What was once considered a mini-slump for the Vegas Golden Knights can probably now be characterized as a full-blown slide. A 14-5-4 record on the season is hardly disappointing, but collecting just three wins in their past 11 games isn’t exactly ideal – particularly when the team’s first 11 games produced 10 wins.
To their credit, there have been no outward indications of panic or damaged confidence from the veterans. Following Monday’s 2-1 overtime loss to the Calgary Flames, Nicolas Roy noted that the effort wasn’t the club’s best but not their worst, either. After Tuesday’s 5-4 shootout defeat at the hands of the Edmonton Oilers, captain Mark Stone was quick to emphasize the positives in banking a point while going through a struggle.
But while maintaining a positive outlook is admirable, it doesn’t adequately address the elephant in the room: Vegas’ offensive attack has stagnated, and much of that lands on the top-six. We covered the underwhelming start of Ivan Barbashev last week, but the Golden Knights’ difficulty scoring goals and lack of top-six production extends beyond just one player.
With the team recording just two goals in four games before Tuesday’s contest and head coach Bruce Cassidy highlighting the bottom-six (in a positive way, but still), there are clear indications that the team’s best and highest-paid forwards need to step up.
Jack Eichel
Perhaps unsurprisingly, no single Golden Knight has impacted the performance of the team more than Jack Eichel. In games where Eichel has recorded a point this season, the club is 11-1-3. Comparatively, the games in which he hasn’t hit the scoresheet have produced just a 3-4-1 mark.
In that sense, the Golden Knights might be harder hit by the recent dip in offensive production from the 27-year-old than by any other individual player. Eichel has just one secondary assist over the past three games, including 22-minute efforts in each of the two Alberta stops. With two points in his last five games, he has fallen slightly off the point-per-game pace he set during the team’s early season success. While 21 points in 23 games is nothing to scoff at, it’s clear his production has slowed of late.
Jonathan Marchessault
While Barbashev has gotten the bulk of the attention for his slow start, his linemate and reigning Conn Smythe-winner Jonathan Marchessault has been awfully quiet as well. Whether this is a Stanley Cup hangover or something else, Marchessault has just 14 points in 23 games this season, including five over his last 11.
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While not necessarily terrible, those numbers fail to live up to the standard he set for himself during last year’s playoff run. In one fewer game (he played in all 22 of the club’s postseason contests), he had a league-high 13 goals and 12 assists. Now, the explosive trio of Marchessault, Eichel and Barbashev has long since been broken up, and all three are trying to find their game to varying degrees.
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Chandler Stephenson
This 2023-24 season has found Chandler Stephenson in unfamiliar territory. Firstly, there was an upper-body injury suffered during the Golden Knights’ Nov. 5, 4-2 loss to the Anaheim Ducks. The speedy forward only missed four games as a result, but those four games were equivalent to what Stephenson had missed over the previous two seasons.
Secondly, there’s the recent lack of production. Stephenson’s struggles (one assist and a minus-7 rating over his past seven games) may be injury-related. He certainly didn’t seem himself when he was ejected from the team’s Nov. 18 overtime loss to the Philadelphia Flyers after landing a post-whistle cross-check on Garnet Hathaway.
Regardless of the reasons behind his current level of play, Stephenson continues to maintain steady ice time and a spot on the top line alongside Eichel and Stone. As long as that continues, there is an expectation for the 29-year-old to produce more than what he has offered to date and in a contract year.
Responsibility for the Golden Knights’ current skid doesn’t fall exclusively on the top guns up front. Logan Thompson is enduring a slump of his own, while the blue line is now dealing with injuries to Shea Theodore and Alec Martinez. That said, the quartet of Eichel, Marchessault, Stephenson and Barbashev are on the books for $22.75 million. More is expected of them, and with the Vancouver Canucks and Los Angeles Kings closing in and the Edmonton Oilers beginning to roll, now is the time for them to respond.
