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Knights Run Coyotes Out of Building 3-2; Why VGK's Transition Game Popped
December 4, 2017, 2:21 AM ET [6 Comments]
Sheng Peng
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On a three-game skid, perhaps the Golden Knights were hungrier for a victory than the visiting Coyotes.

While the visitors managed to reach OT, Rick Tocchet certainly thought so:



On the other hand, Gerard Gallant was pleased as punch with his team's 3-2 win.

"We seriously just played a good game," beamed Gallant. "The first two periods were outstanding hockey."

By my count, Vegas outchanced Arizona 27-17 in all situations. According to Natural Stat Trick, it was 46-26 Scoring Chances and 17-10 High-Danger Corsi For in the expansion squad's favor.

This was a landslide, even if the final tally didn't reflect it.



Winning Play

Every Golden Knights goal was off transition. They moved the puck at will through all three zones; in honor of that, let's break down each each goal.





Jesse Granger was equally enthused by Miller's work, breaking down this play further here.



A few things jump out on the Jonathan Marchessault marker: Malcolm Subban's whiff actually draws an aggressive Tobias Rieder toward him, opening space. 200 feet away from their destination, Luca Sbisa and Marchessault take an extra stickhandle before moving the puck; this patience opens space for William Karlsson to carry it from blueline to blueline.

View post on imgur.com


When Marchessault sucks Brendan Perlini toward him, the 'Yotes have three players behind the play, while the Knights have three about to skate ahead.

View post on imgur.com


This creates an outnumbered attack at entry, Scott Wedgewood gives up a fat rebound up the middle, and a "passenger" (Rieder) forgets Marchessault.



The Reilly Smith overtime strike was an example of good defense creating offense, as Marchessault snatches Alex Goligoski's drop pass, bounces it past Derek Stepan, and outraces both Coyotes. Patience plays a part here too, as Marchessault waits until a chasing Goligoski converges on him, which creates space for Reilly Smith walking down the slot

"I know they were gassed out there," said the center-winger, who was at the end of his own shift too.

While this doesn't cover every goal, Tuch spoke generally of the Knights' masterful transition game:

Really starts with our reloads and our backchecks.

Guys were doing a really good job coming out of [our] offensive zone and backchecking and turning pucks over. Causing their forwards to have a lot of trouble entering their offensive zone.

When we're backchecking, our D can stay up. They can get it up to us as fast as possible.

Pluses

Just as importantly, the home team choked off Arizona's transition game.



Like Miller here, Vegas was on top of the puck consistently.

While Gallant wouldn't get into specifics, he observed, "We had some fresh legs today. I thought the score shouldn’t have been as close as it was."

Indeed, there were so many positives with the Golden Knights' performance, it's hard to narrow them down.

Following the loss in Winnipeg, Tuch wasn't enamored with the team's forecheck. At this morning's skatearound, he talked about the need to get the five-man forecheck going. This was before tonight:

Really aggressive forwards and our defensemen coming down the walls and creating turnovers.

I think Colin Miller's done a really good job the last couple games. I think we need everybody to do the same as him.

Even the forwards too, a couple guys might be forechecking, but the third guy is kind of hanging back, waiting for something to happen. We just need to be aggressive.


Suffice to say, the 21-year-old was pleased with his squad's effort in this department:

Every line was doing really well. The defensemen were really aggressive. Like I said, Colin Miller does it really well. He was on his game tonight with it.

It really helped turn pucks over. And we able to get a lot of possession in the zone.


An excellent example of the five-man unit working in concert was this minute-plus bit of sustained pressure by the Marchessault-Karlsson-Smith line in the final frame. While the forwards did the lionshare of the work, Sbisa challenged successfully in the neutral zone when the 'Yotes acquired momentary control.



Arizona had been punching back in the third, but this shift halted their momentum.

"That shift in particular put them back on their heels a little bit," offered Smith.

Marchessault agreed, "It turned the game around for sure."

Speaking of their line, they were magnificent once again, dominating possession and chances. For example, Smith sported a 62.5 5v5 Corsi For %, 76.92 Scoring Chances For %, 83.33 High Danger Corsi For %.

Marchessault was over the moon about the line's chemistry.



"I can play that line against anybody," said Gallant.

As Tuch noted, every line worked, but the Tomas Nosek-Bellemare-Stefan Matteau group also popped, despite going scoreless. For example, Nosek led the team in 5v5 Corsi For % (69.7), Scoring Chances For % (92.3), and High-Danger Corsi For % (100.0)

Minuses

Besides a lack of finish, the Golden Knights authored a model game.

But keeping the Desert Dogs around almost came back to bite them, as Dylan Strome struck a post with the game tied and eight minutes left in the contest. A few inches, and we'd be talking like this.



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