LAS VEGAS — As the Vegas Golden Knights hit the road for two games, tonight in St. Louis and Friday in Dallas, they’ll hope to shed a 1-6 losing skid that left coach Bruce Cassidy calling out every aspect of his team after a 5-4 shootout loss to the Blues on Monday.
Most notable, however, was Cassidy’s criticism of his goaltenders, Adin Hill and Ilya Samsonov, something you rarely see from coaches.
A coach might point out a soft goal here or there, but they’re generally careful when discussing high-scoring allowances. They remind everyone that it starts with the work in front of netminders.
Cassidy didn’t mince words after his team lost for the sixth time in seven games, allowing 25 goals.
“We need better play out of the goaltending position right now,” Cassidy said. “We can’t expect to give up four and win – well, we’re not winning, right? We beat Minnesota, we scored four, gave up one. So we just need (to be) better there.”
To be fair, while Cassidy also said the team needs to be bailed out by the goalie at times, he did say skaters need to be harder on the puck, mistakes need to be limited, and they need to start quicker by striking first.
Hill and Samsonov both spoke Tuesday after practice, one day before the team left for the two-game trip.
“I don’t feel like it’s as big as it’s made out to be,” Hill said. “We’ve lost some games. They’ve all been one-goal hockey games. We’re right in them. So yeah, it’s just that extra save, or that extra puck going in for us, either way.
“So that’s the difference in the NHL. Every team is good, every player is good. So the margin for error is pretty small.”
Three of the six losses during the 1-6 slide have been one-goal games, actually, while the Knights have been outscored 25-17 overall.
Samsonov said the current slump is part of hockey and it’s on everyone to do their job.
“Forwards need to score, defensemen need to defend, goalie need saves,” Samsonov said. “We’re all disappointed. We need everybody to do his job. We have a nice group, nice team and everything will be good.”
Looking back over the team’s eight-year existence, gauging 11 other losing skids where the Knights had just one win, the team’s 3.43 goals-against average is the sixth highest. The goaltenders’ goal-against average (3.18), however, is seventh highest.
Last year during a 1-7 slide, from Feb. 20 through March 7, the Golden Knights allowed 4.75 goals per game while the netminders’ GAA was a whopping 4.52. During the Stanley Cup run in 2022-23, from Jan. 14 through Jan. 28, a 1-7 slide saw Vegas allow 3.25 goals per contest, but the goaltenders had a respectable GAA of 2.88 and a save percentage of .909.
During this current slide, Hill and Samsonov’s combined save percentage of .865 – the worst of the 12 one-win losing streaks.
“It’s tough,” Hill said. “I mean, it’s big momentum shifts in games. a score in the last minute going into the intermission, but it’s just been a string of games we were getting the bounces earlier in the year, and there’s been a few games where we haven’t gotten them.
“You got to let the game come to you, otherwise you’ll end up chasing it outside your net. And definitely can’t try harder. You can try harder in practice … but when it comes to the game you just gotta trust your game when it’s at its best.”
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