Golden Knights pick up pace during 4-game win streak

VANCOUVER, British Columbia — Dissecting all the reasons for the Golden Knights’ inconsistent play over the first 20-plus games might have filled this paper’s entire sports section.

It’s much easier to pinpoint how they’ve turned it around in the past week.

Starting with the defensemen, the Knights have made a concerted effort to simplify their game and play faster.

The result is a season-long, four-game winning streak heading into a 7 p.m. Thursday matchup with the Vancouver Canucks at Rogers Arena.

“I think when we’re able to get the puck in the neutral zone, quick it up and play fast, always attacking, attacking, attacking, that’s kind of an area of our game that’s been really solid in the past,” defenseman Colin Miller said. “Maybe we’ve been trying to be a little bit too cute, but I don’t know.

“I think when we’re five guys connected — we talk about it all the time — in our D zone, neutral zone, offensive zone, that’s when we’re playing our best. Then we’re supporting each other and it makes the game easy for every other guy.”

The Knights hit rock bottom in a 7-2 loss to Calgary on Nov. 19, and the players met in Arizona on their day off to discuss the reasons for their struggles.

The consensus was the Knights were holding onto the puck too long, searching for the perfect pass in many cases.

In other words, the team that used its speed to reach the Stanley Cup Final in its inaugural season was playing too slowly.

One of the most noticeable adjustments: Have defensemen head-man the puck as quickly as possible rather than waiting for a play to develop and enable forwards to then immediately get the puck into the offensive zone.

Defenseman Nate Schmidt noted that style of play eliminates any possibility of doing too much with the puck. It also forces the forwards to first come back in support, then get in on the forecheck.

“I think that’s kind of what our focus has been the last couple games is making sure first look is turn and try and find your strong-side winger,” defenseman Nick Holden said. “But then I think (Miller) has done a good job for me if that’s not there, he’s available for me. And then once he gets it, he’s looking right up, so we’re not trying to hold on to pucks too long.”

The Knights were noticeably sharper in victories over Arizona and Calgary, then blew away San Jose 6-0 on Saturday with four of those goals directly as a result of the Knights’ forecheck.

Their speed was on display again during the first goal in Tuesday’s 8-3 victory over the Chicago Blackhawks.

Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury played the puck to defenseman Deryk Engelland at the left faceoff circle, and he wasted no time sending a pass up the wall to Ryan Carpenter at center ice.

Carpenter made a one-touch pass to an onrushing Tomas Nosek, who then found Daniel Carr streaking in from the left wing for his first goal with the Knights.

The whole sequence took six seconds.

“That was one of the things that we mentioned was this healthy diet of right-ups,” Schmidt said. “A healthy diet of quick up, D to D, quick up and let’s just force … because that sucks for us when teams do it to us, and it’s not fun.

“That’s a game that we want to play, and that’s the game that we’ve always wanted to play. Got away from it a little bit, and that’s what’s going to help us get back.”

Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.