Sunday happened the way it did. Now it’s on the Vegas Golden Knights to respond.
Monday was the first time in almost a week that the Knights were able to practice, and they needed to after Sunday’s 7-1 letdown in Ottawa in their worst showing of the season.
There was work to do for the Knights (25-14-12), who will wrap up their four-game road trip Tuesday against the Montreal Canadiens (28-17-7) at Bell Centre.
“Just being a little more competitive,” coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We talked about that before practice a little bit, got to work on it. I thought we had a good day out there.”
Cassidy called it a chance to “reset” after the Knights gave up a season-high in goals and tied for the worst margin of defeat in team history.
The result was shocking given how the Knights put together their best effort all season Friday in Toronto in Mitch Marner’s return game against his former team.
Cassidy said Sunday he wasn’t going to accept an emotional letdown as an excuse because the club should have been able to build off that.
“We went through some video. Not a lot because it wasn’t pretty,” Cassidy said. “We discussed the areas we need to get better on and in that video.”
Cassidy noted the Knights need to start on time, especially against a Montreal team that holds the top wild card in the Eastern Conference.
“We wanted to get back to work. It was a work day,” Cassidy said. “Sometimes you play three in four, you’re getting your touches, power play. We went the opposite. We put our work boots on and played one-on-one, two-on-two, three-on-three.”
The Knights corrected course during their seasonlong seven-game winning streak, but have since found themselves falling flat with three losses in their past four games.
Other than scoring six in the win in Toronto, the Knights have been held to five goals in their other three games. Three of those goals came in the third period Thursday in Boston when they were trailing 4-0 after 40 minutes.
“I don’t think we want to adjust anything with the game plan,” captain Mark Stone said. “It’s more just work ethic, compete, win some battles. It was one of those nights; for whatever reason, we didn’t have the fire. We went into Toronto, had something to play for. We were fired up to play. You’ve got to find ways to bring it every night.”
Stone pointed to the condensed schedule, which every team is going through, and how there are going to be letdown games.
Take the Tampa Bay Lightning, for example. They won 11 in a row and 14 of 15. They gave up eight goals Sunday in an 8-5 loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Teams, no matter how hot, are going to have those kinds of games, Stone said.
“We’ve done a pretty good job at responding, but tomorrow’s no different. If you don’t respond, then you start to worry a little bit,” he said.
Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.
Up next
Who: Golden Knights at Canadiens
When: 4 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Bell Centre, Montreal
TV: KMCC-34
Radio: KFLG 94.7 FM, KKGK 1340 AM
Line: Knights -115; total 6½