Have Knights improved their special teams this season?
Any list of reasons why the Golden Knights missed the playoffs last year has to include special teams.
Whether due to injuries, unsurprising schemes, poor execution or, most likely, a little of everything, the Knights’ power play and penalty kill hurt more than helped last season. It proved crucial because a boost from either unit could have given the team the three-point bump it needed in the standings.
The Knights are getting more of a lift on special teams this season under coach Bruce Cassidy. Whether that’s enough is the question. They’re better, but still prone to enough inconsistency and slip-ups that it’s hard to call either unit a strength.
For example, the Knights had three power-play opportunities Saturday night against Edmonton’s 28th-ranked penalty kill. They went 0-for-3 in a 4-3 overtime loss.
“First period, our power play was not (good),” Cassidy said. “The other night, we’re getting pucks back, second chances. We didn’t get any of that.”
Cassidy has made progress with the Knights’ special teams.
They were ranked 25th on the power play (18.4 percent) and 21st on the penalty kill last year (77.4 percent). The Knights were minus-5 when combining both units, a goal differential that was tied for 22nd-best in the NHL.
Things have swung in a positive direction this season.
The Knights are 16th on the power play (21.2 percent) and 21st on the penalty kill (76.6 percent). Their goal differential on special teams, plus-four, is tied for sixth-best in the league. That’s in large part thanks to their four short-handed goals, tied for the NHL lead.
The Knights still have things to improve upon. Consistency is one. The team, unlike last season, can’t say its units haven’t had time to work together. Center Nicolas Roy became the first power-play player to miss a game Saturday when he sat out with a lower-body injury.
One thing captain Mark Stone said he’s noticed on the power play — which is 1-for-11 the last three games — is the Knights can make things too complicated for themselves rather than playing simple and direct.
“You get some pucks around the net, get some loose change,” Stone said. “We’re trying to do maybe the pretty play right now when most of the goals we score are off shots, rebounds. Got to get back to that.”
The penalty kill has things to iron out as well.
Cassidy is letting the Knights pressure higher up in their defensive zone, which is helping create short-handed chances. But the team’s aggressiveness can also backfire.
Center William Karlsson and defenseman Brayden McNabb started to look up ice Saturday during a third-period penalty kill when it looked like left wing Reilly Smith would win a race to a loose puck.
When Smith didn’t, Oilers captain Connor McDavid had time and space to set up left wing Zach Hyman for a go-ahead, power-play goal.
The Knights’ goal will be to strike the right balance between creating short-handed chances and limiting mistakes. It’s a work in progress so far. Cassidy’s stellar special-teams reputation — the Boston Bruins ranked third on the power play and penalty kill during his six seasons there — hasn’t shot his new team up the NHL leaderboards right away.
The Knights are in a better place than they were a year ago. They still have room to grow.
“(We’ll) just take another look, keep working on it in practice,” defenseman Shea Theodore said of the power play. “Hopefully we can improve that.”
Contact Ben Gotz at bgotz@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BenSGotz on Twitter.