Golden Knights’ predictability was their strength in Game 1
The Vegas Golden Knights are just seven wins away from lifting yet another Stanley Cup after defeating the Colorado Avalanche 4–2 in Game 1 of the Western Conference final on Wednesday night.
While goals from Brett Howden, Dylan Coghlan, Nic Dowd and Pavel Dorofeyev headlined the performance, it was the team’s predictability that made them so dangerous against the high-powered Avalanche.
On Thursday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, co-hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and Carter Hutton broke down that predictable characteristic and what it meant to the series-opening victory.
Carter Hutton: Carter Hart was very good, but for me, it felt like a very predictable game. I think that comes down to the way they block shots, the way they kept the play on one half of the ice for Carter Hart, and the breakdowns where Colorado was able to score. We talked about it earlier: Ben Hutton and Dylan Coghlan bump into each other’s skates, fall down and give up the center of the ice. Then the other one was a power play goal. Other than that, Vegas played a very good road game, and they got good goaltending, and that’s what the playoffs are about.
Tyler Yaremchuk: You see Colorado put up almost 40 shots, and you’re kind of like, “Whoa, did they just dominate them?’ Like, no, I really didn’t get the sense that that was the case at all. Colorado had a really strong push at one point in the second period, but aside from that, a pretty even hockey game back and forth.
You said it was kind of predictable. Explain that a little bit, like from Carter Hart’s perspective, and again, 36 saves…what about playing behind this Vegas team makes life easy for Carter Hart?
Carter Hutton: I think when the game gets eliminated east-west, and when I say that, I mean pucks that travel across the ice, and then their shots, and you don’t have time to set your feet, and you’re chasing the game a lot.
If you look back to a goal that stands out for me, that Carter Hart gave up in the second round to Owen Zellweger, it’s a cross-seam pass where he’s got to travel all the way across his feet, try to gain depth, and that’s where his game gets a little bit, I think, stringy, and he starts chasing plays. When the puck can stay on one half of the ice, if you draw a line from the center of the net out to the blue line, and if you can keep the puck on that side of the net, it’s almost better. Traditionally, when we grow up watching goaltending, everyone’s like, well, if you put a rebound in front of you, that’s a bad rebound. Well, no, it’s not because I have sight lines on it.
Carter Hart does a very good job of keeping pucks in front of him and making the game a lot easier, where you know where it is. And I think with his decor, doing that is really effective in-game.
You can catch the full show and the rest of the segment here…