Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025 | 10:19 p.m.
The Vegas Golden Knights have dropped five of their last six games, most recently falling to the host Chicago Blackhawks 5-3 on Saturday.
Chicago had lost four straight games and was 30 points behind the Golden Knights in the league standings. And, yet, it was the better team.
“I’m not going to stand here and say I’m thrilled with what’s happening, but it’s preventable stuff,” Captain Mark Stone said. “We’ll be ready to go on Monday (against the Blues).”
It’s not abnormal for a team to go on a slump over an 82-game season. Even during the 2022-23 season, the year Vegas won the Stanley Cup, it had a stretch around this time of year where it had lost seven of eight.
Stone said that the team can even benefit from the adversity it faces as long as it overcomes it.
“The good thing is it’s nothing that they’re doing; it’s preventable mistakes for us,” Stone said. “A little adversity is good this time of year, but it’s only good if you work your way out of it. You’ve got to go home, get back to the drawing board, be ready to battle and find a way to win a game.”
Vegas’ Victor Olofsson scored the opening goal, which was the 100th of his career and his 200th career point. After the Blackhawks responded with three straight goals, Tomas Hertl scored twice to tie the game.
Hertl has scored four times in the last four games and nine points in the previous five games. The Golden Knights came back but struggled to “put out fires,” which means managing their opponents’ momentum.
“You’re never going to be better than the other team for 60 straight minutes, so you better be able to put out some fires,” coach Bruce Cassidy said.
Cassidy said that the team needs to start “hating to lose.” He added that there is only so much he can do to get the players to get back into a winning mindset.
“I drag this team into the fight every freaking night when we’re not going well. That’s my job,” Cassidy said. “Now, at some point, that gets old for the players. It gets old for the coach. It becomes incumbent on them to make sure they bring the attitude that we’re gonna get this thing going in the right direction because we’re not that far off.”
