Vegas Golden Knights center Jack Eichel (9) skates against the Buffalo Sabres during the first period of an NHL hockey game at T-Mobile Arena Friday, Dec. 15, 2023.
Thursday, Jan. 18, 2024 | 2 a.m.
The Vegas Golden Knights skidded through their official midway point of the season, a January 10 game at the Colorado Avalanche, with a 3-0 defeat that made it eight losses in their last 11 games.
The defending Stanley Cup champions have felt mired in a slump they can’t get out of for more than a month from mid-December to mid-January. Fans’ confidence is wavering, as social media is full of doom and gloom about where the season is heading.
But fear not; the Golden Knights are still firmly entrenched in a playoff spot. And, more likely than not, they’ll recover and be just fine by the end of the regular season in mid-April.
It’s not time to wave the white flag and throw dirt on the Golden Knights’ title defense just yet. The back-to-back championship dream is still alive.
Here are four reasons to be confident in the Golden Knights turning things around during the third quarter of the regular season.
1. This is how last year went.
Roughly a year ago, the Golden Knights were tied atop the Western Conference standings with the Dallas Stars and hitting their stride. Less than a year removed from back surgery, captain Mark Stone was thriving and on pace to have the best season of his career.
Then Stone re-injured his back, underwent surgery and was out until the playoffs.
Vegas fell apart for a while, going 1-5-2 in the first eight games without Stone, as the injury made it look like the team had lost its identity.
But the Golden Knights recovered and went 22-4-5 in their final 31 games to earn the West’s top playoff seed.
Stone has avoided serious injury this season—though he did provide a brief scare in leaving a January 11 game against the Boston Bruins after taking a puck to the hand—but the Golden Knights have their share of other absences. Shea Theodore, Adin Hill, William Karlsson and William Carrier have all been out for extended times during the losing stretch.
Jack Eichel is the latest — and most significant — player to go down, undergoing surgery for a lower body injury that will keep him sidelined “week to week.”
It’s a big hit but Vegas may just need time to figure out the ideal way to play without the group—just like it did with Stone last year.
Vegas got fully healthy to start the playoffs last year and rolled. They’ve shown over the last two years that they’re a machine at full strength, and in a Western Conference without a clear favorite this season, the champions will still be a factor.
2. Defensive depth
The Golden Knights’ blue line must stay afloat while Theodore recovers from surgery relating to an upper-body injury. Theodore had been one of the best defensemen in the league before going down in November.
There is no timetable for his return, but those filling in for him are progressing and showing off Vegas’ depth at the position.
Ben Hutton, Brayden Pachal, Kaedan Korczak and Lukas Cormier have all seen time without Theodore. Hutton, like Theodore, is also now week-to-week with an upper-body injury.
“You can never have too much depth,” defenseman Alex Pietrangelo said. “You’ve got to really fall back and rely on your structure, especially when guys go down. You’ve got to trust the system and you need guys when called up to do their job.”
For the second straight year, defense is arguably the Golden Knights’ biggest strength. The talk around the league last year, started by then-Ottawa coach D.J. Smith, was that Vegas had the best third pairing in the league with Nic Hague and Zach Whitecloud.
While the Golden Knights have only enjoyed one game all season with their six planned starters in the lineup, younger players getting an opportunity is good for the future of the franchise. Korczak and Cormier specifically are expected to be NHL mainstays at some point, and they’ve already shown they’re capable of contributing when the circumstances dictate it.
3. The evolution of Jack Eichel
Eichel should presumably be back by the end of the regular season, and if the Golden Knights can stay afloat without him like they did with Stone a year ago, his return will provide a major lift.
He’s leveled up over the past year.
Now with a half of a regular season to add to the sample size of last year’s playoff run, it’s safe to say that Eichel is a true 200-foot star and one of the very best players in the NHL.
He’s every bit the No. 1 center the Golden Knights hoped for when they executed a blockbuster trade to acquire him from the Buffalo Sabres three seasons ago.
Eichel, the Golden Knights’ representative in the All-Star Game this year, is on pace for a career season with 44 points (19 goals, 25 assists) in 42 games through January 12.
“There’s a lot of deserving guys in this room,” Eichel said of his fourth All-Star selection. “To be able to represent not only the team, but the organization and the city, is a huge honor. I take huge pride in that.”
The Golden Knights badly need his absence to be brief because he’s the player who can dig them out of their current hole.
4. Believe in “Butch”
It was criminal a season ago when Cassidy wasn’t among the finalists for the Jack Adams Award, given to the NHL’s best coach.
Cassidy doesn’t need a second career Jack Adams trophy to validate his status as one of the league’s elite coaches though. He shows it on an every-night basis.
The way he weaved through injury and goaltending concerns a year ago was impressive, and history should repeat in time this season.
The Golden Knights were bound to go through slumps this year, especially coming off a short offseason after winning the Stanley Cup. They started 11-0-1 to muddy that natural outlook but expecting them to stay on a historic pace for a defending champion was unrealistic.
When they’re engaged and playing Cassidy’s brand of team defense to help the goaltending, they’re still tough to beat. The Golden Knights picked up one of their best wins of the season on Thursday Jan. 11, beating the coach’s former team, the Boston Bruins, 2-1 in overtime despite playing back-to-back nights.
It could be a sign that the end to the struggles are near. Things haven’t gone smoothly for the Golden Knights lately, but Cassidy is bound to figure it out in time for the playoffs.
This story appeared in Las Vegas Weekly.
