Why Vegas won

[Jetfaninflorida]

I don't throw this on Helle. And I don't buy MAF magic horse shoe crap.

Stop, take a deep breath and think about the ice that we had to work with throughout the year when we were lighting up the lamp. Think about the time and space we had in D zones, the odd man rushes, the cross ice passes, the tick tack toe plays, the breakouts of our own end with speed, the down low cycles where we would get a line change in without the puck leaving the offensive zone. Now, think about how much of that we had against Vegas. Take a deep breath and think about it. We didn't have much of it at all. Is that because MAF was playing forward and defence as well? Nope. Their skaters using their system took that away from us. Start there and you will begin to understand why we only scored 6 goals in our 4 losses. Screw the stats. They played better than us. They took our strengths on the ice away from us. I know it hurts, but it is what it is. The goalie makes the save, but the player shoots it in a savable location.

 

[Mbraunm]

1. Got out-goalied.
2. Bounces were slightly in their favour.

This is the nature of the beast. It happens.

This is it. With the level of goaltending that MAF gave them, it’s almost impossible to lose

 

[mondo3]

I hope next year that in the end stretch of the regular season we rest some of the players, either by reducing ice time or by substituting in some of the black aces. I think getting a few less wins in the regular season would be offset by having a better rested teams for the playoff drive. Vegas getting to rest players between rounds was a huge factor imo (their first lost in wpg might have been due to the white out noise factor). Now if I was a GM, I would ask the league to change the schedule so that there is aleays a two day break between each round.

 

[CorgisPer60]

View attachment 121977

Looks to me that the series really came down to goaltending. We didn't get it with Helle sporting a pretty darn ugly .896 save percentage at 5 on 5. Whereas Vegas got a godly .952. I don't expect as a team we will ever run into a team that not only is getting those kinds of results in net but also shooting at an above 10 % rate at ES.

Looks like the percentages are clearly on their side this season. I suspect that they will not see anything close to this again for a very long time.

I hope this is the case. Vegas shot at an ungodly high percentage all season, and lost very few games as a result. I'd like to see them come back down to earth. Didn't think it would take an entire f***ing season to do so, though.

 

[Saidin]

I'll just leave this here.

 

[Jetfaninflorida]

I'll just leave this here.

View attachment 121995

Screw the Corsi, win the Scorsi!

 

[Saidin]

 

[sting13]

serious question..how do you beat it tactically?

Jamie Kompon can answer this. First game we scored 2 PP goals and won. After that 1 or none. You convert the PP chances and the game is a great deal closer and forces them out of there end more often.

 

[sting13]

St Louis Blues made it to the Stanley Cup finals in their expansion year. Florida Panthers made it in their third year after expansion. Nothing is fixed. This place sounds like PK Subban complaining after they lost that the Preds were still better than the Jets even though they lost. Sorry, in a 7 game series the better team wins - unless you want to call Blake Wheeler a liar.

They were the better team (including coaching) with the better system that stymied us. We didn't adjust. Just kept 'moving our feet' 'quicker' into the same trap/defensive system. Zero meaningful adjustments for four straight losses.

Still a great step forward. On to next year.

St. Louis made it in the first year only because every team in the division was an expansion team, thus at least one expansion team had to make the final. They were swept four straight in the final.

 

[digger18]

I think fatigue, experience, and the fact that Vegas got all of the lucky breaks in the series was the difference. While Hallebuyk wasn't bad, he just couldn't seem to bail out his teammates’ mistakes! Every glaring error they made ended up in the back of the net! The result of that ended up being the players being scared to make mistakes. They stopped playing their crisp game, and started clutching their sticks. They made the Vegas pressure look worse and started fanning on shots, rushing passes etc. instead of taking the bit of time that they did have to get it over to the right guy, on his tape clean, or get a proper shot off. The chippy passing took away the jets ability to get through the zones with speed. It also created too many moments of being hemmed in off needless giveaways from this rushed, out of control passes/tips up the middle.

The Knights just seemed to have every tipped puck go right to them in dangerous areas - all series long! Its like they had magnets in their sticks. Totally fluky, but a reward for hard work? I donno how to explain a team getting so many bounces go their way like that? It was definitely a bizarre thing to watch! I doubt we ever see it again to that extent!

I think Laine has a lot to work on with his game, if hes ever going to take the next step into superstardom! His board play is atrocious! How many times did a good cycle and zone pressure die on his seemingly half hearted battles along the wall? When he isn't hitting the net with that great shot, his game warts really seem to expose themselves! Hes got lots of work to put in this summer getting stronger, and improving his foot speed! However, Im confident he will do that, if he wants to get to the next level! If he spends all summer playing video games you mays well trade him now!

Anyway, congrats on a wonderful season. You guys have a great future ahead. The Jets made Canada proud this spring. Im bummed its over, but it was entertaining foresure!

 

[BigZ65]

As much as it may appear that NHL results are fixed - and it often does appear that way - it is impossible to believe that is actually the case. There is no way some now retired referee does not spill the beans. Just no way you keep that quiet for 25 years. In fact I don't believe you could keep that quiet for even a single season. Even a single game, it would leak out.

I agree, this Vegas season has the appearance of being fixed from the get go. I just don't believe it is possible.

I agree, but my worldview has been jaded by people like Tim Donaghy, although basketball is way easier to fix than a game like hockey. Things like the penalties the Jets were called for early in games make you wonder.

 

[TheHead]

I don't like to suggest they were tired, but - I think it was pretty clear as the Nashville series went on, the Jets were tired.

I also think they rode the high of the game 7 win and figured after winning game 1 that they'd just coast through to the Stanley Cup Finals.

MAF played out of his mind, Vegas capitalized on the Jets mistakes, and limited the Jets speed, and we lacked secondary scoring. All of these, ultimately lead to the exit.

We'll learn from it and move on and be better next year for it!

 

[digger18]

Just to add to the ops sentiment. Do I think its a coincidence canada hasn't won in going on 26 years? No
Im not saying its rigged completely, but there is no doubt that we wouldn't have lost that many years straight, without instances of “help” along the way. One sided officiating, bad video reviews, and other aspects of league interference always creeps in, when a canadian team hits the final 4. Its simply a given in the Bettman era!

There is also the pressure of playing in Canada that winds up hurting our Cup drives. The deeper a Canadian team goes, they end up being the hopes of an entire nation! The players are totally under a microscope! The longer the drought goes, the more the pressure grows! We've gotten to the point now, where an entire generation of kids has now grown up never seeing a Canadian team win! Thats a damn shame! Where the American teams can simply just play without the added pressure for the most part!

As far as Vegas goes...There is no doubt the league is desperate to have them win now, and to stay relevant! The Raiders moving to town in two years is going to place a lot of pressure on hockey continuing to succeed there! Once the novelty wears off, it could get ugly, if that team starts to lose! The last thing Bettman wants is to end up looking like an idiot for not putting the team in Quebec to begin with! Winning a cup in year 1 definitely buys him some time! Lol, if Vegas does win this year, pretty much every other GM in the league will look like overpaid buffoons! Like seriously, what an embarrasment to the other organizations, who have been building for years that the Knights even got this far!

 

[raideralex99]

Oh look more horse shoes ... Vegas won tonight without even playing ... Capitals force a game 7. The refs finally gave Tampa a penalty ... first one in 2 games and its a game winning PP goal lol. Who said refs don't decide games.

 

[Ducky10]

I don't throw this on Helle. And I don't buy MAF magic horse shoe crap.

Stop, take a deep breath and think about the ice that we had to work with throughout the year when we were lighting up the lamp. Think about the time and space we had in D zones, the odd man rushes, the cross ice passes, the tick tack toe plays, the breakouts of our own end with speed, the down low cycles where we would get a line change in without the puck leaving the offensive zone. Now, think about how much of that we had against Vegas. Take a deep breath and think about it. We didn't have much of it at all. Is that because MAF was playing forward and defence as well? Nope. Their skaters using their system took that away from us. Start there and you will begin to understand why we only scored 6 goals in our 4 losses. Screw the stats. They played better than us. They took our strengths on the ice away from us. I know it hurts, but it is what it is. The goalie makes the save, but the player shoots it in a savable location.

Lol, "screw the stats, I'm right"!

The Jets had plenty of opportunities and also didn't give up much. Vegas played well, it wasn't a system over system win, no matter how you try to spin it.

 

[Vekke]

Vegas brothel has a special offer for Golden Knights

 

[ERYX]

I basically agree with what @Ducky10 has written in this thread so I’ll try not to repeat too much.

The reffing was risible, yes, and almost scripted. It heavily favoured Vegas. But, we could and should have won in spite of it. It wasn’t that much of a factor really.

To me there were two factors that were THE keys to the Vegas series:

1. Fleury playing in “god mode” all series
2. Hellebuyck playing poorly

If one of the above didn’t happen we win the series.

 

[ERYX]

This is it. With the level of goaltending that MAF gave them, it’s almost impossible to lose

And yet Jets would have still won if Hellebuyck had been merely average. Shows how good this Jets team was. Hellebuyck just failed them at the worst possible time (fatigue perhaps).

 

[Koonta]

Why Vegas won? It was the curse of Gary Lawless. He leaves and we have the best season ever and we reach the WCF and then he returns for the WCF and we lose in 5 games. DAMN you Gary Lawless!!!!

 

[NotCommitted]

Vegas had fresher legs, I think it really helped them in the series against Jets. Had the tables been turned and they'd gone to game-7 against Nashville while the Jets had some extra rest, I don't think they would've stood a chance in this series. Yeah, you have to win them all to get the cup, but I think in this case having the best two teams from regular season battle it out in round 2 already really helped Vegas. (EDIT: and yeah, I don't like blaming the refs but they did get away with a lot of crap the Jets were called on early in the games...)

In hindsight I would've liked to see some line juggling from Maurice, mix it up a bit, go for ESL or Ehlers-Scheifele-Roslo or something when it became apparent we are having trouble scoring. But to be honest I don't really blame PoMo for not doing that, watching the whole season it was pretty apparent his approach was all year to stick to his guns and that approach did deliver big time. So I fully understand the idea was to trust your game and what you've been doing all year, but in this case it wasn't a winning formula.

We also did get outgoalied, but Helle didn't exactly lose us games, though there were a couple blunders right after we scored which really killed the momentum and were game changers that way. Still, if you can't score more than 1 or 2 goals a game, it's tough to win.

 

[KingBogo]

I basically agree with what @Ducky10 has written in this thread so I’ll try not to repeat too much.

The reffing was risible, yes, and almost scripted. It heavily favoured Vegas. But, we could and should have won in spite of it. It wasn’t that much of a factor really.

To me there were two factors that were THE keys to the Vegas series:

1. Fleury playing in “god mode” all series
2. Hellebuyck playing poorly

If one of the above didn’t happen we win the series.

I mostly agree with this though for the most part I don't think Helly played poorly. Rather, more often than not a team will need their goalie to steal them a few more wins on nights the other team holds the upper hand in play. But I give MAF full credit for doing that to us. If you look at the SV% numbers MAF .947 Vs Helly's .922 represents 13 extra goals against over the course of the playoffs. That represents 4-5 additional Jets goals in the series we just played. If we had those we are playing tonight and likely ahead in the series.

 

[habsgirl5000]

Was it rigged? I'm unsure... but red flags were definitely going up

it's possible to think a game or two "could" be rigged,

but you cant rig an entire season, and three playoff rounds.....thats just being rediculous

 

[SUX2BU]

One word:

Fleury

 

[jorbjorb]

Vegas were quick and they won most of the puck battles.

 

[Mortimer Snerd]

I agree, but my worldview has been jaded by people like Tim Donaghy, although basketball is way easier to fix than a game like hockey. Things like the penalties the Jets were called for early in games make you wonder.

Yes, there is corruption everywhere. But still, there is a huge difference between a case of a corrupt individual acting on his own for his own benefit and a conspiracy requiring a large number of people being involved.

That said, the combination of the calls that are made one way and those that are not made the other way frequently appears suspicious. I don't want to believe that is just my homer glasses but it probably is. It seems that every fanbase has the same narrative. We can't all be victims.