Knights hoping for spark as homestand opens with Devils

The urgency Bruce Cassidy has talked about over the past couple of weeks works in different ways.

He’s hoping the Golden Knights start on time, like how they did in a 5-3 win against the Detroit Red Wings on March 9, when they had a stretch of 15 of the game’s 16 shots and dominated with their forecheck.

Cassidy also sees it as needing to prepare his group for those fast starts. Finding that urgency is the Knights’ focus heading into this four-game homestand, starting Sunday against the New Jersey Devils.

“We need to be ready to go sooner,” Cassidy said. “I think that’s a shared responsibility.”

The Knights took a step back Thursday in their 4-1 loss to the Calgary Flames. Though it wasn’t a perfect game, they had a 1-0 lead going into the third period.

Calgary scored four unanswered goals, and the Knights suddenly lost all momentum gained from the prior two victories.

Cassidy said the Knights did the little things well on their way to the Stanley Cup: winning puck battles, being more physical below the goal line and hustling at key times.

Right now, those minor adjustments aren’t there.

“When you talk about building your game, you can talk about breakouts, transition and all that stuff,” Cassidy said. “But also talk about building habits — checking habits, playing through people, making it hard for people to get on the forecheck. That’s the part right now we have to get back.”

The Knights (35-24-7) head into this homestand 4-9-1 in their past 14 games, allowing 4.14 goals per game during that stretch.

It’s a time when every game is paramount, with the Knights holding a four-point lead over the Minnesota Wild for the second wild card in the Western Conference.

But this four-game run presents some opportunities. The Devils (32-31-4) are one of three teams the Knights are facing that are outside of the playoff picture. New Jersey is 2-6-0 in its last eight after a 4-1 loss to Arizona on Saturday, though the Devils did beat the Dallas Stars 6-2 on Thursday.

“We have to be better,” Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo said. “We’ve been doing everything in spurts, but this is a big homestand for us. I don’t think we’ve played well enough at home.”

Pietrangelo isn’t wrong. The Knights have historically been a great home team, but they’ve lost five of their last six at T-Mobile Arena. The win over Detroit was their first home victory since Feb. 6.

Nine of the Knights’ final 16 games will be at T-Mobile Arena. Six of them are against nonplayoff teams, but two of them are against the Wild.

Cassidy called out his group after Thursday’s loss, furthering the claim that the Knights are nowhere near the level that they should be. He still believes that they can reach that point, but there’s not a lot of time to figure it out.

Cassidy is looking for someone to trigger the emotional spark. That’s where he’s relied on the leadership group that’s available — Pietrangelo, center Jack Eichel, center William Karlsson or right wing Jonathan Marchessault — to get things going.

Marchessault recorded his third hat trick of the season against the Red Wings, which was the last time the Knights played at home. A performance similar to that might be what Cassidy looks for.

“There’s guys in the room that can do it, and there’s guys in the room that can follow,” Cassidy said. “That’s where it’s got to start.”

Contact Danny Webster at dwebster@reviewjournal.com. Follow @DannyWebster21 on X.