The Vegas Golden Knights may have converted yet another pundit.
After seeing the expansion side fight back from a two-goal deficit and drag the Toronto Maple Leafs into overtime, Greg Millen of Sportsnet offered:
I have not seen the Las Vegas team live [until tonight].Vegas has been very impressive. They work hard. They're fast. Got a lot more skill than people think.
They're surprising a lot of hockey clubs at the moment.
All said, it was another solid road effort in a 4-3 shootout loss.
Down 3-1 about halfway into the middle frame, the visitors were presented with a golden chance to get back into the game. However, they did nothing with a 1:12 two-man advantage, actually being outshot during that time.
With just a couple minutes left in the period, the Golden Knights looked like they would walk into the locker room still behind 3-1. Considering the magnitude of the blown two-man advantage, they might also have felt a little deflated.
But an Auston Matthews tripping call breathed life into Vegas before intermission:
Alex Tuch and William Karlsson work a neutral zone two-on-one to perfection, highlighted by a Tuch no-look pass to Karlsson. Karlsson waits for Nikita Zaitsev to step up at the blueline, giving an open Smith ample time and space to gain the zone.
From its conception, this is a beautifully designed and executed breakout:
This entire breakout is textbook usage of the extra man. It also helped the visitors slice the deficit in half before the break.
Pluses
As they did in Ottawa, the Golden Knights slowed the pace to their will, especially after the first period. In the second, they held the home side to just one even strength scoring chance.
This is no elementary task against the high-flying Maple Leafs.
"A lot of good things happened in the second and third periods," noted Gerard Gallant.
In particular, Vegas limited the always-dangerous Matthews in a variety of ways in the middle frame.
First, he chooses to double team the Toronto star behind the net with Schmidt. Two Knights on one Leaf means somebody blue is open, but Matthews is worthy of the attention. It's a risky but intelligent read.
The 20-year-old, amazingly, still manages to win the puck, but Sbisa's presence at least forces him to keep it along the boards.
Later, Sbisa smartly stick checks the puck away from Matthews, freeing the Golden Knights to finally break it out.
Back in the opening frame, Matthews went coast to coast with a full head of steam, turnstiling Sbisa to set up James van Riemsdyk's marker. So Karlsson's solution? Stop the freight train from even leaving the station.
Later in the period, Matthews digs the puck out in the NZ. For a second, it looks like he has space to press forward:
But by the time he fully turns with the puck, the Knights have literally formed a wall.
Matthews dumps it in and changes.
In all, Vegas held Toronto to 38 5v5 shot attempts (49:15 TOI). That's not bad, considering that the Maple Leafs are averaging 60.52 5v5 Corsi For/60.
(Update: A number of readers have noted that Matthews was a game-time decision, which I should have acknowledged. Honestly, he didn't look that hurt to me, especially in the first period, when he was skating circles around Sbisa. But I don't watch the Leafs everyday. He was still very dangerous last night and needed special attention, which the Knights paid him.)
Minuses
Gallant wasn't impressed by his squad's first period, observing, "We didn't have the jump we usually have.
Was going to say #VegasBorn needs to play faster , #TMLtalk sticks and speed everywhere. Andersen looks like he has holes tonight though
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) November 7, 2017
Unforced errors like Shea Theodore's giveaway, which led to Nazem Kadri's second goal, made the opening frame scoreboard uglier than the underlying stats.
Don't think #VegasBorn have played well, but not as ugly as score: #TMLtalk 17-15 5v5 Corsi, 5-4 scoring chances. TOR will give up chances
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) November 7, 2017
For Theodore, it's been a rough go since his call-up. His 13:22 tonight is the least (by at least two minutes) that Gallant has used any blueliner this season.
Shea Theodore has been worse than Vadim Shipachyov
— Tyler Bischoff (@Bischoff_Tyler) November 7, 2017
The 22-year-old boasts too much talent to keep out of the line-up, so hopefully, the leash isn't short. But my guess is Brad Hunt will be re-introduced into the mix posthaste, probably at the expense of Theodore.
Vegas looks to close out their road trip with a win tonight over the suddenly-resurgent Canadiens.
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