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Bellemare, Schmidt Laugh About Their Longest Shifts; VGK Loses MAF Return

February 7, 2018, 6:50 PM ET [4 Comments]
Sheng Peng
Vegas Golden Knights Blogger •Vegas Golden Knights Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT


Every player has endured them. Two, three straight minutes on the ice defensively, can't change.

I talked to Pierre-Édouard Bellemare, Nate Schmidt, Gerard Gallant, Brad Hunt, Cody Eakin, and Colin Miller about what a long defensive shift feels like physically and mentally -- Bellemare and Schmidt also recount hilarious stories about their personal longest shifts.

HockeyBuzz: Defensively, you want to avoid being out there too long, two or three-plus minutes. From a player's perspective, can you describe what a shift like that feels like?

Pierre-Édouard Bellemare: There's no secret about it: It's the worst feeling ever. Fresh guys coming out every single time, you're not fresh. You're not as quick as you could be.

That creates panic. Those guys are going to take more than a few minutes to recuperate. The next time they go on the ice, if the shift goes over 40, 50 seconds, that's generally fine, but now it won't be because they haven't recuperated. Those shifts hurt a lot.

Cody Eakin: Your body tenses up. You don't think as well where you need to be, how fast you need to get there. You try to stay compact, block shots, do what's absolutely necessary to get through that shift.

Nate Schmidt: Your legs just seize up. (laughs) It feels like somebody just dumped some gas on them, they're just burning. Rigor mortis. You just go straight, you can't move 'em.

Brad Hunt: You're in survival mode.

Colin Miller: (laughs) It sucks.

You just have to grind through it. If it happens, you just have to play smart.

Gerard Gallant: For me, I wouldn't be too good. (laughs) They're real tough. Anything over a minute, you get tired, and that's when you make mistakes.

When that happens, you pack it in, you get tight in the defensive zone, you don't give them much opportunities. You try to block shots. There's nothing tougher for a player to be out there for [that long]. You got nothing left.

HB: So when you suffer through a shift like that, there is a genuine wear-down effect?

PEB: Personally, these shifts happen to me on the kill. After the kill, I have to take a few minutes on the bench to focus on breathing right because it hurts. And every shift after that, you have to be a little shorter [on the ice] because that [long] shift wears you down.

BH: It takes a couple shifts to get your breath back. You kind of get the lactic acid built up in your legs. They aren't fun. It can change the momentum of the game.

HB: Does the effect of these long shifts carry over periods? Past intermission break?

PEB: I don't think so.

All the players in this league, we're well-trained.

But for the rest of the period, for sure. It makes it a little tougher on you.

HB: You guys have about a 15-minute break. If the NHL said, Hey, we can do 20 or 30, would you guys take that?

PEB: For me, it's enough. I've never thought on the way back to the ice after a break that it wasn't enough. But I'm a fourth-line player who plays between eight to 16 at the most. I'm not playing 30 minutes like some defensemen. Those guys might tell you a different story.

HB: In your opinion, what's the optimal length of time for a shift?

PEB: It depends. I can't shout a number out. I have a different way to skate than Willy or Perry. We all have different ways to skate. You might be tired after 30 or you might be super-fresh after 30. Same thing after a minute. Some guys might be exhausted. Some guys might be fresh because they have a way to play that allows them to be fresher.

HB: Can you describe the longest shift that you remember at any level?

PEB: I remember one against Pittsburgh in my second year. I remember just because I got so much s*** from the coaches after the game.

In the first 35-45 seconds, I jumped on the ice and the Crosby line was at the end of their shift. I remember thinking, "Who's the next center?" Then I saw Malkin. They're turning, turning, and turning. They get Grade-A chances all over the place. Then suddenly, I'm following up the puck, and it's f***** 87 again. I'm like "Holy..."

Three changes. Three [Pittsburgh] lines had time to play.

Mason made unbelievable saves. We get to the bench, and obviously, the coach's eyes were fired up. I didn't know what to say. It looked like a power play, but we were five on the ice.

We had a meeting [with the coaches] the next day. Just our line.

In the beginning of the shift, I remember we cheated on some play, and the puck stayed. That's what created it. After that, we were stuck.

Nate Schmidt: I've had a few. (laughs)

I had a shift when I was in the American, playing with Hershey. It was like the first year when you couldn't change on icing. I think we were on the ice, on the ice for like seven minutes.

[There were] all the icings, all the goalie skate "breakdowns." I remember I broke a stick in the middle of the shift, I tried to get back to the bench, but I couldn't get there. So you skate almost all the way there, then you have to go back out.

CE: I can't remember. Usually, you black it out.

BH: I don't remember. I just remember the feeling. You're panicking, you don't want to get scored on. It's survival.

GG: They didn't track shifts when I played. (laughs) I can't remember that, for sure. Probably old-timers' hockey at noon hour about ten years ago.

***



With so much focus on Fleury, the Golden Knights forgot about defense in a sloppy 5-4 loss to the Penguins last night.



Winning Play

Time and time again, Pittsburgh gave Vegas a dose of its own medicine. This Ian Cole goal tied the game at two apiece:

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James Neal and David Perron get caught deep, giving the Penguins an end-to-end outnumbered attack. You see Neal's indecisiveness -- he heads to change, veers off to chase the play, then decides to change -- leaving Ryan Carpenter hanging. It probably wouldn't have made a difference anyway. Perron really struggles to get back up the ice.

The play basically becomes a 1-on-1 between the late man Cole and Fleury, and Cole, who has extra time to step into his shot, beats his former teammate.

Credit to Jamie Oleksiak -- he recovers the Erik Haula dump-in and his patience with the puck lures Perron and Neal behind the net. If he moves it more quickly, both Vegas forwards have a better chance to recover defensively.

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Pluses

There was solid back-and-forth in the first half of the game before Vegas got steamrolled by five unanswered Pittsburgh goals. As usual, the Golden Knights didn't show quit, cutting a 5-2 Pens lead down to one with eight minutes to go.

Minuses

"Protecting home plate" is a defensive buzzphrase. But here's where it can go wrong:

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In both cases, you have five Golden Knights down low, but Penguins get free nonetheless to score. It's coverage, but it's poor coverage by Vegas.

The Phil Kessel 5-2 goal was especially egregious. "We didn't skate, we didn't work hard enough, our gaps were bad," remarked Gerard Gallant of his team's last 30 minutes. From Oleksiak to Evgeni Malkin to Carl Hagelin, you see Pittsburgh move the puck through the gaps of Vegas's 1-2-2 with ease.

View post on imgur.com


But what's simply inexcusable was losing Kessel. All the Knights become too puck (or Malkin) focused, and get beat on what's essentially a 2-on-5.

Anyway, Gallant has received much praise for trusting his third and fourth lines with the toughest assignments -- and those lines have paid him back in kind with consistently strong play and a surprising ability to play fast. But last night, offensive mistakes from those groups -- Pierre-Édouard Bellemare's intercepted pass became Malkin's 4-2 marker and Cody Eakin's missed connection to Brendan Leipsic turned into Kessel's dagger -- doomed Vegas.

This won't deter Gallant, and it shouldn't -- mistakes happen when you're aggressive. It's hard to argue with a Western Conference-leading 35-14-4 record.

The Golden Knights will try to end their road trip on a high note in San Jose tomorrow night.

***

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