Adam Hunger / Associated Press
Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore (27) clears the puck against the New York Islanders in the first period of an NHL hockey game Saturday, Jan. 28, 2023, in Elmont, N.Y.
Published Saturday, Jan. 28, 2023 | 7:16 p.m.
Updated Saturday, Jan. 28, 2023 | 9:50 p.m.
It'll be 10 days before the Golden Knights play another hockey game.
This could be a long 10 days.
Logan Thompson and Bruce Cassidy will be in Florida this time next week representing the organization in the All-Star Game. The rest of the Golden Knights are in for a long reset.
Because the Golden Knights will be heading into their bye week and the All-Star break losers of seven of eight following their 2-1 overtime loss to the New York Islanders UBS Arena. They're going into this 10-day reprieve not in first place in the Pacific Division or the Western Conference.
What lies on the other side of this pause? That's where the guessing game gets interesting.
“The break will do us some good to get some rest, get away for sure,” coach Bruce Cassidy said. “And if we can bottle these type of efforts like tonight and bring it forward, I think our game will be in good shape. We just have to find more ways to score goals.”
The Golden Knights (29-18-4) fell to 1-6-1 in their last eight games. Go back a little bit further, following their three-game winning streak at the turn of the calendar year, and Vegas is 2-7-1 in the last 10 games.
The offense has dried up significantly. Saturday marked the sixth time in seven games that the Golden Knights were held to two goals or less. The only top-six player that has found the back of the net in the last five games is William Karlsson, who has done it twice.
The only other players to score in their last five losses: Alex Pietrangelo, Ben Hutton, Phil Kessel and William Carrier, who scored the lone goal in the loss to the Islanders.
Thompson was hard on himself following his 33-save effort Tuesday in New Jersey, a 3-2 overtime loss, saying he hadn't played well in the last 10 games and the goals he allowed in the loss were those he should've saved.
Imagine if he had the goal support this week. The Golden Knights would be looking at, at the very least, a four-point New York road trip. Instead, Thompson carried the Golden Knights to just two of a possible six points.
“Tons of chances,” defenseman Shea Theodore said. “We just can’t seem to buy one right now.”
Maybe it was the need of getting to this break and hitting the reset button on everything that's transpired for the past couple of weeks. The Golden Knights got through the first two months mostly unscathed with injuries, only for Theodore, Zach Whitecloud, Jack Eichel, to name a few, to miss time during December.
Maybe it's just a matter of getting everyone back healthy, including captain Mark Stone, whose status from a back injury this break is the greatest mystery of this entire story.
Whatever the case is, the Golden Knights need to go into this break wondering how a makeshift line of Carrier, Kessel and Chandler Stephenson has been the only line to score goals in the final two games.
Carrier was the best skater on Saturday night by drawing three penalties and scoring the game-tying goal at 16:08 of the second period. In his second game back in the lineup after missing five due to an upper-body injury, Carrier has points in both games.
But that's where the offensive success ends. Through two periods, the Golden Knights had just three high-danger chances, according to Natural Stat Trick. In the third period, they generated seven and didn't allow one.
Whether or not they ran into a hot goalie, Islanders netminder Semyon Varlamov made 44 saves. His biggest came 26 seconds into overtime when Carrier drew a tripping call and was rewarded with a penalty shot. With the game on his stick, Carrier couldn't deliver.
If that's the only time he couldn't, that's no slight on him.
“It’s tough,” Carrier said. “Especially at the beginning of the year, we got on the road there, we were winning every (game). I don’t think we were playing as well as we are now and we were winning. Now, we’re playing solid hockey and just can’t find the back of the net.”
There are times where a break is just needed. Injuries, bad play, whichever. The Golden Knights fit into those categories. But if anything else, this break might be for them to figure out what kind of team they are.
That may, or may not, be answered on Feb. 7 in Nashville.
Danny Webster can be reached at 702-259-8814 or [email protected]. Follow Danny on Twitter at twitter.com/DannyWebster21.
