VGK Post Season Post Mortem.

hangman005

Face for Radio, Voice for Silent Movies
Apr 19, 2015
25,792
34,471
Cloud 9
Lets start of by saying that this has been the greatest and most successful season in Vegas's long and industrious one year history, We broke so many records, we shattered all expectation, we made it to the playoffs, we clinched the division, We swept the first round series, We defeated the sharks in Round 2 and stunned the Jets to win the Western Conference and we won a Stanley Cup Finals game.... what I mean to say, is the refs did all that for us, we had nothing to do with it. But seriously it has been a success of a season, it's just a pity we couldn't win it all in our first year... but we came damn close.

Moving on from that, I'd like to converse about who performed this post season and who did not, The grades I'm going to give are based on the effect players had through out all 4 rounds of the playoffs, I'm not going to take into account whether or not a player was injured or not, that can happen later. Feel free to disagree with my grades and assessments and provide your own if you like.


Marchessault A+ By far our most consistent player through out the playoffs, had some bad plays but was largely dependable
Karlsson B+/A- Was great through 3 rounds, had the worst possible time to disappear
Smith B+ Eye test wise.... Smith wasn't great, at times he was awful, despite this he managed to lead the team in points, pitching in at crucial moments.
Tuch A Seemed to do everything..... except score. Did manage 6 goals, but if he had finish would have had alot more.
Haula C Was pretty good in the first round and slowly faded as the playoffs went on, more finish would have helped, but in the end was quite ineffective.
Neal C+ Did manage 6 goals, but he and his line failed to be effective far too often especially in the later rounds.
Tatar D- When he wasn't panicking and turning the puck over he wasn't doing much, still manage to pop a couple of goals though.
Eakin D+ Such a range of emotions with this guy, from annoyance to anger to how the f*** did he do that. Negatives far outweighed the positives, but those positives were pretty impressive.
Carpenter C Probably the hardest forward to rate, simply because he didn't do anything, he sort of just existed without doing anything. I know I couldn't rate him higher, could possibly rate him lower, but he was just there, nothing that shouts our Good or Bad.
Nosek B-/B A solid piece of our fourth line, probably deserves a higher rating than I'm giving but they may be recency bias, One of our best performers in the SCF.
Bellemare A/A+ The key cog in our fourth line up, and it probably is a bit strange to give such a high ranking to a play who only managed 3 points the entire post season, but he was the little engine that could, he didn't get a lot of scoreboard credit, but Bellemare usually drove the fourth line, providing much needed energy at the right times and getting the rest of the team going.
Reaves C+/B- Quite frankly, he did more positive than I expected him too, managed a couple of goals, but he did become a distraction with bad penalties at bad times too much for my liking.
Perron D Was definately not the David Perron of the regular season, he had moments where he would become a possesion monster but nothing ever eventuated from it, it just sort of chewed up time without putting any pressure on the offense. Also had a knack of taking stupid stupid penalties, got away with quite a bit of dirty stuff and there were times I wanted to punch him in the face and I support this team.
Carrier C
Ten Games 0 points, Was a good physical player, personally preferred him over Reaves, but would get carried away, too often going for the big hit instead of making the smart hockey play.
Lindberg N/A He did play and he did get 1 assist, but I don't remember any of it.

McNabb B I didn't find McNabb to noticeable one way or another, threw some big hits but did take some bad penalties.
Schmidt A- I'd say all round our best defender, was solid through 3 rounds and then god knows what happened.
Theodore B+ He's young was pretty dependable throughout the first 3 rounds, like our D as a whole, went of a cliff in the SCF, had one really really atrocious game, but did have plenty of positives in the earlier rounds.
Engelland B- He wasn't terribad the whole playoffs, but speed is not his friend as he gets older, had some brilliant moments in earlier rounds, and I think an entirely forgettable SCF
Sbisa F Maybe this is a little harsh, had a good shot that contributed to a couple of goals, but my god did his mistakes end up in the back of our net.
Miller C- "Miller Shoots, He Misses The Net, It's Not Even Close" and "Miller is heading to the Penalty Box" Are to phrases I heard far too much this post season, One of the worst time to take a penalty crew.
Merrill D Probably a marginal upgrade of Sbisa, but 1 or 2 bad penalties a game was pretty much a guarantee

Fleury A God Mode Fleury is a huge reason we got through the first 3 rounds, made stops he had no business stopping and found every possible way to keep the puck out. Despite posting a sub .900 Save % in every game of the SCF, the Series loss was not on him. There were a few goals I think he would like to have back, but the team in front of him hung him out to dry. Those Shots he saved that he had no business saving in the last 3 rounds, weren't being saved in the Finals... Did lose his net too much in the Finals, and you could probably argue he deserves an A- but I wouldn't go any lower than that.

Well that's what I think, did I miss anyone? What do you think?
 

DangeRouss

Registered User
Sep 6, 2014
833
284
Bordeaux, Fra
Thanks Vegas to save my play-offs
It was entertaining watching you kicking some prognosis !

Agree with your rates except maybe for Tuch who missed too many scoring chances
Marchessault, Fleury and Bellemare leading the way and showing great leardership
Neal, Tatar, Perron, Eakin disappeared along with playoffs advance

That said glad for OV
 

Nevada Jones

I like hockey.
Jun 28, 2017
6,937
4,540
Somewhere in Oregon.
Eakin D+ Such a range of emotions with this guy, from annoyance to anger to how the **** did he do that. Negatives far outweighed the positives, but those positives were pretty impressive.

Blasphemy! :laugh:

Lindberg N/A
He did play and he did get 1 assist, but I don't remember any of it.
Who's Lindberg? :biglaugh:
 

GKG18

Expansion Fan
Jun 25, 2016
1,307
807
Hendertucky
I disagree with Eakin- his play was effective other than not scoring. Haula disappeared after round 2, I would give him a D.
 

mundyc3

Registered User
May 17, 2017
1,451
1,336
Las Vegas, NV
Eakin was doing all of the little things right. I loved his fight and determination. I've always been a big Eakin critic.
 

Ladyfan

Miss Bergy, Savvy and Quaider. Welcome back Looch!
Sponsor
Jun 8, 2007
62,289
73,324
next to the bench
Bruins fan here . I just wanted to say how impressed I am of your team. It is unreal that a first year team would make it to the Finals.

You should be proud of your team. What a blast for the first season.

I went there last Fall (my first time to Vegas) to see my B's lose to your team. Your fan base seemed psyched to have hockey .

Best of luck going forward.
 

Vegas Mac

Golden Shellback
Jun 26, 2015
563
195
Blueline needs to be shored up, first off. I am confident that we'll see Brannstrom make the squad next year and the group will get a bit of a boost with his speed and passing ability. But overall George has some decisions to make with a unit that played over their heads until they faced a Washington team that was too much for them.

Scoring has to be looked at as well. I like this system, and the high energy Turk gets line to line with everyone playing a 200' game, but not only does George have some big decisions to make with pending FAs but he also has to decide to what extent he's willing to pay FAs to come here. Not to mention whether signing a big FA will result in what they expect in terms of keeping that 100% effort line to line going.

Overall we are in great shape, with a GM and coach who I think are at the top of their game and among the best in the biz.
 

hangman005

Face for Radio, Voice for Silent Movies
Apr 19, 2015
25,792
34,471
Cloud 9
Of course the narrative now is that we were a weak paper tiger. **** I hate hockey fans sometimes.
That’s not the narrative I’m trying to push at all. But the thought that our middle six wasn’t producing has existed since at least the 2nd round. The gap between the 1st and 4th lines and the 2nd and 3rd lines was noticeable... too much so. That said the sum of the parts was often better than their individual grade, much like the team has been all season.
 

HanSolo

DJ Crazy Times
Apr 7, 2008
96,449
30,711
Las Vegas
That’s not the narrative I’m trying to push at all. But the thought that our middle six wasn’t producing has existed since at least the 2nd round. The gap between the 1st and 4th lines and the 2nd and 3rd lines was noticeable... too much so. That said the sum of the parts was often better than their individual grade, much like the team has been all season.
I meant on the main boards. I forgot to include that in my post. Apologies.
 

Ad

Upcoming events

Ad

Ad

-->