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Talking Picks, Not Licks as VGK Takes 3-2 Series Lead Over SJS

May 5, 2018, 5:33 PM ET [0 Comments]
Sheng Peng
Vegas Golden Knights Blogger •Vegas Golden Knights Blogger • RSSArchiveCONTACT


The Golden Knights wrested control of a see-saw series from the Sharks with a convincing 40 minutes last night. They're now up 3-2, heading back to San Jose.



Winning Play

Who knew Colin Miller was such an effective forward?

Early in the second period, up just a goal, Miller was whistled for holding.

After a solid kill, which featured only one Sharks shot attempt, Miller came flying out of the box, ready to forecheck Brenden Dillon out of existence...well, in a different league, without no-touch icing.

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But icing! This meant on the ensuing defensive zone faceoff, Miller would line up with the Shea Theodore and Deryk Engelland pairing. The other forwards were Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Ryan Carpenter. The draw went back to San Jose's point, where Miller embraced the forward's role of challenging up top with gusto.

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That is, until Tomas Hertl's pick. Hertl was sent off for interference and Vegas was given a power play.

I've written plenty about San Jose's "pick" plays before and during this series.



Both coaches were asked about Hertl's infraction after the game.

"San Jose is a great cycle team, they go hard to the net, and that’s what they do real well," remarked Gallant. "Sometimes you hope when those little interference penalties are there, they have to call them."

Peter DeBoer was, understandably, less charitable, "I didn’t think it was a penalty. I’m a little speechless about it. We’ve got to move on and deal with it better."

Pluses

Whatever your feelings about the call -- in my opinion, it was a clear pick, but since it didn't lead to a significant scoring chance, I wouldn't have had any issue with letting it go -- it led to this pivotal Knights power play marker, which made it 2-0.



It all starts with William Karlsson, or more exactly, Karlsson on (Melker) Karlsson crime:

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Insistent stick from "Wild Bill" to keep in.

From here, an impressive sequence of eight straight, mostly short passes stretches an aggressive Sharks penalty kill all over the zone -- remember how hard one Shark will almost always attack the puck carrier on the PK -- opening a couple big seams.

When I previewed San Jose's penalty kill before the series, I observed one way in which Anaheim attacked it in the first round, "Play keepaway with quick, crisp, and often short passes, probing for a weakness in San Jose's armor."

That's what happens here:

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The key pass is Jonathan Marchessault on the wall, drawing Mikkel Boedker and Justin Braun toward him, before going cross ice to Karlsson at the opposite point. Notice how that gets the puck-hungry Sharks moving, going from one side of the ice to the other.

That's when Reilly Smith seizes on the confusion to camp out in the slot. Short Karlsson pass to Theodore, short Theodore pass to Marchessault, who has moved down to the dot, and boom, Smith has a golden chance, which Alex Tuch is able to put back on the rebound.

Speaking of Tuch, his 5v5 line with Cody Eakin and Oscar Lindberg was a success, as they were able to create offense with some consistency. Obviously, their highlight was the Tuch game-winner:

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A couple things stand out here: First, Burns makes a brilliant pass to Timo Meier, taking advantage of frankly shoddy defense off the draw. Marc-Andre Fleury makes the save.

But next, it's three Sharks who get caught deep. Lindberg recognizes this and hits Tuch in stride, coming up the middle on the breakout. Tuch drops it off to Eakin and beats Joakim Ryan to the front for the tip.

Lindberg observed, "We try to play north-south, try not to complicate things, especially with Tuch's speed. Try to get him to skate into pucks."

Both Lindberg and Eakin's passes were great examples of giving Tuch the puck to skate into with speed.

It's worth repeating: The Golden Knights' ability to roll four lines which can play fast is crucial to their success. This is not the first line doing first-line things -- this is the third line doing first-line things. The Tuch goal is but one example from Lindberg. Here's another small example to underscore the point:

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Clever backhand off the boards past the spying Shark, into Tuch's speed. Anyway, strong playoff debut from Lindberg.

Finally, you can't talk about this game without touching on the Knights' much-improved forecheck. It was a point of emphasis leading up to this game, and of course, a big part of their success last night.

I asked Erik Haula, whose first period forecheck on a weak Boedker clear led directly to James Neal's game-opening goal.

"Nothing special [on that play]," said Haula. "Just trying to work hard, beat guys to pucks."

Perhaps it was nothing special, just like Gallant noted, "When there’s 20 guys working and competing and skating hard, you get a group of guys forechecking, it’s going to be real good. More effort. I think that’s what you saw tonight from our group."

It's good for Gallant to mention the entire team there -- as the defense plays a critical part on the forecheck too. When Vegas is on their game, they always bring up their five-man forecheck.

"I think we were tight [with the forwards]," indicated Luca Sbisa. "If they tried to rim pucks, the D was there. [We were] pretty aggressive. Our F3 was backing the D up."

Minuses

After the Golden Knights went up 4-0, the Sharks scored three in the third period to make it 4-3. They were helped along by three Vegas penalties in 7:42, including an unnecessary Neal slash which Gallant called out after the game.

They'll want to clean that up.

Once again, Hertl was able to beat the Knights in front of the net, as he scored his third in three games to make it 4-2. The 6'2" Hertl is a load, so it's hard to take him when he's established position. The key here, easier said than done, is to not even allow the cycle, which Vegas did a great job of for most of the night -- get the pucks out when you have the chance.

There was some talk that San Jose abandoned their "pick" play after the Hertl interference call which led to the Tuch power play goal -- that wasn't the case.

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This is in the third period -- watch Eric Fehr leave his natural position to delay Miller, who's chasing Marcus Sorensen.

Here's a good time to say this again: I don't mind subtle interference, as long as it doesn't lead to a prime scoring chance. They could've let the Hertl interference go and there's nothing wrong with what Fehr does here -- every team does it.

So San Jose isn't going to abandon a bread-and-butter play unless the refs call it super-tight, which isn't likely in the playoffs.

It's incumbent on Vegas to fight through them and make the opponents pay on the power play when they get the chance.

We'll see if DeBoer's incredulity buys them an extra pick or two in Game Six.

Also, William Carrier left the game during the second period and didn't return. Gallant wasn't sure if he'd be available for Game Six.


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