The Vegas Golden Knights haven’t been in full bounce-back mode often this season.
But that might be the case for their game against the Carolina Hurricanes on Friday night at Raleigh, N.C.
Some of the shine has come off Vegas with losses in three of its last four games.
“Maybe there’s a bit of complacency,” coach Bruce Cassidy said. “That’s certainly not us.”
The Hurricanes dropped their second straight decision with a 4-2 loss on Wednesday night at Buffalo. They’ll try to dodge what would be just their second three-game skid of the season on Friday.
“It definitely surprises us,” Carolina defenseman Jaccob Slavin said. “We’re normally a team that competes every night. We’re consistent. We have a chance to win every night. But lately, we haven’t had chances to win every night. We’re not helping ourselves by the way we play.”
The Golden Knights will try to get back in a rhythm after Tuesday night’s 5-3 loss at Nashville.
“That’s probably the poorest we’ve played for 30 minutes in my time here,” Cassidy said.
Pavel Dorofeyev registered his first career hat trick in the Nashville game. He has five goals across the past two games to take the team lead with 19 goals.
The Golden Knights finally are back to full strength this week, and that means that Cassidy will be tasked with putting together line combinations that might work best.
There’s nothing that’s cemented into place.
“You’ll probably see that move a little bit,” Cassidy said. “It helps you balance your lines and your minutes.”
But there are no guarantees and that became particularly evident given the rough patches from the performance in Nashville. With the roster fully stocked, Cassidy cautioned about suggesting things might automatically be smooth.
“It’s never that way in this league,” he said.
With Carolina losing at Eastern Conference cellar-dwelling Buffalo, it’s a drastic turnaround with the next game against a Vegas team that has the third-most points in the NHL.
The Hurricanes have surrendered the first goal in six of their last seven games.
“The urgency needs to be more dialed in from the start of the game,” coach Rod Brind’Amour said.
Slavin scored Wednesday for the 52nd time in his career, moving to second place on the franchise’s list for defensemen.
This will be Carolina’s fourth home contest across a five-game stretch. Vegas is making its second stop on a three-game trip, hoping to improve on an 11-6-3 road record.
Among the visitors will be Golden Knights defenseman Noah Hanifin, a former Hurricanes blue liner. Hanifin, with six goals and 15 assists, is one of three Vegas defensemen who’ve reached the 20-point mark for the season.
Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo will appear in his 300th game for the Golden Knights on Friday night. He’s without a point in the last six games and a combined minus-4 in the last four.
It figures that goalie Pyotr Kochetkov will be back in net for the Hurricanes after serving as a backup in Buffalo.
Carolina won 5-2 on Nov. 11 at Vegas with five different goal scorers and Kochetkov notching the victory.
–Field Level Media
