GDT: 2018 Other Playoff Games Part II

[Friday]

Currently traveling overseas so I haven’t been paying much attention to the ECF and WCF since I only have WiFi once in a while. How did the Jets lose in 5? Hellyuck collapse? Vegas forecheck then to death? More lucky bounces Or did Fleury do it again?

Speed, timely goals, MAF

 

[hohosaregood]

They know how to make the game plan, they just don't know how to keep the game plan.

eh, better than every other coach in the west apparently.

 

[WSS11]

Speed, timely goals, MAF

Really? So they matched Nashville’s speed but not Vegas? Strange. Oh well, Go Bolts

 

[Gecklund]

Don't care which East team wins the cup as long as Vegas doesn't

 

[Friday]

Really? So they matched Nashville’s speed but not Vegas? Strange. Oh well, Go Bolts

Jets looked gassed in game 5. Laine isn't fast enough to get any space, I mean the forecheck and the closing speed just ruined the Jets.

 

[WSS11]

Jets looked gassed in game 5. Laine isn't fast enough to get any space, I mean the forecheck and the closing speed just ruined the Jets.

That makes sense, Gallant has a good system. Wears you out, hats off.

 

[LeeIFBB]

Beat goes on for the empty suit with the fake tan.

 

[Friday]

Wonder if all the small market teams with little top end talent are going to copy cat systems and styles. NHL might be way faster next year and much more aggressive.

 

[Alwalys]

vegas is getting historic goaltending along with stratospheric execution level from almost everyone on the roster. this is lightning in a bottle on steroids. this team is NOWHERE near this good and if things even come a little apart they will get throttled by the east team.

the level of execution vegas is on cannot even be deliberately trained. no matter how much you practice you will never be able to force things to click this well. vegas themselves won't be able to sustain it.

 

[rangerssharks414]

You know that you’re a team of destiny when Ryan Reaves is scoring a series clinching game winner for you.

 

[hohosaregood]

Wonder if all the small market teams with little top end talent are going to copy cat systems and styles. NHL might be way faster next year and much more aggressive.

I don't think so. Vegas does have a good system in that their forecheck is effective and the cross ice passes really work out but it's mainly the skill of their top players leading the way. Marchessault, Smith, Miller, and Schmidt are all very quality players and were stats darlings for the last couple years. Only real surprise that they got really lucky with is the breakout/chemistry that Karlsson managed to develop and Fleury's historic and ,frankly, anomalous goaltending performance.

 

[Alwalys]

I don't think so. Vegas does have a good system in that their forecheck is effective and the cross ice passes really work out but it's mainly the skill of their top players leading the way. Marchessault, Smith, Miller, and Schmidt are all very quality players and were stats darlings for the last couple years. Only real surprise that they got really lucky with is the breakout/chemistry that Karlsson managed to develop and Fleury's historic and ,frankly, anomalous goaltending performance.

yeah i know it sounds like sour grapes or hating but vegas is in line for major regression. literally everything is going right for them right now, otherwise they are colorado.

 

[Maladroit]

If there's a lesson to be learned from Vegas' success I think it has less to do with style of play and more to do with being able to identify and acquire undervalued players. This time last year any team in the league could have had Marchessault, Karlsson, Smith, Schmidt or Colin Miller for a pittance. Doug Wilson and every other GM should be doing their due diligence to find out which comparable players are out there for the taking this summer. I think Tim Heed would qualify and we already have him on the roster.

 

[SJSharksfan39]

Awesome. Really wanted a team to screw superstitions and grab the trophy.

Vegas is defying all odds so I'm not surprised.

 

[Maladroit]

All the whining from other team's fanbases about how the expansion draft was unfairly favorable to Vegas is hilarious and being done entirely in hindsight. Again, ANY TEAM could have traded a 4th round pick for Marchessault and Smith last summer (it probably would have had to be a 4th round pick plus a crappy expansion draft-eligible forward for Marchessault and Smith, but still).

Any team could have swung very similar trades to the ones Vegas ended up doing for William Karlsson and Shea Theodore in exchange for taking cap dump contracts too. Almost all the most important players on this Knights team came via trade, not the expansion draft. Certainly the threat of losing other players to the draft granted Vegas leverage in those trade negotiations but not so much leverage that other teams couldn't have made similar deals.

 

[Friday]

Theodore, Neal, Wild Bill, Perron, Miller and Sbisa are all FA's, Vegas will have some crazy moves going on this summer. I mean how much do you pay Wild Bill? No idea

 

[OrrNumber4]

It seemed like Vegas just had most of the momentum from game one on...and they were able to build that momentum game-to-game. Fleury got in Winnipeg's head, and they just didn't really adapt their game at all until maybe the second period of game 5. Either Vegas had the momentum, or nobody had it.

 

[fasterthanlight]

Pshh -- the sharks and the kings? Pacific is terrible. I am sure vegas will crumble when they face a "real team" like the Jet--- uhh...

 

[Sysreq]

The Sharks without Thornton and an old, busted Paul Martin are still the toughest match-up Vegas faced.

 

[rangerssharks414]

I laughed a little.

 

[Boy Hedican]

I’m somewhat glad they won, especially the way they did. One part because of the arrogant Jets fans comments about a real contender, and also that we took it way harder to then (at times).

I did call the pacific winning the WCF. It wasn’t hard to see the bigger jets players slow down after 2 hard series. Speed wins. We all know that.

I think we still need to upgrade some pieces but we still have a very good hockey club.

 

[LadyStanley]

Theodore, Neal, Wild Bill, Perron, Miller and Sbisa are all FA's, Vegas will have some crazy moves going on this summer. I mean how much do you pay Wild Bill? No idea

RFAs: Karlsson, Nosek, Carrier, Miller, Theodore, +6

UFA: Neal, Perron, Reaves, Sbisa, +5

Neal and Perron were supposed to be TDL trade bait. Questions will be: do the VGK want to retain them? And if so, what $$/term.

Karlsson is arbitration eligible. Marchessault was signed to six year deal. Have to think Karlsson might want want double $$.

 

[Maladroit]

Karlsson is arbitration eligible. Marchessault was signed to six year deal. Have to think Karlsson might want want double $$.

Double $$ meaning double Karlsson's current salary? Because I'm thinking he'll want (and get) far more than $2mil/yr.

 

[hohosaregood]

Vegas has like $50m in cap space going into the offseason, they can sign everybody good to like $5-7m contracts and still have a buttload of cap space.

 

[Maladroit]

Vegas has like $50m in cap space going into the offseason, they can sign everybody good to like $5-7m contracts and still have a buttload of cap space.

That's one of the crazier underreported things about Vegas. The lineup that won today (considering Clarkson is on LTIR and Tatar didn't play) combines for less than $40mil against the cap. Less than half of next year's projected upper limit. Just insane and frankly embarrassing for a lot of GMs that this is happening.