Bruce Cassidy has grown tired of talking about the Golden Knights’ slow starts.

The players decided to give their coach the best Christmas present imaginable.

Actually, it was more like five presents. They all came in the first period.

The Knights steamrolled the San Jose Sharks thanks to a five-goal first period and defeated their division rival 7-2 at T-Mobile Arena on Tuesday night.

It was a needed outing for the Knights, who came back home after back-to-back lackluster losses against Calgary on Saturday and Edmonton on Sunday.

Both games saw the Knights fall behind by multiple goals, including a 4-0 deficit midway through the second period against the Oilers that they nearly rallied from.

The messaging was the same from Cassidy. The starts were not good enough. By the time they started a rally, the deficits were too steep to overcome.

Cassidy felt the common factor was the Knights weren’t playing a more direct game. Too many “cute” plays. Not enough north-south action directly to the net.

“I still think it’s a product of us wanting to get into the game, making plays, getting our hands going,” Cassidy said Tuesday morning. “We got to get our legs and compete going before the hands get into it.

“Our players like to make plays and they have it the other way. We’ve got to find a balance there.”

The Knights got the message from the opening draw.

Mitch Marner scored twice for his third consecutive multipoint game, and Carter Hart had an easy night with 20 saves for the Knights (17-8-10), snapping a three-game losing streak.

The onslaught begins

Brett Howden opened the scoring 1:46 in off a two-on-one.

Marner added a power-play goal when his pass attempt banked off Sharks center Alex Wennberg’s skate and past goaltender Yaroslav Askarov, making it 2-0.

Less than three minutes later, Colton Sissons finished another two-on-one with Keegan Kolesar for a three-goal lead at 11:37.

Tomas Hertl added a fourth goal 3:20 later after Pavel Dorofeyev forced a turnover behind the net.

Askarov, the Sharks’ promising young netminder, had his night end after four goals on 16 shots.

San Jose backup Alex Nedeljkovic gave up the fifth goal on the first shot he faced when Mark Stone finished another two-on-one at 18:34 to push the lead to 5-0.

Record-breaking period

It was the third time in team history the Knights opened a game with five goals in the opening 20 minutes.

Thirteen skaters recorded a point in the period, the most in franchise history. The Knights outshot the Sharks 17-5 in the period.

Reilly Smith added a goal in the second for the Knights, who improved to 30-2-5 all-time in the regular season against the Sharks, including 15-2-0 at home. The Knights have never lost in regulation during the regular season at SAP Center (15-0-3).

To give an idea on how badly the Knights wanted to ensure their starting effort wasn’t wasted: Defensemen Jeremy Lauzon and Zach Whitecloud dove in the crease to prevent a San Jose goal while holding a five-goal lead.

On the ensuing rush, Marner scored his second off a touch pass from Stone at 5:22, making it 7-1 and setting a new season high in goals.

The Knights scored six goals three other times.

Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.