(Photo Credit: SinBin.vegas Photographer Brandon Andreasen)

The Golden Knights enter the 2025-26 season with a nagging memory.

We didn’t score enough. It was really hard to score against Minnesota and we got through it. Even tougher against Edmonton, and we didn’t get through it. -Bruce Cassidy

So this year, they’ve vowed to change it.

We’ve talked about offensive zone principles and how we can score more goals in the dirty areas. That was an evaluation from why our season ended last year… We’re trying to play a certain brand of hockey by creating offense inside and it’s still a work in progress this time of year. We’re not there yet, so let’s get some greasy goals and see where it leads us. -Cassidy

Through two games, the Golden Knights have just one goal of their eight that would qualify as “greasy.” After the team created a turnover, Brett Howden hopped on a loose puck and headed directly to the front of the goal. Colton Sissons occupied a defender, which allowed Howden to get all the way to the blue paint and stuff it in.

Aside from that, though, every other goal has been created differently. There are a bunch on special teams, a few dynamic plays from the top line, and a pair of unbelievably fortunate events for the last two in San Jose.

For Cassidy, it’s going to require a slight change in philosophy to guide this year’s team to becoming a more gritty offensive group.

Sometimes that goes against how I’ve coached in this league. I’ve always felt like defense gets you where you need to go but I think the offensive part of it we have to pay attention and be on it every day. We’ve always looked at it at the other end of the rink and we feel like we’re pretty solid there, we don’t want to let that slip. That would be the first page I used to turn to, now I may go to the other page and see the offensive side of it first. -Cassidy

It’ll be something to keep an eye on all season for this year’s version of the Golden Knights. Scoring goals isn’t good enough; they have to be scoring them in ways that will be replicable to what’s necessary in April, May, and June. So far, it hasn’t happened, but there are still 80 chances to figure it out.