The Vegas Golden Knights have been held to two goals or fewer in all six of their losses since returning from the Olympic break.
That’s 2.38 goals per game, the fifth-worst mark in the NHL since Feb. 25.
The Knights (29-22-14) have scored 19 goals during their 2-6 slide, which they’ll try to improve on Thursday against the Pittsburgh Penguins at T-Mobile Arena.
But of those 19 goals, only one has been scored by a defenseman — when Noah Hanifin scored Sunday against the Edmonton Oilers.
Since Jan. 1, the Knights have gotten six goals from their blue line.
Three from Shea Theodore. One from Hanifin. One from Rasmus Andersson, who has played 16 games with the team.
And the other one was from Zach Whitecloud, who isn’t on the team anymore.
“We really need to get offense from all five guys on the ice now,” coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We got some offensive guys on the back end that could give us more with their shots and getting through and getting rebounds and tips, because that seems to be the game a little bit this time of year.”
Cassidy thought the Knights didn’t produce enough offensively in their 2-1 road loss to the Dallas Stars on Tuesday. The lack of action around the front of the net was — and has been — a problem lately.
Cassidy has never wanted to put shots on net for the sake of putting a shot on net, but there hasn’t been enough action from the defensemen to create the action to get those hard-nosed goals he’s looking for.
“Not enough action from the low-to-highs,” Cassidy said.
Make no mistake: The Knights could use production from everybody. Pavel Dorofeyev and Mitch Marner are the only ones with more than five points since the break.
Dorofeyev and Marner have accounted for six of the Knights’ 19 goals.
“We just need to keep doing what we’ve been doing,” defenseman Jeremy Lauzon said. “The last couple of games, offensively, I thought we were the better team. … We’ve been creating a lot of chances.”
Not taking Pittsburgh lightly
This normally would be a game in which the Knights could take advantage of a short-handed Pittsburgh team.
The Penguins (32-17-15) have lost four of five since their 5-0 home win over the Knights on March 1.
They’ve been without their captain, Sidney Crosby, since returning from the Olympic break because of a lower-body injury he suffered while playing for Canada.
Crosby took part in Pittsburgh’s morning skate Tuesday in Carolina, which could make him an option Thursday.
But the Penguins will be without center Evgeni Malkin, who will serve the fourth of a five-game suspension for slashing Buffalo Sabres defenseman Rasmus Dahlin on Thursday.
That hasn’t stopped Pittsburgh from earning points in its past three games. The Penguins have needed third-period rallies in their past two games against Boston and Carolina to earn a point.
This would have been the perfect opportunity for the Knights to correct course.
Pittsburgh did not make it easy against one of the NHL’s best teams in the Hurricanes on Tuesday in a 5-4 shootout loss. They certainly won’t against a Knights team in danger of falling further behind in the playoff picture.
Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.
Up next
Who: Penguins at Golden Knights
When: 7 p.m. Thursday
Where: T-Mobile Arena
TV: KMCC-34
Radio: KFLG 94.7 FM/KKGK 1340 AM
