(Photo Credit: SinBin.vegas Photographer Brandon Andreasen)

The Golden Knights’ power play opened up the 25-26 season absolutely on fire. In the first six games, they converted on an incredible 9 of 24 opportunities for a 37.5% hit rate. Then, Mark Stone went out with a wrist injury, and the power play went ice cold. Since Stone left, VGK’s PP is just 2 of its last 19, 10.5%, the 27th worst in the NHL in that span.

Never was it more evident than during the Nevada Day tilt with the Colorado Avalanche. The Golden Knights spent a whopping 8:29 on the man-advantage and managed to generate just three shots on goal, eight scoring chances, three high-danger chances, and a measly 0.90 expected goals. Thankfully, Tomas Hertl scored on a 4-on-3 opportunity that removed some of the sour taste from the night, but everyone involved knew it wasn’t even close to good enough.

Sometimes it’s not about scoring goals, it’s about momentum, and we allowed the momentum to go against us. We were even giving up chances on our power play. We had six of them and we have to put more than one in. -Tomas Hertl

The head coach was even firmer with his response.

I don’t care who is out there, if you aren’t executing, you aren’t scoring. That’s problem number one. We’re not winning draws like we used to so we’re not starting with the puck. Tonight our entries were slower than normal, we didn’t have as much pace. That covers every area, so yeah that’s it in a nutshell. -Bruce Cassidy

The question the Golden Knights must answer is how to fix what has been going wrong while Mark Stone is out injured.

Where VGK have been so successful with Stone in the lineup is with a play they run on the right side of the ice. Jack Eichel takes the puck on the half-wall and gives it to Stone off to the side of the goal. He can then pass it to Pavel Dorofeyev or Tomas Hertl, or take it to the goal himself. It’s a play that has worked over and over and over again for the Golden Knights since Hertl arrived in Vegas. (See my recent video breakdown of the play)

However, without Stone, Mitch Marner has been in the spot next to the goal, and the play hasn’t come off.

We’ve used Mitch because he’s a right stick and I don’t know how much he’s played there so it’s going to take a while. -Cassidy

The next option VGK tried was to move Marner back to the top and try William Karlsson as the net front player. Cassidy said he thought against Colorado that Eichel had shooting lanes and Karlsson could be used more as a screener rather than a passing option like Stone.

Whatever we tried that night didn’t work out on the power play. You’re going to have nights like that. The biggest reason why it failed was that no matter who we put (in the net front role) the puck wasn’t getting there. -Cassidy

In the past, when the go-to play hasn’t worked on the right-hand side, VGK have tried to swap over to the left with left-handed Hertl in the role beneath the goal line. Cassidy mentioned it’s something they did during the Dallas playoff series in 2024, and it could be an answer moving forward.

The Golden Knights have scored 22 goals at 5-on-5 in their first 11 games, that is tied for the 7th fewest in the league. Rekindling what worked on the power play is crucial to VGK’s short and long-term success. Mark Stone’s return will likely solve a lot of the problems, but that doesn’t appear to be on the near horizon, so they’re going to figure it out in his absence, or the frustration from Friday afternoon will haunt them.