Golden Knights Coach Bruce Cassidy Lists Out Current Team Problems

There's no one reason why the Vegas Golden Knights are struggling lately. 

It's on everybody.

The Golden Knights are 0-3 in their last three games and have not led in any one of them. The Detroit Red Wings officially made the Golden Knight's current seven-game homestand a losing one as they beat them 3-2 at T-Mobile Arena Thursday night.

Head coach Bruce Cassidy was asked why the team's performance has faltered as of late. He gave several answers.

Passengers

No, not the movie with Chris Pratt, but the result of players on the Golden Knight's roster expecting to be carried by others. With Mark Stone out of the lineup and Jack Eichel and Chandler Stephenson not contributing, everyone seems to be a passenger right now.

"I think we've had passengers lately, guys who rely on you to be better… We went through injuries a little while ago. We came through it okay. I thought it was good. We had no passengers," said Cassidy.

Injuries

Related to passengers, the Golden Knights are missing seven players from their lineup; Mark Stone, Will Carrier, Brett Howden, Pavel Dorofeyev, Shea Theodore, Zach Whitecloud, and Daniil Miromanov. But injuries aren't excuses.

Neutral Zone

A major factor in what makes the Golden Knights such a good team is their scoring abilities off the rush. In this last chunk of games, teams have been clogging up the neutral zone and forcing the VGK to dump the puck in.

"They've done a good job of forcing us to dump it. And maybe the forecheck hasn't been good enough for us to retrieve it after a dump-in. They clog it well, and you know, it's rare that we get through the neutral zone with speed and with puck possession," said William Karlsson.

Forecheck

Dumping in the puck is fine, as long as you have a strong forecheck. But the Golden Knight's relentless forecheck has gone dry lately, as they have failed to win important puck battles down low.

"I think the biggest thing is working as five, right? In this day and age, every team has D that wants to be aggressive, and we're no different. So on both sides of the puck, we need to be aggressive. Our forwards need to do a job getting ahead of their D because teams want to get their D involved," said Alex Pietrangelo.

Starting on Time

The Golden Knight's starts to their last three games have been bad as they come out sloppy and unprepared. 

"Be ready to play… If you do make a mistake, no one's perfect. That's a bit of a problem with our starts. I've said it before it's my job to prepare the team. That's the team part of the game, but at some points, it's on the individual to get their a**es ready to play, especially at home here," said Cassidy.

Second Periods

Second periods haven't been much better for the VGK, as they own a negative goal differential in the frame.

"Usually, we thrive in second periods, especially when we have some possession and we're close to the bench, and we can get the opponent's stuck with some tired players, and we get new fresh ones. So yeah, I don't know. Maybe they're doing that to us," said Karlsson.

Timely Saves

Cassidy also brought up goaltending, stating that the VGK could have used some more timely saves. Adin Hill played for the Golden Knights and stopped 22 of 25 shots for a .880 save percentage. 

"Timely saves tonight could have made a difference. But I wouldn't put it on one element," said Cassidy.

Jack Eichel

No one player should take the blame for the Golden Knight's recent failures, but as the so-called best player on the team, Jack Eichel needs to be better. In his last three games, he has one assist and is a -4. 

"Jack just hasn't been the same driving force for us as he was at the start of the year on both ends of the ice. The expectations are not getting met by Jack. He needs to be better for us, especially as we're down a few guys that create offense for us. He needs one of the drivers," said Cassidy.

The Golden Knights will play their final game of a seven-game homestand Saturday against the Washington Capitals at 7:00 p.m.