"We need to stop talking about last year," Jonathan Marchessault declared yesterday. "That's probably the problem right now."
Marchessault isn't all wrong -- there's a certain point when last year will become meaningless to this season's Golden Knights -- but after a 1-4 stumble to kick off this campaign, it's the receding light of last year that they're hanging onto.
"We got a good hockey team," stressed Gerard Gallant, after the Penguins outgunned them 4-2 on Thursday night.
Whether Gallant will acknowledge it or not, at the moment, that's last year he's talking about.
He admitted, "We’re not playing well enough to win right now. But we’ll get over it."
That belief is borne from last year's 102 mostly excellent games.
It still matters, that glorious season. For the players, it's something to aspire to. For the fans, it's something to hope for.
I'm asked a lot when I knew the 2017-18 Golden Knights were a good team.
For me, it was when they beat Pittsburgh at T-Mobile Arena.
It wasn't just because they bested the defending champs. It wasn't just because, at 20-9-2, it was a mathematical unlikelihood for the expansion side to miss the post-season.
I wrote in December, "What's impressive is that the Golden Knights once again asserted their style of play on a quality opponent."
After that contest, Gallant said, "We talk about playing fast hockey. That's one of the fastest teams in the league. We played our game."
On Thursday night, it was Pittsburgh who played their game.
"These guys play a stretch game, they leave the zone early a lot of times and look for breakaways," said Gallant.
They did it not once, but twice, both Phil Kessel (81) breakaways. Here's the second:
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Both chasing the puck, Carl Hagelin (62) gets away with subtle interference on Max Pacioretty (67). Perhaps Pacioretty could have fought through it harder; regardless, Hagelin gains inside position.
Brayden McNabb (3) has pinched. The last man back, Colin Miller (6), has to be more aware of Kessel's presence.
"We're playing okay," said Gallant.
When was "okay" acceptable last year?
What I'm not asked a lot is when I knew those Golden Knights could be great.
It was after they beat Los Angeles in Game One of the first round.
"We didn't make a whole lot of mistakes. We eliminated their scoring chances. We played good, solid defensive hockey," Gallant said after the stifling 1-0 win. "I would love to play the [rest of the playoffs in the] same way."
I wrote in April, "What makes the Vegas victory potentially scary for the West -- and yes, it's just one game -- is that the best teams can win in multiple ways. The Knights haven't put together 60 minutes of sound, defensive hockey for a while. I'd almost forgotten that they could do it, and they pulled it from their arsenal on a pressure-packed stage, against a star-laden Kings.
"We know Vegas can play fast. But if they can also play slow, as they did in Game One -- and as they did at times during the regular season -- watch out."
While the Golden Knights managed to win their share of small battles on Thursday night, they lost a pile-up which would lead to Kessel's first breakaway:
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Hagelin angles a rushing Erik Haula (56) off at the center line. Jack Johnson (73) meets Pacioretty at the blueline, preventing a clean Vegas entry. Justin Schultz (4) beats Tomas Nosek (92) to a loose puck. Evgeni Malkin (71) and Kessel take care of the rest.
"One of us has got to be back. We've got to communicate and make sure we're not giving up breakaways," acknowledged McNabb. "You can't cheat for offense when you're playing a team like this."
Miller was well below the blueline when Kessel turned up the ice.
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Fast or slow, the Knights are not playing well right now, their bursts hampered by near-misses and crippling brain cramps. Offensively, they haven't scored more than two goals in a game. Defensively, they've surrendered a Western Conference-worst 19 goals.
There are positive signs. The team's scoring chance differential -- 58.46%, sixth in the NHL, according to Natural Stat Trick -- is promising. They're second in the league in posts and crossbars hit. Their defensive mistakes have been ugly but uncharacteristic; they seem fixable.
On the other hand, Vegas has played behind so much -- through five games, they've led for just a combined 6:22 -- so there are some score effects involved with their positive underlying stats. And there's a point when egregious defensive errors aren't so egregious anymore and become the norm for a bad to middling team.
So what's Vegas? We're about to find out. But for Marchessault and company, they should hope that last year is more than just a fading memory.
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