What exactly are we seeing right now from Vegas?

[raymond23]

Shows the product of the NHL right now. Coaching dominates.

 

[IceNeophyte]

Most treams have a couple of A players , a few B players, a bunch of Cs, a few Ds, and maybe a couple of Fs
Golden Knights have a quite a few Bs and the rest Cs
No As no Ds and no Fs.
Meaning that teams can’t really exploit a few player. It shows in ice time
Dmen almost all over 20 minutes a game
No forward over 20 minutes a game

MA Fleury says "Hi"

 

[severian]

I would say close to zero, seeing as many of the losing teams rolled in the day of the game, and with Fleury and Subban in net, the Golden Knights have been very good on the road.

They have a decent road record but their home record is ridiculous. There has to be something to that.

 

[HanSolo]

Their expansion choices were incredibly underrated coming into the season, seriously remember when people were legitimately saying they'd be lucky to win 20 games all season, it's just insane with the talent they got.

They got 4 top 6 players from two teams! Add in Neal and Perron and that's their entire top 6 from four teams, not including players that were due for a breakout like Karlsson.

The quality of the players left exposed is a big reason why they're so successful, everyone buying into Gallant's system is equally as important.

The groupthink on the quality of players Vegas got was mostly based on Vegas not taking some guys that were clearly only there because of arranged deals. I think people wanted to see Vegas slam dunk every pick and when they supposedly didn't people were quick to knock the players they did have. I thought the roster was pretty solid from the jump but I didn't think they'd be this good. Especially without Shipachyov (who I overrated considerably) and Methot.

Beyond that, Marchesseault has really improved on his game in a big way. Someone in this thread said Vegas has no "A players" but Marchesseault really plays like one now. He's roving the entire offensive zone taking shots from everywhere and when he's not, his playmaking has been wonderful. I mean the assist on Karlsson's goal is evidence of that. Someone may say Anaheim defended it poorly, but he manages to make 2 or 3 passes like that a game. Alex Tuch has been a very pleasant surprise, from that trade I'd add Haula as well. And with Karlsson, I'm still not sold just yet. His ability to find the right areas to score just seems almost lucky but if he keeps showing that tendency then it might just display high hockey IQ. In any event, Karlsson's numbers last year and his performance this preseason left a lot to be desired. At one point I think I wanted Vegas to waive him but he's the top goal scorer now.

It's not just that Gallant's system works, I think he has a quality that I liked in Boudreau that he seems to get a lot more out of players that other coaches might not have been able to find.

 

[I am not exposed]

I don’t know why Florida gave up Marchessault. The guy is super skilled and his passing skills are top notch. How do you give up a centre that scored 30 goals for you?

He's a winger. But yeah, come to our boards, it is an ongoing discussion in almost every thread!

 

[HabsQC]

Great coaching.

You can see Gallant learned all he knows from his stint with the Habs behind the great Michel Therrien

 

[HanSolo]

I don't think they have a single d-man who is a top pairing d-man on paper. Maybe Theodore and that's a big maybe given his lack of experience so far. Honestly, I wouldn't have thought a single d-man aside from Theodore would have any business playing anywhere but bottom pairing before this year. I also think the only forwards who are slotted where they'd seem to belong on paper are Neal, Jam, Smith (all top 6 guys arguably) Tuch (fine third line player) and Bellmare (solid 4c). Karlsson's career high was 25 points and now he's playing 1C - but he already has 29 in 35.

On paper, Imo, they looked like the worst team in the league by a fair margin. Obviously, out on the ice there's something different happening. It's fascinating.

Well you're entitled to your opinion but it's my opinion you start watching them and rethink some of your on paper impressions. Players aren't restricted to one level for the entirety of their careers.

 

[onlyalad]

MA Fleury says "Hi"

I wasn’t including him for two reasons
One I was talking “skaters”
And two he has been out for most of their games
He has played in 8 games so far.

 

[Colorado Avalanche]

Happens every year one team overachieves. Been there done that.

 

[Marty Party]

Wouldn't shock me to see them in the conference final.

It's like a dog playing a piano.

 

[Lacaar]

I wonder if this will have any impact on the way teams get built.

Vegas may be enlightening the world on how ineffective superstar high salary is in a cap league.

McDavid like salaries depleting rosters of quality depth players doing more harm than good.

Perhaps the talent coming into the league is so close that it's better to sign a bunch of decent talent to 1 year deals and getting an ultra motivated group of players.

Or heck maybe it's best to flip your roster every year so no one gets comfortable. We see coaches getting changed to infuse new life into the team. Perhaps it's the group of players themselves that goes stale and complacent playing with each other and their guarantee'd contracts?

 

[Lacaar]

Wouldn't shock me to see them in the conference final.

It's like a dog playing a piano.

I'm super curious to see how they fare in the playoffs. When motivational play is even.

I have a feeling they'll do well regardless. While Pittsburgh won the last two cups and Crosby even won the playoff mvp in both runs. I never really got the feeling that Crosby was necessary.. nor Malkin for that matter. It was more just that team playing their system to a T and working hard.

 

[HockeyMomx2]

You've got an entire roster filled with players who were told they weren't good enough. That makes them dangerous in and of itself.

 

[Lion Hound]

Seriously. An expansion team with 23 players that have never played together before are currently 1st place in the Western conference near midway through the season. Everyone, myself included predicted them as a bottom 5 team in the league. Every expansion team that has ever come into the NHL has had embarrassingly bad records their inaugural years no matter who they drafted and signed in the offseason.

Is Vegas a top team? A middle of the pack team getting some good puck luck? Or are we seeing a fluke from a bad team that will eventually run out of gas?

Has the feel of a future Hockey movie. Granted, there's a long way to go but its off to an amazingly good start about a Cinderella team that rallied around a city at a time of crisis.

 

[Eat The Rich]

I wasn’t including him for two reasons
One I was talking “skaters”
And two he has been out for most of their games
He has played in 8 games so far.

Three, he is not an A goalie. He is a good B.

 

[Jason316]

I hope we see Vegas and LA 1st round!!!! Most likely impossible as both are fighting for the division

 

[haveandare]

Well you're entitled to your opinion but it's my opinion you start watching them and rethink some of your on paper impressions. Players aren't restricted to one level for the entirety of their careers.

That’s sort of my point, until this year these guys would seem to make a terrible hockey team. This year, they all seemed to grow really well in perfect sync, which is remarkable.

 

[HanSolo]

That’s sort of my point, until this year these guys would seem to make a terrible hockey team. This year, they all seemed to grow really well in perfect sync, which is remarkable.

But more than how they're coming together and working their asses off, Vegas has guys that have taken their game to a whole new level. Marchessault was far more one dimensional prior to coming to vegas. Theodore has cleaned up a lot of his defensive failings and is now pushing 2-3c quality defender hard. Miller and Schmidt are thriving with more responsibility. I could go on.

The younger players are really coming up quick.


As a side note to the thread in general, one thing no one is mentioning is Vegas is extremely well conditioned. They never look tired even in the second game of a back to back. Gallant has these guys in great shape and his shift management is fantastic.

 

[Hockeyholic]

I think they have a chance to go all the way

 

[Mr Positive]

Imo there is a real factor of being a surprise team. So much of outcoaching the opposition is about having a dossier on the other team, and that can take more than a year to refine, being based on specifics about their core players. I'm sure part of what's bringing down the Penguins now is that all eyes are on them and so many teams have devoted mental energy on figuring out how to beat them. The Knights are starting fresh with everyone else still not fully understanding how they win games, and yet someone like Gallant still knows the strengths and weaknesses of all the other teams.

The Knights will fall back down as they become more established. Imo, the talent just isn't there. They don't have standard important pieces like that 1D or 1C.

 

[Emperoreddy]

We are seeing that Gallant is a fantastic coach.

 

[SladeWilson23]

Erik Haula is the guy who sticks out for me.

 

[Unlimited Chequing]

On top of the aforementioned reasons (everyone having something to prove, good coaching, etc), one thing mentioned in the Players Tribune article that isn't given enough credit is they had the opportunity to build the team from scratch as a whole. They didn't have to deal with problems other teams have: being handcuffed by big or bad contracts, completing the roster with just filler players, putting up with passengers on the team, etc.... The players they picked were done so with purpose.

Vegas? VEGAS! | By David Perron

There’s a misconception that we were put together in a day, or a few days. But one of the things that was so clear to me when we first got on the ice was the amazing job our management did to build this team. Our lines don’t change too much, and that’s for good reason. They make sense. Our first line of Reilly Smith, William Karlsson and Marchy wasn’t just hacked together. It was crafted. Reilly and Marchy have a really strong connection from their time with the Panthers — they know how to work together. And William is one of those guys — like I mentioned before — who was given a chance to show his potential. He’s an incredibly talented player and the perfect piece to have between those two guys.

And when I started playing with Erik Haula and Neal, there was chemistry right away — because our staff built a team to work together. They knew how we liked to play, even before we got there, and put the pieces in place to give us something to work with. And it’s like that for all of our lines and defensive pairings.

That's a product of good scouting.

I expected Vegas to be competitive, but not for two or three seasons while they worked out the bugs and adjusted. Vegas is a good argument for why the talent pool won't get diluted if there are more teams added to the league. Quite the opposite; I think there's so much potential talent in the league that guys don't get a chance to show off what they're capable of because they're regulated to lesser roles due to log jam.

 

[MinimaMoralia]

They're a dang good team, I really expect them to get even better over the next few years as guys like Glass, Theodore, Brannstrom and Suzuki start making noise. The entry draft worked.

 

[BullLund]

I think the league needs to take a look into the Vegas home advantage.