(Photo Credit: SinBin.vegas Photographer Brandon Andreasen)

The Golden Knights have spent a lot of time, money, and assets rebuilding their defense after a career-ending injury to Alex Pietrangelo.

Shea Theodore and Brayden McNabb have been asked to step into the first pair role. VGK spent major assets to bring in Noah Hanifin and Rasmus Andersson. They swapped Nic Hague out for Jeremy Lauzon and have tasked Kaedan Korczak to fill Zach Whitecloud’s shoes.

It hasn’t gone as swimmingly as the Golden Knights would have hoped, but it certainly has not been bad. VGK currently rank 3rd in shots allowed per game, yet sit in 19th in goals against. Some of the blame, maybe most, lies at the feet of the goaltending, however, the new-look defense have had some issues themselves.

A specific issue they’ve struggled with recently cropped up once again last night against the Wild as they allowed three goals in a little more than three minutes.

The first one’s a tough one. There’s miscommunication, they get a breakaway, and they score. Not the end of the world, we’re playing fine. But the next two we had pucks below the goal line to break out. We didn’t execute. That was a big problem all night. Big problem. -Bruce Cassidy

Teams have found a weak spot below the goal line in VGK’s defense. Many of the better offensive teams have forced the Golden Knights to turn the puck over behind the net, then quickly convert it into chances that are very difficult for a goaltender.

Cassidy says the defensemen have to do a better job of protecting the puck a bit longer in order to allow the forwards to assist in the breakouts. When the puck goes below the goal line, VGK’s system calls for the center to head to the front of the goal while the wingers are expected to sag inside circles. The coverage takes away all options for the attacking team. But, when VGK get the puck deep in the zone, it takes a moment for the forwards to reposition themselves to become outlets. On both breakouts that failed last night, the defensemen turned the puck over before that happened.

We got a veteran D-Core. They have to demand a little more of themselves in those situations. They’ve all been in the league. They can play the game. They have composure there. And you know that that’s how it got away from us tonight. -Cassidy

63 games into the season, the problem is getting worse, not better, and unfortunately, there’s not a lot a coach can do other than keep harping on it verbally.

It’s really hard to replicate a heavy forcheck in practice. That’s just something we have to be better at. These teams will start throwing it below the goal line. Minnesota did that to us last year in the playoffs. Had a level of success. We’ll have to deal with it if we expect to beat those types of teams. We just got to be better at it. -Cassidy

The next two opponents, Edmonton and Dallas, are both excellent at generating offense from below the goal line. Cassidy has challenged his defensemen to step up and meet the challenge; now it’s up to them to go out and do it.