Las Vegas Golden Knights

[jerrym]

Jim Matheson adds more on why the Knights have been so successful as an expansion team, even though they have only one player among the top 30 in NHL scoring - Jonathan Marchessault.

Teams are playing us harder now,” cautioned GM George McPhee.
Yeah, maybe. But it might not matter. This a four line, six D-men deep team with no egos, no superstars, a team that plays every game like it’s a playoff game. A bunch of guys who were told they weren’t good enough to keep on their old teams.
“What gives us success is we play the game fast. We don’t want to keep the puck too long, we like to put pressure on the opposing defence,” said Marchessault, who signed a five-year $30-million deal after making $750,000 as an anonymous player away from the rink in south Florida. What we wanted was fast players and competitive players,” said McPhee. ...
“Those guys work so hard up and down the ice, with four lines, 18 players, they skate so well. That’s their strong point,” said Oilers captain Connor McDavid, who stayed in Vegas after the game to celebrate his 21st birthday.
“Lines don’t change,” said Perron. “I’ve played with the same guys all year except for one shift against Chicago. Guys on the fourth line are getting 11-12 minutes. The coach trusts everybody, brings them into the action and we’re starting to control games, get a good grip on them along with winning them.”
They got lucky, too. Columbus left centre William Karlsson available. Florida left Marchessault available even after 30 goals last year.
Minnesota, desperate to protect Matt Dumba, they got their former first-round pick winger Alex Tuch in a deal, and also took fourth-liner Erik Haula in the expansion draft. Tuch has 21 points and Haula has 15 goals.
They’ve started four different goalies — Marc-Andre Fleury, Malcolm Subban, Oskar Dansk and Max Lagasse — and still won.
McPhee, his right-hand man Kelly McCrimmon, head of player personnel Vaughn Karpan and their legion of pro scouts, did a masterful job of watching games last year and picking the right people.

http://edmontonjournal.com/sports/ho...d-b0e4421e0eef

[jerrym]

Here is an approximation of the monthly reaction from NHL observers about the Vegas Golden Knights:
October: Aw, that’s cute, Vegas has won some games.
November: Look at those little scamps go!
December: Still a small sample size, everyone.
January: Just wait until they get caved in for the whole second half.
February: WTF.
March: Seriously, WTF. ...


Vegas has just nine games left over which it will lock down the final numbers for the collection of records it will set for an NHL expansion franchise. It long ago broke all the previous marks, and with 99 points already and eight points up on San Jose, Vegas is a lock to shatter the 100-point mark and almost certainly will win the Pacific Division. All with a collection of players that the rest of the league collectively deemed expendable. ...

There is much evidence that the Knights are not a fluke, at least in terms of how we typically think of one. They have not won an absurd number of close games, their underlying fancy stats are decent, and they don’t have lights-out special teams that would swing an inordinate number of games.
They are second in goals scored and seventh in goals allowed, giving them a goal differential of +48, right in line with their place in the standings. And while they have an excellent home record, the suggestion that the team has benefitted particularly from visiting teams that stay out all night in casinos and, ahem, other establishments, is undercut by the fact that Vegas has won more road games than every team in the league other than Tampa and Nashville. ...

The NHL, for all the effort and time spent on roster assembly, coaching, and the actual playing of games, functions like a results generator that routinely spits out some outliers. The L.A. Kings won two Stanley Cups in three years and then missed the playoffs. Chicago finished first in the West with 109 points last year and is last in their division this year. Montreal’s last four seasons, from 2014-15 to now: good, bad, good, bad. ...


Consider William Karlsson, plucked from the roster of the Columbus Blue Jackets because McPhee agreed to take the anchor of David Clarkson’s contract (and two draft picks; it was a big anchor) if the Jackets would make Karlsson available. He has now scored 39 goals for Vegas. Columbus: Sorry, that’s our bad. Karlsson, though, played 162 games for Columbus over the previous two seasons and scored 15 goals, netting about seven per cent of his shots, which is about the league average. This season he is shooting 23.5 per cent, by far the best rate in the league. ...

The best evidence of whether McPhee is a genius or was blessed with good fortune this season will probably come from the GM himself this summer. Will he be aggressive in trying to win again, or cautious, in the expectation that his collection of non-stars will regress next season?

http://theprovince.com/sports/hockey...3-1aff018414bb