Golden Knights’ overtime troubles – or turnaround – are much ado about nothing

Editor's note: Este artículo está traducido al español.

Jack Eichel’s skill is so immense that he can momentarily astonish even the most notoriously hostile opposing fans.

That’s what happened on the road Thursday night against the Philadelphia Flyers at Xfinity Mobile Center when the Golden Knights’ star pounced on a puck Flyers winger Travis Konecny mishandled in overtime. Eichel not only got the puck in prime offensive-zone position but bought time against the boards with a spin move causing Konency to slip and allowing something to develop.

“I heard the crowd ooh and aah and I wasn’t sure really what happened,” Golden Knights captain Mark Stone said after the game. “But Jack obviously forced a turnover, had great poise with it, kind of made their guy flat-footed and I just came down the gut there and he made an incredible pass backdoor. Great play by our best player. That’s kind of what we needed in OT, we’ve got to have somebody make a play and he’s done it in two of the last three games.”      

The relief in Stone’s voice was palpable as he alluded to grouping Eichel’s breakaway goal from four days earlier for an overtime win at the Rangers with the playmaking prowess he flashed in the game-winner against the Flyers.

Disappointing play in overtime has been Vegas’ biggest issue solidly a third of the way into the NHL season. Even with Eichel having now helped drag the Golden Knights to wins in three of their last four overtime games, they’re just 4-9 in contests that have extended past regulation.

Stone, Eichel and the rest of the roster haven’t hidden their frustration with the overall results, but they shouldn’t sweat it as much. It’s a luxury if a contending team’s most major problem is an inability to thrive in overtime.

The nature of the NHL’s regular-season extra period, five minutes of sudden-death 3-on-3 play followed by a shootout, is unavoidably random. A stretch like the Golden Knights’ 1-8 start to the season in overtime is all but guaranteed to regress.

Look for Vegas’ recent uptick to continue heading into today’s road-trip closing game scheduled for 4 p.m. — airing on Scripps Sports, channel 34 — at the Columbus Blue Jackets.

“It’s the law of averages a little bit,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We’re a good team. It wasn’t going to continue that way I don’t think. A lot of times it (comes down to) a save, or you make a play.”

There’s a sense that the Golden Knights have underachieved so far after their ballyhooed offseason, but the perception is almost entirely because of a handful of bounces that have gone against them with the game on the line.      

And, despite that bad luck, they’ve only strengthened their position by more predictive measures. Vegas is now nearing a -200 (i.e. risking $200 to win $100) favorite to win the Pacific Division in local sports books after getting as high as +200 (i.e. risking $100 to win $200) in the offseason.

Some of that can be attributed to slower starts from the rest of the division, particularly the preseason favorite Edmonton Oilers, but that’s a secondary factor to how well the Golden Knights have played in more typical game states.  

Filter out overtime’s 3-on-3 play, and Vegas is third in the league in expected-goal share per naturalstatrick.com, percentage points behind the Carolina Hurricanes in second with the overpowering Colorado Avalanche leading the way.

That’s much more important than the fate of a few overtime games, especially for a team like the Golden Knights that are all-in to win the Stanley Cup. Overtime rules revert to normal 5-on-5 sudden death in the playoffs so, even if the Golden Knights are for some reason entirely inadequate at 3-on-3, it won’t hold them back from their ultimate goal.

“You kind of learn a lot about each other or just how those things sit as a group,” defenseman Zach Whitecloud said of all the Golden Knights’ close games. “This group hates losing. It doesn’t matter what the score is. It doesn’t matter how we lose…We hate losing even more than we enjoy winning is the easy way to put it. That’s been the staple of our group for a long time, ever since I’ve been here. We’re expecting to win every single game.”

That’s the mindset a championship-caliber team needs to have. The objective is just getting tougher than ever to capture in this year’s NHL where parity is at an all-time high.

Aside from Colorado’s towering 22-2-7 record — hey, it’s 2-7 overtime record is even worse than Vegas’ — the rest of the standings are historically compact.

“I think the teams that maybe people underestimated are having good years,” Cassidy said. “They are ahead of where people projected them this summer — the Anaheims, Philadelphia, Chicago, San Jose got off to a tough start and they had a run. That creates more competitive balance across the league. We’ve got that term down finally. I think that’s what’s happening. It’s just the way it is, the rosters are more evenly matched.”

An NHL record 27.3% of games have gone to overtime this season according to ESPN. The Golden Knights are single-handedly inflating that figure with 43% of their games having not been decided in regulation.

Vegas is one more overtime period away from tying last year’s regular-season total of 14 overtime games in just a few months. The Golden Knights were poor in overtime last year too, going 4-10, but had winning records past regulation in each of the first two years under Cassidy.

Lifetime in Vegas, Cassidy’s teams are now 33-34 outside of regulation. That’s right where a team’s record should be expected with the NHL’s high overtime variance.

The Golden Knights’ lofty standards have them pressing to change their overtime fortunes, and it might be working out. Either way, it’s nothing to worry too much about.

“I just think eventually it will turn our way a little bit,” Cassidy said. “That’s just the way I feel about it, especially if we clean up some of our puck management issues.”