The only thing the Vegas Golden Knights can do is just hope better days are around the corner.
On Sunday, the Golden Knights hope to finally get back in the win column when they face the Anaheim Ducks.
Venue: Honda Center, Anaheim, CA
Once again, the Golden Knights have found themselves stuck in neutral. A 3-2 loss to the Seattle Kraken has the Golden Knights on a four-game losing streak, as well as dropping six of their last seven. The team’s postgame media availabilities highlighted a collective frustration, but it will not matter if it cannot translate to wins on the ice at some point.
Here is how the Golden Knights can take their newfound anger out on a Pacific Division foe.
It feels like if someone has watched one Golden Knights gave over the past couple of weeks, they have watched them all.
Poor first periods force the Golden Knights to chase games, which has resulted in far too many losses. Something is systemically broken about the early-game strategy for the Golden Knights, and it falls upon them to fix it. Expect serious adjustments to be made against the Ducks to try and stop any early bleeding.
Bruce Cassidy made a point very clear after the loss to the Kraken: the Golden Knights have to play better defensively.
One of the things Cassidy touched upon was his team playing better in front of their net. Far too often, the Golden Knights have found themselves caved in their own defensive zone, resulting in costly mistakes that find their way in the back of the net. Injuries have not helped, but it falls on the players on the ice to play responsibly and mitigate the damage.
One of the more telling areas of where a team is at competitively is how they perform in the 50/50 puck battles.
Cassidy made it clear he was not thrilled with his team’s performance on the walls, losing too many battles that tilted the game away from them. Simply put, the Golden Knights have to play better in the dirty areas and keep teams from getting an edge on them. Otherwise, what happened against the Kraken can easily happen again.