Pavel Dorofeyev needs more than a witch doctor to cure his scoring woes

Everything started so well for Pavel Dorofeyev. After the overtime loss to the Minnesota Wild, the Vegas Golden Knights winger had 11 goals. Life was good for the Russian forward as he made his trek towards becoming an NHL superstar.

Now? There's a drought in Dorofeyevland. Since November 16 happened, the 25-year-old doesn't have a single goal. Sure, he has four assists since that game to add to his points total. But there's a scoring crisis that a witch doctor couldn't solve.

That was apparent in Friday's game, where his goal was called off because of a high stick. Suddenly, he's projected to score 33 goals this season, a far cry from the 40+ he was destined to score. When you haven't scored in nine straight games, you look for anything that you can get. Until that happens, Dorofeyev will continue to be snake-bitten.

When looking at the problem, there are more layers to it than people realize. It isn't just firing pucks at the net and praying for the best. No, that's the Pete DeBoer style and that isn't flying here.

Instead, we're getting to the crux of the problem. That includes proper positioning, when he must score, and more. A simple chicken sacrifice won't do here since we're far in the weeds on this drought. Let's evaluate what Dorofeyev must do to get back on the goal board.

How Pavel Dorofeyev can start scoring goals again for the Vegas Golden Knights again

One stat that sticks out for the Russian winger this season has been the power play goals. Of the 11 goals he's scored, seven have come on the man advantage. That included four power play goals in his first three games. Ultimately, he had five goals on the man advantage and nine goals for October.

Therefore, the objective is clear: start contributing more at even strength. However, it's still not as simple as it sounds. Dorofeyev had 33 shots on goal in October and had 34 in November. It's not that the 25-year-old isn't shooting the puck. It's that nothing is bouncing his way in his current situation. So how do we remedy this?

At one point in 2023-24, the Golden Knights were winning by getting dirty in or near the slot. Believe it or not, Dorofeyev got one of the goals while up front, marking a goal-scoring renaissance for Vegas.

Normally, fans would see him swim up on the weak side for power play goals. While the Golden Knights have adapted on the man advantage by leaning more on stars like Mark Stone and Tomas Hertl, it's on Dorofeyev to adapt to the play himself. That means getting to the middle or up front and wreaking havoc.

I know what you're thinking.

"Oh, well, he has Hertl there. How will that work?"

Well, use Hertl up front to keep the goaltender from making a move. As long as he's not committing goaltender interference, everything will be fine. All Dorofeyev needs to do is get to the middle and fire from a closer range.

I'm not saying that this will be the end-all, be-all solution. After all, he can go back to scoring on power plays at will. However, it'll be a great way to get him back to the goal-scoring superstar that people know he is.