we are all fans and want the best for VGK, but now KEN has presented an avenue where divergent opinions and perspectives can be expressed, and should be done so without the recriminations and vindications that once existed here.
Bottom line to the bottom line, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all!!
TS
Larry, you are a true diplomat! I like your attitude!! That’s what we all have always wanted here: No Judgement. Merry Christmas to all!
Larry
TS thank you kindly for your words .
NAM
IMO this team has a couple of glaring flaws and certainly the biggest one is the Hertl and Doro line isn’t working. Sure both of those guys are good on the PP, but 5×5 that line isn’t good. Hertl playing with Stone and Marner for a short time the other night made that even more obvious. Hertl is actually a pretty good effective player, but putting him with Doro is negating him. Even putting Marner on that line didn’t make it better and certainly if Marner can’t bring it to life then Saad, at this stage, isn’t going to either.
The other flaw is the 4th line. I mean they are the 4th line, right? Maybe I am spoiled that this line with Roy had actually been formable the last several years. It isn’t any longer. This shit needs blown up and rebuilt.
So 2 out of 4 lines are a liability and/or aren’t helping this team out. This team really needs Karlsson back to then reorg the lines. Put Hertl with Marner/Stone. Karl/Smith with like Howden. Doro up with Jack as an experiment, if it doesn’t work then Doro on 4th and burry that line.
…and y’all need to start talking about hockey and not what he/she said.
Pistol Pete
Good observations NAM. Think we need though to leave it to Cassidy to use his experience and insights to do the best he can to make it all fit together sort of to my point above but good thoughts just the same. Things may just flow as you suggest.
Pistol Pete
I have posted this at least twice already. C’mon Mitch buddy you are keeping up with your assists
pace since becoming a Golden Knight but let’s get your shooting up to it’s 2.50 shots/game career average (which is btw well above average for the NHL) but we need your goal scoring magic including in the playoffs! Those hands and feet are other worldly use them to the max here in Vegas!
https://youtu.be/bi-n8qMGTyY
Rick Schoen
The Knights gave up some really good players to clear cap space for Marner. The replacements do not live up to the talent they lost. The Knights are paying the price in attitude and talent. Injuries to key players has had it affect.
You can’t make up for the loss of Jack or Wild Bill with the scrubbies they have had to fill the roster with.
vgk21
5 on 5 is a vitally important part of NHL hockey.
let’s look at Vgk plus minus to see how deeply it has gone wrong. way too many guys on the minus side of the ledger.
Marner +8
Korczak +8
Eichel +6
Stone +5
Theodore +5
Barbashev +3
Hutton +1
Lauzon +1
============================
Kolesar -10 (and zero goals)
Whitecloud -9
Hanifin -9
Dorofeyev -8
Sissons -7 (and 1 goal)
Hertl -6
Smith -6
McNabb -5
Bowman -4
Reinhardt -4
Howden -3
Saad -3
Holtz -2
Karlsson -1
very interesting how the 3rd pair dmen are helping the team while the 2nd pair d are not.
and how the Hertl line is a PP help, but a full strength weakness.
and very informative how the 4th line simply have to go bye bye
vgk21
World Junior tourney begins Friday.
Vegas prospect Trevor Connelly was ruled out Monday night due to injury.
un-friggin-believable