Friday, Jan. 10, 2025 | 2 a.m.
Summing up coach Bruce Cassidy and the Vegas Golden Knights’ comments after their 4-0 loss to the New York Islanders on Thursday: The Islanders wanted it more.
For the first time in over a month, the Golden Knights failed to generate offense and lost to one of the worst teams in the league. Cassidy and the players used the word “opportunistic” to describe New York’s effort.
Cassidy said that three of the Islanders’ four goals started as a misplay by the Golden Knights.
“All three goals started on our stick,” Cassidy said. “We will talk a bit about puck management, but again, some of those players know that they don’t always have to see (the play); they just got to make a better decision.”
The Golden Knights’ broken breakout led to the first goal. On the second goal, Tanner Pearson turned the puck over on a breakout. Lastly, on the third goal, Zach Whitecloud’s clearing attempt was intercepted.
Vegas gave away the puck 18 times on the night, proving the Golden Knights’ point that they gave the Islanders “too much.”
“We gave them (Islanders) a little bit too much, and that gave them a couple of goals,” Victor Olofsson said. “It’s a hard team to beat when they when they’re up a couple of goals, and we were trying to shut it down. They did a good job of that tonight.”
Both Cassidy and the players agreed that it was a pretty “uneventful” game. The Golden Knights broke out the puck a lot but rarely led to any high-danger scoring chances. Vegas had five on the night, four of which came in the first period.
Cassidy added that the slower pace of play led to a few missed calls by officials. He cited a play where Pavel Dorofeyev was tripped in the first period but wasn’t called a penalty as he did not entirely go down.
“We don’t do that. It’s why we’re a good team,” Cassidy said on Dorofeyev not fully tripping. “It’s why we’re hard to play against…It disrupted the whole flow of the play. We had an attack opportunity, and that’s going to be a scoring chance. Should have been a penalty all day long.”
Vegas has been particularly adept at responding to losses this season. It has an 8-3-1 record in games after losses and has not lost back-to-back games since Nov. 20.
The Golden Knights get another sub-.500 team at home on Saturday: The New York Rangers. They’re coming off a 3-2 overtime win over the New Jersey Devils.
“We’ll get ahead of it (at practice) and fix what’s wrong,” Brayden McNabb said.
