The Golden Knights haven’t been scoring much recently. They’re 1-5-1 in the last seven games and have scored just 15 times in those games. Six of those 15 came in the lone win which means in the previous six losses the Golden Knights have scored a total of nine goals.
The main reason for this is that the most important players on the team are not putting the puck in the net. Look at the last time each player in the top six scored a goal.
Reilly Smith – 12/31/22 – 11 games without a goal
Chandler Stephenson – 1/5/23 – 9 games without a goal
Mark Stone – 1/5/23 – 2 games without a goal (+7 games injured)
Jonathan Marchessault – 1/7/23 – 8 games without a goal
Jack Eichel – 1/12/23 – 7 games without a goal
William Karlsson – 1/24/23 – 1 game without a goal
It starts with us. There’s no secret that to win hockey games you need your best players to be your best players. We’ve got to show up and we have to find a way to produce. -Marchessault
It starts with the simple fact that these guys are shooting less. Over the past seven games, each of Eichel, Stephenson, Smith, and Marchessault have all seen their shots per game dip.
Eichel’s is the most drastic going from 3.48 on average over the course of the season to just 1.86 in the past seven games. He has just three games all season in which he’s been held shotless, two of them since Stone went out.
Stephenson’s shot totals have dipped by nearly a third too. He’s averaging 1.42 shots per game on the season and has seen just four reach the goalie in the last seven games. He does not have a single game with more than one shot on goal since January 2nd, 10 games ago.
William Karlsson, who is the only top-six player to have scored since Mark Stone’s injury is also the only one to see his shot totals increase in the captain’s absence. But, it’s up just 0.24, or about one shot on goal every four games.
Unsurprisingly, all five players mentioned above have a negative +/- over the last seven games as well. Eichel leads the charge sitting at a -8 and he’s been at least -2 in four of the last seven games.
Simply put, if the Golden Knights want to turn around their scoring, they need it to start at the top of the lineup. These five forwards are the primary players on the power play, they receive the most minutes at even strength, and many even kill penalties. If they don’t produce, the team won’t win, and that’s exactly what’s been happening lately.
Jailbird
Last game before break. We need a good effort and a point to two. Come on boys, I still believe in you. Do it !
Former season ticket holder
Wild bill only one shot per 4 games who is not coaching him?
Tim
Drought ya think,
goalie trade
Ahead of tonight’s contest against the Islanders, the Golden Knights made a trio of roster moves, announcing that they’ve assigned forwards Pavel Dorofeyev and Byron Froese along with defenseman Kaedan Korczak to AHL Henderson.
if the Vgk lose again tonight, you can expect to see some trade activity begin to percolate.
knights fan in minny
i would guess it already has.
THE hockey GOD
thanks re posting some of the same thing THG posted earlier, now reaching a bigger audience.
posters here were saying the same thing last year. But no trades happened, they were also putting PDB’s head on a pike. Look at PDB now ! Yet Cassidy is getting a free passes as he plays spin the wheel with his lines. Something pDB never did to this extent.