{"id":431251,"date":"2026-01-27T21:08:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T21:08:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/431251\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T21:08:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T21:08:14","slug":"cassidy-looking-for-rasmus-andersson-to-help-unlock-vgks-transition-offense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/431251\/","title":{"rendered":"Cassidy Looking For Rasmus Andersson To Help Unlock VGK’s Transition Offense"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/a> (Photo Credit: @NHL on X\/Twitter)<\/p>\n

A lot has happened in Rasmus Andersson\u2019s first two games in a Golden Knights jersey, and even with a goal and an assist, it hasn\u2019t really been about him. Friday night in Toronto was obviously all about Mitch Marner, and Sunday in Ottawa, the Golden Knights were on the wrong side of a beatdown.<\/p>\n

He\u2019s played a little more than 40 minutes so far, and yet there hasn\u2019t really been a chance to see his impact on the roster.<\/p>\n

As he gets more and more games under his belt and settles into the Vegas system, his strengths should start to shine through a lot more. Bruce Cassidy believes the natural parts of his game will complement this Golden Knights team nicely.<\/p>\n

What Andersson brings with his skill set is an attack mentality with the puck, and we need a little bit more of that. He\u2019s a good first pass guy, has a lot of composure, got a little swagger to him. -Cassidy<\/p>\n

There\u2019s one particular area of the game in which Cassidy believes Andersson\u2019s impact will be immense.<\/p>\n

The way he plays the game can really add to our transition game, and that was lacking a little bit. -Cassidy<\/p>\n

The breakdown of how often the puck is in each zone during Golden Knights games illustrates this well.<\/p>\n

Offensive Zone: 40.4% (11th)
Neutral Zone: 19.4% (1st)
Defensive Zone: 40.2% (19th)<\/p>\n

The puck spends a lot of time in the middle of the ice during VGK games, which is a good indicator that there\u2019s not a lot of speed in transition. One of the best parts of Andersson\u2019s game is that he\u2019s proficient not only in skating the puck from the defensive to the offensive zone, but he\u2019s also excellent at hitting stretch passes that eliminate time in the neutral zone completely.<\/p>\n

When you take out Pietrangelo, we were looking at replacing some of that with Whitecloud and Korczak, and then Theodore, Lauzon, and Hanifin get hurt, so you are chasing, and now McNabb\u2019s out. Adding another veteran guy when you\u2019ve missed some is probably more important than anything. -Cassidy<\/p>\n

For Andersson, he\u2019s just excited to be on a team that\u2019s actually playing for something, and you could see it in his willingness to keep pressing even while the Golden Knights were down 7-0.<\/p>\n

I can\u2019t say enough good things about the Calgary organization, but it was time for them and it was time for me to try something different. You look at this lineup, and this is a real contender, and that\u2019s what I wanted to go to. I think Vegas is one of the strongest teams in the league. -Andersson<\/p>\n

Tonight\u2019s game in Montreal is a great opportunity for Andersson to really begin to impact the game at 5-on-5. The Canadiens play a high-paced game with the puck in the neutral zone at one of the lowest rates in the league. Quick strike offense is key to capitalizing against the Habs, and Andersson could be the perfect piece to unlock that in the Vegas offense.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(Photo Credit: @NHL on X\/Twitter) A lot has happened in Rasmus Andersson\u2019s first two games in a Golden…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":431252,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5129],"tags":[149,5317,5,4,3327,74,39,5316],"class_list":{"0":"post-431251","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-vegas-golden-knights","8":"tag-golden-knights","9":"tag-goldenknights","10":"tag-hockey","11":"tag-nhl","12":"tag-rasmus-andersson","13":"tag-vegas","14":"tag-vegas-golden-knights","15":"tag-vegasgoldenknights"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/115969111857415238","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431251","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=431251"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/431251\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/431252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=431251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=431251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=431251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}