Tag: 5-on-5

The Golden Knights are currently the 11th-highest scoring team in the NHL. VGK are averaging 3.33 goals per game, while only allowing 2.58 opponents’ goals per contest. This shouldn’t be surprising, as the franchise has averaged more than 3.2 goals per game during the entire Bruce Cassidy era. Also, they added superstar Mitch Marner to the top six.

VGK’s Goals Scored Per Game Under Cassidy

• 2025-26: 3.33 Goals Scored Per Game (11th)
• 2024-25: 3.34 Goals Scored Per Game (5th)
• 2023-24: 3.21 Goals Scored Per Game (14th)
• 2022-23: 3.26 Goals Scored Per Game (14th)

The Golden Knights have a goal differential of +8 through 12 games, but they’re not doing enough of it on 5-on-5, a format that takes up about 75% of a 60-minute NHL game. This year’s team has averaged 1.92 goals per game at 5-on-5. The fewest the team has scored in franchise history is 2.11 in both Year 2 and Year 3.  Cassidy’s teams coming into this season have averaged 2.22 per game, so they are a third of a goal short each night.

Currently, the Golden Knights are 26th in 5-on-5 goals with 23 in a dozen games. By the way, VGK’s marquee player Jack Eichel has seven of them. Wingers Pavel Dorofeyev and Ivan Barbashev have four apiece, which means the rest of the roster has combined for just eight.

Now, when it comes to having an extra man, VGK has plenty of scoring to show for it. The Golden Knights rank in the top ten for total man-advantage goals scored this season. Dorofeyev, Vegas’ top power play sniper, is tied for second for the most PP goals of 2025-26.

Going into tonight, the Golden Knights’ power play success rate is scoring at a healthy 25%. It’s dropped over the past few games, but expect Vegas to continue to score when they have an extra skater on the ice. Considering Vegas doesn’t draw many penalties, even-strength goals are extremely valuable for their future success. In 11 postseason games last season, Vegas scored eight power play goals but only 17 at 5-on-5. That’s a measly 1.55 per night at 5-on-5, nowhere close to enough to win in the playoffs.

Scoring hasn’t been a major concern through the first month of the season, but with the power play dipping a bit with Mark Stone on the shelf, the 5-on-5 numbers are going to have to start going up, and quickly.

5-on-5 dominance is the #1 reason why the Golden Knights have a Stanley Cup banner hanging from the rafters at T-Mobile Arena. In the 22-game playoff run, Vegas literally doubled their opponents’ output at 5-on-5 scoring 66 goals while conceding just 33. It was one of the most remarkable runs in league history as the Golden Knights outscored their expected goals tally by 16.53 and allowed 12.16 fewer than expected.

Vegas outscored their opponents in 17 of the 22 playoff games at 5-on-5 and only failed to score in one game, the Game 3 loss in the Stanley Cup Final.

Well, the tables have turned.

In the last 13 periods, so just over four games, the Golden Knights have not scored a single goal at 5-on-5. It’s been 211 minutes and 14 seconds of 5-on-5 action since Jonathan Marchessault scored against Philadelphia on November 18th.

During that stretch, the Golden Knights have racked up a sizeable 7.96 expected goals in their exactly 100 shots. They’ve had 87 scoring chances, 33 from high-danger, and have gotten 21 high-danger shots on goal according to NaturalStatTrick.com, yet not a single shot has found the back of the net.

This is the longest streak of 5-on-5 futility in franchise history rivaled by only one other instance in which they have gone longer than eight periods. In 2019 the Golden Knights were held scoreless at 5-on-5 for 11 consecutive periods from October 15th to the 25th. It was over a span of five games, and oddly Vegas rattled off a 3-2-0 record in those games.

Prior to the current four-game stretch in which the Golden Knights have failed to score a 5-on-5 goal, there were two other instances this season in which they did it. A win at home against Montreal in shootout and a shutout loss at Washington. This season, the Golden Knights are now 2-3-1 when they don’t score at 5-on-5.

That record is a remarkably strong record considering what happened the last two seasons when they went scoreless at 5-on-5. In each of the last two seasons the Golden Knights went 0-8-0 when they failed to score a 5-on-5 goal. With the three times it happened in the playoffs and one more in 2019, prior to the shootout win against Montreal, Vegas had lost 20 consecutive games in which they were shutout at 5-on-5.

Vegas’ overall record when scoring 0 goals at 5-on-5 is 12-39-2 in the regular season and 0-7 in the playoffs.

Add it all up, and it’s really simple, the Golden Knights need to break this drought, and fast.