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2018 NHL Playoff Thread


dlbalr

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Late to the party.

 

I’m going to emphatically announce that Vegas’ success is a direct result of 30 GMs not understanding the game - despite being paid millions to do exactly that.

 

Love the Peg but if Vegas wins it will basically dismantle the mythology behind the GM position.

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49 minutes ago, zumpano21 said:

Late to the party.

 

I’m going to emphatically announce that Vegas’ success is a direct result of 30 GMs not understanding the game - despite being paid millions to do exactly that.

 

Love the Peg but if Vegas wins it will basically dismantle the mythology behind the GM position.

 

There's a lot to what you say. I forget who said it, but one commentator noted that every player Vegas acquired was, in principle, available to be acquired by every other team before the expansion draft. If Vegas has players the other teams wish they had, well, they have no one but themselves to blame. Or so went the argument.

 

I think, though, that much of the blame can be laid at the feet of the Florida Panthers. Marchessault and Smith are core guys for them and they surely wouldn't be the same team without those two. But that still doesn't let other GMs off the hook. If FLA was dumb enough to flip those guys, then why were the GMs sitting on their fat asses? The same could be asked of Karlsson and why they didn't go after him. These guys slipping through the cracks are either major pro scouting 'fails' or the result of negligence by GMs who weren't doing their homework carefully enough, especially when it came to FLA, which has been a transparently disfunctional organization for the last while. As Commandant has remarked about Carolina, when a franchise is in disarray, you should be a predator, taking full advantage. Nobody but McPhee seems to have done that.

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Protecting 4 defencemen was dumb... 

 

They also traded Marchessault to be sure that the Knights took reilly smith's contract (a contract that wasn't even bad). 

 

This was an example of ownership forcing the team to cut salary, and then the GM being stupid about how he went about it. 

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14 minutes ago, Trizzak said:

I am not in favor of Vegas making it to the SC final. 3rd round was bad enough. 

Why? I have no problem with how Vegas does and is kinda like a hujge underdog story,, bunch of rejext giving all the 1 finger salaute..especially Fleury.

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14 minutes ago, Trizzak said:

I am not in favor of Vegas making it to the SC final. 3rd round was bad enough. 

I am in favour of it. When I went to the game this year,  I decided I was cheering for them this year.  It's a cool story.

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2 minutes ago, BCHabnut said:

I am in favour of it. When I went to the game this year,  I decided I was cheering for them this year.  It's a cool story.

agree 100%

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1 hour ago, Trizzak said:

I am not in favor of Vegas making it to the SC final. 3rd round was bad enough. 

 

I'm in the same boat in that I don't like seeing new teams succeed right away, but if they reach the finals I'll definitely pull for them over Tampa and probably Washington as well.  Pretty likeable roster tbh.

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I love the Vegas story, and I just can't like the Jets because of Paul Maurice (that Leafs stench is still thick on him), so I am happy to see the Golden Knights on the brink of advancing.

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The more I watch Vegas the more impressed I am with how complete their game is.

 

-You forecheck them hard, they will burn you with quick passes and speed

-You stack up at the blueline, they will dump and chase with speed and tenacity on the boards

-You have a good transition game? They cover each other's positions like I have never seen. Defense pinches? There is a forward covering the point.

 

The Jets aggressive forecheck gave Nashville fits but Vegas pushes through easily.

 

The speed of Vegas on every line is too much for any team so far to handle and they have bought in 100% to team play. I'll give a big kudos to Fleury as well, a goalie that I thought was never very good to begin with. He has been spectacular and he is dialed in, intense and on top of his game.

 

It seems wrong for them to win the cup in their first year! But they are earning it big time.

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Vegas is an excellent team, no question. But there is a big problem to my mind with an expansion team winning the Cup. Yes, McPhee made all the right moves, but the system was obviously overly generous with them. It's like the league over-compensated for the ridiculously crippling terms it imposed on previous expansion teams, like Ottawa. Of course all Bettman cares about is money so he's loving this; but it's not good for the integrity of the game.

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I don’t think anyone wanted Vegas competing for a cup from the outset. Competing for a playoff spot and making the first or second round - that makes sense.

 

What we’re seeing is a collective misunderstanding of the game by the entire league. Most teams try to sign big time players and then plug whatever is left over with journeyman/borderline players.

 

The Vegas formula debunks what the entire league has been emulating for years. If you’re not re-evaluating your entire approach to roster construction right now, your GM is failing.

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The thing is, if you look at the lineup, on paper, they are a horrible team. For me, that's what is so fun about it. PM Koivu described it pretty well. They have speed and they are well coached. To add to that, Fleury has been amazing (my MVP so far in these playoffs) and Karlson scoring with insane shooting percentages all year. The last two tell me the success will probably be short lived, but I want to enjoy it.

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13 minutes ago, zumpano21 said:

I don’t think anyone wanted Vegas competing for a cup from the outset. Competing for a playoff spot and making the first or second round - that makes sense.

 

What we’re seeing is a collective misunderstanding of the game by the entire league. Most teams try to sign big time players and then plug whatever is left over with journeyman/borderline players.

 

The Vegas formula debunks what the entire league has been emulating for years. If you’re not re-evaluating your entire approach to roster construction right now, your GM is failing.

I'm not a fan of the copy cat system.  I like seeing the heavy teams compete against the fast. The stacked defense against the stacked offense. The very deep teams. Im not sure where Vegas fits in here, but I would say its depth. Like I said before though, when you look at them on paper, how deep are they?  I guess you could look at the top 9 forwards and say that they have a 2A, 2B, 2C and a  good 4th line.  Or is it overall team balance, defensive mobility, speed and coaching?

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51 minutes ago, zumpano21 said:

I don’t think anyone wanted Vegas competing for a cup from the outset. Competing for a playoff spot and making the first or second round - that makes sense.

 

What we’re seeing is a collective misunderstanding of the game by the entire league. Most teams try to sign big time players and then plug whatever is left over with journeyman/borderline players.

 

The Vegas formula debunks what the entire league has been emulating for years. If you’re not re-evaluating your entire approach to roster construction right now, your GM is failing.

 

Whatthe vegas formula debunks is the idea that teams need certain types of players.   That fourth liners and bottom.sixers are different types of players from.first liners.  That you need grinders.

 

No

 

Just stick speed and skill on all four lines.

 

Of.course not every player has the same speed and skill.

 

But you have a choice between a speedy, skilled guy who maybe isnt top 6 but is tearing up.the ahl to put on the third or fourth line.  Or the guy with no hands... but he hits a lot and is gritty?  The traditional fourth liner?  Take the speed and skill.

 

Defence... get your puck movers.. your nate schmidt, shea theodore, etc to compliment the forwards.

 

With vegas being so far under the cap (and using large chunks on jason garrison, mikhail grabovski, david clarkson) i dont think it is telling teams dont spend on top line talent.

 

Absolutely you can spend on your stars.  Just the guys you pay cheap.  They have to be different types of guys.  Cheap 4th line speed and skill (guys everyone else is overlooking.  Its like two years ago the havs couldve taken a chris terry and given him bryan flynn or torrey mitchell's spor for example). You can still spend for your top.six talent and fill the holes.  But get guys with speed who put the pppositions third and fourth line and bottom pair d on their heels and in there zone.

 

Guys like Nigel Dawes shouldnt be shunted to.europe cause they arent tall enough, arent strong enough for the fourth line.

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13 minutes ago, Commandant said:

 

Whatthe vegas formula debunks is the idea that teams need certain types of players.   That fourth liners and bottom.sixers are different types of players from.first liners.  That you need grinders.

 

No

 

Just stick speed and skill on all four lines.

 

Of.course not every player has the same speed and skill.

 

But you have a choice between a speedy, skilled guy who maybe isnt top 6 but is tearing up.the ahl to put on the third or fourth line.  Or the guy with no hands... but he hits a lot and is gritty?  The traditional fourth liner?  Take the speed and skill.

 

Defence... get your puck movers.. your nate schmidt, shea theodore, etc to compliment the forwards.

 

With vegas being so far under the cap (and using large chunks on jason garrison, mikhail grabovski, david clarkson) i dont think it is telling teams dont spend on top line talent.

 

Absolutely you can spend on your stars.  Just the guys you pay cheap.  They have to be different types of guys.  Cheap 4th line speed and skill (guys everyone else is overlooking.  Its like two years ago the havs couldve taken a chris terry and given him bryan flynn or torrey mitchell's spor for example). You can still spend for your top.six talent and fill the holes.  But get guys with speed who put the pppositions third and fourth line and bottom pair d on their heels and in there zone.

 

Guys like Nigel Dawes shouldnt be shunted to.europe cause they arent tall enough, arent strong enough for the fourth line.

 

Good analysis. Speed and skill all the way down the line.

 

I remember back around 2014...I kinda thought that's how the Habs were going. Roll three fast, puck-moving, more or less interchangeable lines. No big stars to shut down, just roll wave after wave of good, smart players. Have Markov and Subban (and later Petry) moving the puck like crazy from the back end. And have Price anchoring it all. Somehow that whole concept, which I guess was never the actual plan, evaporated and left us with the garbage we now have.

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To me it’s a strong link vs weak link phenomenon.

 

Vegas has no weak link. They come at you in waves with no readily identifiable weakness.

 

Montreal is a strong link team by contrast where we have Price in net and Weber on D but also an Alzner etc.

 

The other thing that has to be mentioned is that strong link teams probably have a polarized dressing room. Guys like Price and Weber get way more attention and maybe perks from mgmt then guys like  Froese etc.

 

That is to say when a golden knight walks into the dressing room he sees 21 other guys or so that are just like him, get treated the same way (with the exception of maybe MAF), and he has no problems buying in to Gallant’s system. Can’t see it being the same in other dressing rooms.

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53 minutes ago, BCHabnut said:

Like I said before though, when you look at them on paper, how deep are they?  I guess you could look at the top 9 forwards and say that they have a 2A, 2B, 2C and a  good 4th line.  Or is it overall team balance, defensive mobility, speed and coaching?

 

This is nailing it on the head. 

 

When end you look at it on paper, it doesn’t look that good. That says to me that we don’t fully understand what’s happening.

 

This is a good thing though. Prior to this season, it was an unknown unknown when it comes to dramatically rethinking and improving roster construction.

 

We have at least now realized that it is a known unknown. We know that there are others ways to improve a roster without doing the same thing that we’ve doing for a generation now.

 

Advantage goes to the franchise that can figure out the “new” formula.

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They are pretty deep. 

 

We all know what the Karlsson-Marchessault-Smith line did. 

 

David Perron had 66 points

Erik Haula 29 goals and 55 points

James Neal 25 goals

Alex Tuch 37 points

Eakin had 27

 

On D, Colin Miller had 41 points
Nat Schmidt 36

Theodore 29

Engelland 23 points

 

 

They just have a bunch of #2 line capable forwards

and a bunch of 2nd pair capable D

 

And all have speed.

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3 hours ago, The Chicoutimi Cucumber said:

 

Good analysis. Speed and skill all the way down the line.

 

I remember back around 2014...I kinda thought that's how the Habs were going. Roll three fast, puck-moving, more or less interchangeable lines. No big stars to shut down, just roll wave after wave of good, smart players. Have Markov and Subban (and later Petry) moving the puck like crazy from the back end. And have Price anchoring it all. Somehow that whole concept, which I guess was never the actual plan, evaporated and left us with the garbage we now have.

Who was their assistant coach that year? 

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8 hours ago, BCHabnut said:

Who was their assistant coach that year? 

The guy who should’ve been hired to replace MT, instead of bringing in a clone.

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