Watch: Cassidy likes Golden Knights’ play against top teams

Vegas Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy is happy with how his team has responded against the upper echelon of teams during its recent run. The Golden Knights have won six of their last seven with twins over the Winnipeg Jets (twice), Edmonton Oilers, Dallas Stars and Minnesota Wild.

Most recently, the Golden Knights defeated the Vancouver Canucks, last year’s Pacific Division winner, 3-1 at T-Mobile Arena on Thursday.

One consistent factor in all those victories is how the Golden Knights have performed with a lead in the third period. Four of the five wins over those teams have been one-goal affairs. The win against the Canucks would have been a one-goal game had it not been for Brett Howden’s empty-netter.

How do the Golden Knights do it? Cassidy had an answer.

“A little bit of not beating yourself. Comfortable in the games we talked about in those close games. Not trying to do too much and then give up an odd-man rush or a bad goal, so to speak. Goaltending has been stellar,” Cassidy said. “That has a lot to do with it. I think patience, knowing that, ‘Hey, Minnesota’s a good team. Winnipeg’s a good team. You’re playing a good team. No one’s rolling over.’ So stay in the game, use everybody, try to stick to your identity by grinding it out. “

The only blip on that stretch? A 6-3 loss to the Edmonton Oilers on Dec. 14, but that was more the exception than the norm.

“You’re going to get into the odd game where it’s up and down. Edmonton was a little more of that. I thought we created lots of offense. Didn’t finish as well. They did,” Cassidy said. “But at the end of the day, probably, you’re going to see more of the games like tonight [against Vancouver] against those top teams, and we’re fine with that. We’re comfortable in those games. Our record backs that up.”

Paul Delos Santos is the Las Vegas sports insider for Dice City Sports. Follow him on X at @PaulDelos_.