GDT: NHL Outdoors | Colorado Vs Vegas | 2/20/21 3ET | NBC, SN, SN1, TVAS

[Drij]

It was nice to see Quebec versus Calgary in an outdoor game.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

Call me crazy but I thought yesterday was a huge success. Started the game during the day with the sun beaming and the most beautiful scenery a hockey game has ever had. It didn’t really work out so they postponed it to the evening. Players went on, went through their pre-game routines, puck dropped again on a perfect sheet of ice and we watched two top 5 NHL teams battle it out in a great hockey game.

Not to mention we’ve learned the existence of Dusty Gooch.

P.S. it probably doesn’t hurt that I’m an Avs fan and I watched my favorite team make their biggest divisional competition look slow.

 

[HanSolo]

Call me crazy but I thought yesterday was a huge success. Started the game during the day with the sun beaming and the most beautiful scenery a hockey game has ever had. It didn’t really work out so they postponed it to the evening. Players went on, went through their pre-game routines, puck dropped again on a perfect sheet of ice and we watched two top 5 NHL teams battle it out in a great hockey game.

Not to mention we’ve learned the existence of Dusty Gooch.

P.S. it probably doesn’t hurt that I’m an Avs fan and I watched my favorite team make their biggest divisional competition look slow.

All credit to the Avs for playing a hard and well structured game last night, but Colorado didn't make Vegas look slow. They just played slow. And unfocused. And sloppy. Some of it was Colorado's defensive positioning and aggressiveness, sure, but a lot of it was just piss poor execution, no hustle in the skates, and unfocused puck management.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

All credit to the Avs for playing a hard and well structured game last night, but Colorado didn't make Vegas look slow. They just played slow. And unfocused. And sloppy. Some of it was Colorado's defensive positioning and aggressiveness, sure, but a lot of it was just piss poor execution, no hustle in the skates, and unfocused puck management.

Oh yeah? You don’t think it had anything to do with Colorado being a much better skating team?

 

[not a troll]

Oh yeah? You don’t think it had anything to do with Colorado being a much better skating team?

The insecurity of Avs fans on the main board is so cringe at times. We get it, the Avs won and were the better team but let's not pretend like Vegas was playing their best game last night.

 

[Cousin Eddie]

The insecurity of Avs fans on the main board is so cringe at times. We get it, the Avs won and were the better team but let's not pretend like Vegas was playing their best game last night.

Lol yeah insecurity.

Perhaps it wasn’t their best game. I never said anything about the quality of either team as a whole even. Just stated that the Avs are much faster which is clearly evident through these last 3 games and magnified even further last night with the return of Girard and Makar to the lineup.

Vegas very well may be a better team than Colorado even. But Colorado absolutely did make them look slow and that’s all I argued.

 

[not a troll]

Lol yeah insecurity.

Perhaps it wasn’t their best game. I never said anything about the quality of either team as a whole even. Just stated that the Avs are much faster which is clearly evident through these last 3 games and magnified even further last night with the return of Girard and Makar to the lineup.

Vegas very well may be a better team than Colorado even. But Colorado absolutely did make them look slow and that’s all I argued.

Outside of MacKinnon and Makar, Vegas absolutely has guys who can keep up with the rest of the team. The rest of the Avs aren't head and shoulders above the top guys on Vegas. They just didn't show it last night.

 

[HanSolo]

Oh yeah? You don’t think it had anything to do with Colorado being a much better skating team?

I mean considering the first two times they met in this four game series they matched each other in skating pretty evenly with Vegas having played the night before game 1 and Colorado having the fresher legs after a lot of time off, no. I don't think it had anything to do with that. It's okay to be a great, even the best skating team when they're playing one of the other top skating teams in the league. It's not a slight on Colorado that I was making, it was pointing out that saying Colorado made Vegas look slow when they simply just skated way slower than they usually do is an incorrect statement.

I watch every Vegas game. Even if I don't watch them live I'll watch the recording. I know when they're playing and skating slow. So unless Colorado took a whole bunch of steroids before the outdoor game, I think I know what I'm talking about when I say that Vegas played and skated like shit. No question the Avs were absolutely flying yesterday, but you're kidding yourself if you think that was the fastest the Knights can skate.

 

[nammerus]

I mean considering the first time they met in this four game series they matched each other in skating pretty evenly with Vegas having played the night before and Colorado having the fresher legs after a lot of time off, no. I don't think it had anything to do with that. It's okay to be a great, even the best skating team when they're playing one of the other top skating teams in the league. It's not a slight on Colorado that I was making, it was pointing out that saying Colorado made Vegas look slow when they simply just skated way slower than they usually do is an incorrect statement.

I watch every Vegas game. I know when they're playing and skating slow. So unless Colorado took a whole bunch of steroids before the outdoor game, I think I know what I'm talking about when I say that Vegas played and skated like shit.

Guess you casually forgot to mention the Avs were missing 3 of their top 4 D, 1st line LW, and 3-4 bottom 6 fwds for 2 of those 3 games. But hey, whatever fits your narrative.

 

[Richard88]

I mean considering the first two times they met in this four game series they matched each other in skating pretty evenly with Vegas having played the night before and Colorado having the fresher legs after a lot of time off, no. I don't think it had anything to do with that. It's okay to be a great, even the best skating team when they're playing one of the other top skating teams in the league. It's not a slight on Colorado that I was making, it was pointing out that saying Colorado made Vegas look slow when they simply just skated way slower than they usually do is an incorrect statement.

I watch every Vegas game. I know when they're playing and skating slow. So unless Colorado took a whole bunch of steroids before the outdoor game, I think I know what I'm talking about when I say that Vegas played and skated like shit.

Having 2 weeks off doesn't give you fresh legs. Players are incredibly rusty after that long a layoff, and it showed.

 

[HanSolo]

Guess you casually forgot to mention the Avs were missing 3 of their top 4 D, 1st line LW, and 3-4 bottom 6 fwds for 2 of those 3 games. But hey, whatever fits your narrative.

It's not about narrative, Colorado is more players than just the guys who were injured, no? We're comparing roster speed are we not?

Point is he said the Avs made the Knights look slow. I postulated that the Knights were simply slow and would've looked slow relative to their capacity to be a faster team regardless of the opponent. You can fixate on one point I made if that suits your narrative if you want, but it doesn't invalidate my perspective on the Knights' skating capabilities in general and the underperformance they put out last night.

Having 2 weeks off doesn't give you fresh legs. Players are incredibly rusty after that long a layoff, and it showed.

Okay fine, it was a stupid throw in that really doesn't matter to my overall point which is my own personal impression on how fast the Knights usually are and how badly they missed that mark yesterday. Put any hockey team on the planet against the way the Knights skated yesterday and I'd still be saying they skated slow by their standards. Whether we lost by 1, or 10, or won by 1 or 10. It's not a question of were the Avs fast last night. They were. It's just that on top of that Vegas was not skating well. In fact, worse than that, when they got set up 5 on 5 and on the powerplay they'd often just stand around hoping the puck carrier could find a good pass to make. The only time they had any hustle in their game was when they were killing penalties. Even with the goalie pulled chasing a one goal deficit they seemed to have no urgency and hustle.

Colorado may well be the faster team overall but the post I originally quoted made it seem like that was the best Vegas could do, and the Avs justvastly outzooom the Knights in a fair matchup. But that's just not what happened last night.