It hasn’t been a November to remember for coach Bruce Cassidy and the Vegas Golden Knights.

Heading into their final game of the month on Saturday night against the San Jose Sharks in Las Vegas, the Golden Knights have just four wins in 13 November games (4-4-5) and have lost four straight contests.

Vegas comes in off a 4-1 loss to the visiting Montreal Canadiens on Friday. The Golden Knights have a total of five goals in their last three games and have fallen behind at least 2-0 to start all three of them.

“It’s just tough going down and chasing games all the time,” forward Colton Sissons said. “We’re playing pretty good hockey, but no matter who you’re up against, going down one, two, three goals, it makes life very hard. We’ve just got to find a way to capitalize on one of our chances early and get off on a better foot because it’s tough sledding in this league when you’re down.”

“I don’t think anyone wants to panic,” center Jack Eichel said. “I don’t think that’s the recipe … ever.”

Besides, despite the rough month, the Golden Knights would still be the first wild-card team in the Western Conference if the playoffs were to start today. And as Cassidy pointed out, the team did have a six-game point streak in the middle of the month, although three of the games ended with overtime losses.

“I don’t look at it that’s it’s been a bad three weeks,” Cassidy said. “We’ve had points in six straight games. Do we want more wins? Of course. (Today), we didn’t compete hard enough offensively to finish plays.”

“The good news is that we play again in a little over 24 hours, so a chance to be better tomorrow night,” Eichel said.

The bad news is San Jose, which is one point behind Vegas in the standings, definitely has had a November to remember.

The Sharks come in off a 3-2 victory over visiting Vancouver on Friday, tying a franchise record for home wins in a calendar month (seven) last accomplished in November 2019. It also was San Jose’s ninth win in the month (9-4-1), not bad for a team that finished with just 20 victories for the entire 2024-25 campaign (20-50-12).

Yaroslav Askarov made 32 saves to pick up his fourth win in his last five starts on Friday, Will Smith and William Eklund each scored power-play goals, and Adam Gaudette scored the game-winner late in the second period for San Jose, which bounced back from an ugly 6-0 loss to NHL points leader Colorado on Wednesday in Denver.

“It was a good response,” Sharks coach Ryan Warsofsky said. “We played better. Competed a little bit harder, did some things we talked about. Keep moving forward.”

This will be the second meeting this season between the two Pacific Division rivals. Vegas won the first game 4-3 in overtime on Oct. 9 in San Jose due to a couple of costly errors by Sharks goaltender Alex Nedeljkovic.

The first blunder came with 1:34 to go in regulation on a routine dump-in by Eichel from the blue line that surprisingly slid through Nedeljkovic’s pads to tie it 3-3. The second came in overtime when Nedeljkovic came far out of his net to try and clear a loose puck that instead deflected to Reilly Smith, who then easily put the game-winner into an empty net.

“We haven’t forgotten that first game,” Sharks winger Collin Graf told reporters after Friday’s win. “We’ll be ready to go.”

Vegas is 28-2-5 all-time against the Sharks, including 13-2-2 at T-Mobile Arena.

-Field Level Media

The Los Angeles Kings will try to rebound from a difficult loss when they host the Vancouver Canucks on Saturday night.

The Kings led 4-2 midway through the third period on Friday against the Anaheim Ducks before surrendering two goals, the second in a 6-on-5 situation with 1:31 left in regulation. Los Angeles went on to drop a 5-4 decision in a shootout.

Holding leads in the third period has been a challenge for teams throughout the league this season.

“Everybody feels like they have a good team and they have a chance to win,” Kings coach Jim Hiller said. “Maybe, historically, there might have been some teams that were a little bit weaker, and if you had a lead, it was probably a little bit easier to hold it. This year, every team’s got some pretty dangerous players, so they feel like, ‘Hey, we’re still in this.’ ”

The loss prevented the Kings from leapfrogging the Ducks for first place in the Pacific Division.

“We made probably a couple, two or three mistakes, back half of the third period,” Hiller said. “Prior to that, I thought we were pretty clean in the third, so it’s disappointing. They finished and we had our chances, too, and we couldn’t finish.”

Vancouver couldn’t back up its 5-4 win against the Ducks to start the four-game road trip on Wednesday and lost 3-2 at the San Jose Sharks on Friday.

One of the bright spots for the Canucks of late has been rookie defenseman Tom Willander, who had another assist on Friday to give him three in the past two games.

Willander, who had two assists against the Ducks for the first multi-point game of his NHL career, was recalled from Abbotsford of the American Hockey League on Oct. 28 and has become a regular on the back end.

“You just see it since he’s got here, he’s got a lot of confidence, he’s got a lot of poise and he’s a confident guy,” Vancouver forward Max Sasson said. “He’s flying around up there. He moves his feet really well. He makes really good plays and he’s a great guy on top there.”

Willander, 20, is the youngest player on Vancouver’s roster.

“They’ve done a good job,” Vancouver coach Adam Foote said of his young players. “They’ve been put in some tough places, but they’re also pretty excited to get the opportunity and show their stuff and grow. When we get out of this, these injuries come back, we’re going to be deeper with guys with more experience, so we’ll take it.”

Foote would like to see his entire defensive unit get tighter on their defensive zone coverage.

“Understand when we want to exaggerate our coverage, extend our coverage, and close out guys in the corners a little bit harder,” he said.

Anton Forsberg will likely start in goal for the Kings after Darcy Kuemper made 27 saves in the shootout loss to the Ducks.

Forsberg has played poorly against the Canucks in his career, owning an 0-4-0 record with a .789 save percentage and 5.08 goals-against average.

Jiri Patera could make his second start of the season in goal for Vancouver after Nikita Tolopilo made 21 saves against the Sharks.

Kevin Lankinen is close to rejoining the Canucks after missing the start of the road trip for personal reasons and Vancouver’s No. 1 goalie, Thatcher Demko, is also nearing a return from injury.

-Field Level Media

The St. Louis Blues will try to capitalize on what amounts to a breakthrough when they host the Utah Mammoth on Saturday.

The Blues have been struggling to score 5-on-5 goals, hold leads and close out victories after opponents pull their goaltender for an extra attacker.

They checked all three of those boxes against the Ottawa Senators in a 4-3 victory on Friday. The win was just St. Louis’ fourth in 13 home games (4-5-4).

“The third period, the desperation that we played with, that got us three goals – I think it’s the most 5-on-5 goals we’ve had in a period this year – that’s the catalyst that we need to carry on, if we’re going to get on a roll,” Blues coach Jim Montgomery said. “And we’re going to get on a roll.

“That’s the kind of game, when you come from behind, your crowd is going nuts, you’ve got another game tomorrow night in front of the same crowd. … it’s time for us to show the desperation and keep building on this.”

Pavel Buchnevich scored his first even-strength goal of the season Friday while extending his point streak to four games (one goal, three assists).

“I just know that he’s been playing the right way since we went on the road in Toronto, playing a much more hard offensive game and he’s been having a lot of opportunities,” Montgomery said.

Since Jordan Binnington was in the crease on Friday and the Blues play again on Monday, Joel Hofer likely will get the start against Utah.

Since starting the season with an 8-2-0 record, Utah has sputtered to a 4-8-3 mark. The Mammoth began their demanding six-game road trip by losing to the Stars 4-3 on Friday night in Dallas.

Clayton Keller, who grew up in the St. Louis area, played against the Stars despite learning of the sudden death of his father Bryan on Thursday.

“Clayton wants to play and be with the team,” Mammoth coach Andre Tourigny said. “All the organization is with him with all of our heart. He’s been nothing but an unbelievable teammate. His family is unbelievable so we’re all with him during this tough time.

“There is nothing you can really do in these moments but be there. The big thing for us is to be there and support him. Loyalty is when people need you, to be there.”

Utah defeated the Blues 7-4 on Oct. 23, scoring three goals against both Binnington and Hofer.

Logan Cooley recorded a hat trick and added an assist in that game. Keller (two goals, assist), Nick Schmaltz (goal, two assists) and Dylan Guenther (three assists) and JJ Peterka (three assists) each had three points.

Vitek Vanecek started in goal for the Mammoth in Dallas, so Utah likely will turn to Karel Vejmelka on Saturday.

Vejmelka, who has started seven of his team’s last nine games, stopped 16 of 20 shots when the Mammoth defeated the Blues earlier this season.

-Field Level Media

The Minnesota Wild will try for their eighth straight victory when they host the Buffalo Sabres on Saturday night.

The Wild are also 11-1-1 in their past 13 games, most recently beating the team with the best record in the NHL that was riding a 10-game winning streak.

Minnesota took down the visiting Colorado Avalanche 3-2 in a shootout on Friday, marking just the eighth time in NHL history that two teams met with winning streaks of at least six games, and the second time that happened with the Wild.

They were on a 12-game winning streak when the Columbus Blue Jackets beat them 4-2 on Dec. 31, 2016 to run their winning streak to 15 games.

“They’re the best team in the league right now,” Minnesota defenseman Jonas Brodin said of Colorado. “They [have] great players, but we’re a good team, too, and I think we showed that.”

The Wild will be up against a Buffalo team that’s also playing its second game in two days. The Sabres were shut out 5-0 by the visiting New Jersey Devils on Friday and now head on the road, where they’re 1-6-2 this season without a regulation victory.

The Wild would appear in good position to maintain their winning streak.

“I hope we keep doing it,” Wild goalie Jesper Wallstedt said after making 39 saves against the Avalanche and stopping two of three attempts in the shootout.

Buffalo forward Tage Thompson said the Sabres played better against the Devils than the score indicated.

“I thought there was a lot of energy on the bench, and I thought our team was playing well,” Thompson said. “I thought we controlled the first two periods pretty handily. Obviously, the score didn’t indicate that, but I thought we had a lot of chances, a lot of opportunities.”

The Wild placed Marcus Foligno on injured reserve on Friday with a lower-body injury and activated fellow forward Ryan Hartman, who had missed four games with a lower-body injury.

Foligno is week-to-week after leaving during the second period of a 4-3 overtime win at the Chicago Blackhawks on Wednesday. He has two assists in 23 games this season, while Hartman has four goals and four assists in 21 games.

Hartman assisted on the first of two goals by Kirill Kaprizov in his return to action on Friday.

Filip Gustavsson will start in goal for the Wild. Gustavsson is 2-1-1 in his career against the Sabres with a .938 save percentage and 1.75 goals against average

Pekka Luukkonen will start in goal for the Sabres after Alex Lyon made 18 saves against the Devils on Friday.

Luukkonen is 3-2-1 in his career against the Wild with a .922 save percentage and 2.44 goals-against average.

Sabres defenseman Mattias Samuelsson went to the locker room after taking an elbow to the face from Timo Meier in the third period. Buffalo coach Lindy Ruff did not have an update on Samuelsson immediately following the game.

Samuelsson is second on the team in ice time at 21:47 minutes a game.

-Field Level Media

The Pittsburgh Penguins will hope to claim all four points available from their Thanksgiving weekend doubleheader as they host the wayward Toronto Maple Leafs on Saturday night.

Pittsburgh’s 4-2 victory over the Buffalo Sabres on Wednesday and 4-3 overtime triumph versus the Columbus Blue Jackets on Friday marked its first string of consecutive wins since late October.

Superstar captain Sidney Crosby helped his team overcome a two-goal deficit on Friday, tying the game off Tommy Novak’s stretch pass that caromed off the boards before settling softly on his stick.

Defenseman Kris Letang sealed the win 59 seconds into the extra session in what was the Penguins’ first overtime win of the season.

Bryan Rust left the game twice with apparent injuries but returned in the third to get the Penguins back within one just 13 seconds into the period.

“On our toes a bit more, I think we took away their time and space a little bit more,” Rust said of their sudden resurgence in the third period. “But I also think we were smarter with the puck, which also helps.”

The Penguins had dropped all five of their games that had gone past regulation this season.

“If you go back to our last overtime, I thought we did a lot of good things,” said Pittsburgh head coach Dan Muse, who criticized his team earlier in the day for lacking energy.

“So, you know, we carried that over into this one. Obviously, when we got the opportunity, we executed. Great to get that first overtime win.”

The Maple Leafs, who are 2-6-2 in their last 10 games, arrive at the halfway mark of their six-game road trip in rather unimpressive fashion. They coughed up a two-goal lead against the Washington Capitals on Friday night in a 4-2 loss.

Max Domi was a healthy scratch for the first time this season as Dakota Joshua and Matias Maccelli slotted in on the wings.

“I gotta look at the lineup, what I think’s best for tonight, and that’s part of it,” Toronto head coach Craig Berube said. “And then I just want to talk to himDomi] about getting a reset and we’ll see about tomorrow if we get him back in.”

The Maple Leafs have been hemmed in their own zone for much of their road trip, having been outshot 99-72 over the three-game stretch. If there has been any silver lining, Joseph Woll has been a sorely needed steadying presence between the pipes given the barrage of pucks on net.

“He’s been outstanding,” Leafs defenseman Morgan Rielly said of Woll after Friday’s game. “You know, he’s been working extremely hard to get back into form and he looks just like himself and he’s making huge saves for us.”

Team-leading scorer William Nylander drew out of the lineup after waking up in the morning with an illness. It is unclear whether he will play against Pittsburgh.

-Field Level Media