Wednesday, Feb. 5, 2025 | 2 a.m.
The Vegas Golden Knights had trouble analyzing Tuesday’s 2-1 loss to the New York Islanders.
They outshot New York 34-14, won the majority of faceoffs and gave Brandon Saad his first goal as the Golden Knights. However, for a fourth straight game, Vegas was coming off the ice with a defeat.
Coach Bruce Cassidy said that the Golden Knights played well but weren’t doing enough to put the Islanders “on their heels.”
“We’ve scored one goal against them (Islanders) in two games. We did acknowledge that you can’t play catch-up. It’s tough. It’s difficult,” Cassidy said. “They play a Katy bar the door game pretty well. They’ve been doing it for a while, they’re feeling good about themselves, and they did it again tonight.”
What Cassidy means by “Katy bar the door” is that the Islanders were able to limit the Golden Knights’ mobility and scoring chances in front of the net.
Vegas was forced to the outside, along the boards, multiple times. Even when it broke into the inside area of the ice, it was met by one of the hottest goalies in the league, Ilya Sorokin.
He made 33 saves on 34 shots, picking up his seventh straight win. Sorokin played both games this season against the Golden Knights and, combined, has made 63 saves on 64 shots.
“Giving up 14 shots throughout the season, a lot of times you’re going to be on the better end,” defenseman Shea Theodore said. “We just didn’t get in the inside enough, and we walked away.”
Dropping their fourth straight game and 10th in 13 matchups, Cassidy doesn’t believe that piling on the goals is going to get the Golden Knights out of the slump they’re in, but he does believe in sticking to a defensive mindset they’re in.
Tuesday’s loss was an example of how Vegas played a sound defensive game but let the game slip away. Three of the Golden Knights’ last four losses have been by one goal.
“I don’t think he can sell out in this league and try to win a 5-4 game to get out of a slump,” Cassidy said. “You’ve got to stick to your identity and play good defense.”
Cassidy believes that will lift the Golden Knights out of their nearly monthlong slump. Vegas has gone on a similar stretch before. From Oct. 21, 2019, to Nov. 25, it also lost 10 of 13.
The Golden Knights have two more games, Thursday at New Jersey and Saturday at Boston, before they can reset for two weeks for the 4 Nations Face-Off break.
The break may be what Vegas needs, or it at least could go into pause with a more positive outlook.
“You’re not going to win a lot of games on the road when you score one goal,” center Nicolas Roy said. “You’ve got to find more ways to score.”