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Saturday, Jan. 18, 2025 | 10:19 p.m.<\/p>\n
The Vegas Golden Knights have dropped five of their last six games, most recently falling to the host Chicago Blackhawks 5-3 on Saturday.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to stand here and say I\u2019m thrilled with what\u2019s happening, but it\u2019s preventable stuff,\u201d Captain Mark Stone said. \u201cWe\u2019ll be ready to go on Monday (against the Blues).\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stone said that the team can even benefit from the adversity it faces as long as it overcomes it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe good thing is it\u2019s nothing that they\u2019re doing; it\u2019s preventable mistakes for us,\u201d Stone said. \u201cA little adversity is good this time of year, but it\u2019s only good if you work your way out of it. You\u2019ve got to go home, get back to the drawing board, be ready to battle and find a way to win a game.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Vegas\u2019 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n
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 \u201cput out fires,\u201d which means managing their opponents\u2019 momentum.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re never going to be better than the other team for 60 straight minutes, so you better be able to put out some fires,\u201d coach Bruce Cassidy said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cassidy said that the team needs to start \u201chating to lose.\u201d He added that there is only so much he can do to get the players to get back into a winning mindset.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI drag this team into the fight every freaking night when we\u2019re not going well. That\u2019s my job,\u201d Cassidy said. \u201cNow, 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\u2019re gonna get this thing going in the right direction because we\u2019re not that far off.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n