This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show QuoteI've watched about 2/3 of all the Vegas games this year. Everyone talks about how hard working they are, and honestly, aside from Marchessault and maybe Neal, most of their goals aren't from amazing skills and pretty plays, and yea, everyone works hard, nobody's a passenger. I'll try to explain what I see as hard working.This quote is hidden because you are ignoring this member. Show Quote
The key is that Vegas play as a team. Everyone is aware of where their teammates are. So blind passes just works for them. Us? We do a blind pass, someone's out of position, nobody's there, and we turnover the puck and lose any built momentum. Although for Vegas, since their bye week, they've been sloppier in this department, but it's improving again.
Another big difference between the Knights and the Flames, the Knights always have people crashing towards the net, or sitting around the net for the rebound/second opportunities. Flames do not do this and it's frustrating as hell. Of course there are defensive risks for Vegas when doing this, but they recognize when there's a risk of turnover, and quickly get back into defensive position quickly to eliminate a risk of an odd man rush against. I'd say that Vegas is probably on the high side of odd man rushes against, but with Fleury and Subban in net, it's worth the risk. It works. I'd say 1/2 their goals that I've seen are scored like this. There are games where every single goal is scored like this, so yea, it's definitely a difference maker.
Another difference, when a Vegas player makes a mistake, they shrug it off and get back into position quickly instead of trying to fix their mistakes. They're not standing around trying to fix the immediate situation, but to prevent the situation from escalating. Flames doesn't do that at all. We fuck up, everyone tries to fix the situation, and puts us in a worst spot. It's so predictable, we see one of the Flames fuck up, everyone gets out of position, confusion in our zone, opposing team cycles the puck around, and scores on a pretty play because somebody is always open.
Anyways, that's really the difference between the 2 teams this year. I'd say our goaltending is on par with them (Smith = Fleury, Rittich = Subban), we're just not taking advantage of the situations. I'd argue that we have much more skills on our team than Vegas. We're WAY more solid defensively, till there's a mistake.
Go back and watch the Flames 14/15 season. Aside from our mediocre goaltending, the 14/15 Flames are very similar to the 17/18 Knights.
edit - in case you need a recap: https://forums.beyond.ca/threads/383...4-2015-Edition