Same Opponent, Same Game, Most Of The Season This Year For VGK

There’s a famous saying in combat sports that “styles make fights.” The idea is that a certain style often wins out over another, even if the less skilled fighter is the one using the optimal style.

In the NHL, teams do not deploy many different styles. Sure, some teams lean more towards a defensive game while others look to trade chances, but for the most part, the higher-skilled team has the best chance to win on most nights.

For the Golden Knights this year though, styles have seemed to heavily impact what type of game is played against each opponent. Just recently, Vegas saw a pair of high-scoring games against the Blackhawks while a couple grinding low-scoring affairs with New Jersey.

We can play both. We would always prefer not to open it up but there are games that end up that way. We have good offensive guys in the room and we can execute off the rush, we just have to be careful how it opens up. -Bruce Cassidy

It makes sense that matchups against the same team would go the same way, but typically in the NHL, it doesn’t go that way. For VGK though, it really has this year.

• vs ANA: Won all 4 games scoring 3 or 4 while allowing 1 or 2.
• vs CAR: Lost both scoring exactly 2
• vs CGY: VGK shut out the Flames both games
• vs CHI: Allowed exactly 5 goals against in each game
• vs DAL: 2 games finished 4-3 for DAL, the other a 3-2 win for VGK
• vs NJD: Allowed 0 and 1 goals while scoring just 2 and 3
• vs NYI: Scored 1 total goal in two games
• vs PHI: Scored exactly 5 goals in both wins
• vs SJS: Scored at least 4 in all three games, all wins
• vs. UTA: Fell behind by multiple goals in the 1st period of all three games
• vs. VAN: Won both games 3-1
• vs WSH: Scored exactly 2 goals while allowing at least 4 in a pair of losses

This season the Golden Knights have played 23 opponents on multiple occasions. Of those 23, they are undefeated against nine and winless against four. Thus, 13 of the 23, or well over half, of the teams they’ve played have had the same result in every matchup this season. That includes four games against Anaheim and three with San Jose.

Dallas, Chicago, Utah, St. Louis, and Seattle, all saw both teams win at least one matchup but the games were all remarkably similar. So if we add those in, 18 of 23 teams follow the same pattern.

This becomes important in the playoffs. On the positive end, if the Golden Knights thrive in a style against an opponent, they’ve proven they’re capable of beating them the same way over and over again. It’s problematic going the other way though.

The next few games offer a chance to break the trend. VGK struggled in Toronto, being shutout and looking listless most of the night. They played a low-event 1-1 game against Columbus at T-Mobile Arena earlier this year and eventually lost in OT, and there are a pair of games against Pittsburgh in the next two weeks.

The trend is all good and well when it results in a bunch of wins, but the goal this year is to beat four different teams four games out of seven. If they can’t buck the trend, that will be incredibly difficult to pull off against the best teams in the league in May and June.