I almost feel for the Golden Knights. They smoked the opposition all year. Ate them for breakfast, showed them the door, took them for a ride, and stole their popsicle. Let them down hard. Outclassed the field.
However, I wouldn’t say they battered an opponent. They haven’t won as many close games as one would assume.
Adversity is necessary
Having it too easy is not a benefit. Although on paper the Knights played many close games, thats a bit deceiving. They won by three goals or more a whopping 20 times during the regular season. For a full third of the matches the opposition wasn’t in the game at the end of 20 minutes. It wasn’t a battle.
Their template – build leads in the first period – often a 2 or 3 goal spot – and then play from ahead. Even when they won a game by a single goal, they played with the lead for a significant portion of the time. Contrastingly, their third periods were best described as uneven. They could score three, or surrender three. What a huge margin.
En route they were “passing the eye test, playing the right way, and being hailed as a Stanley Cup favourite.” And fair enough, they are Stanley Cup favourites.
Truculence Time
Compare that with les Habitants who, if nothing else, are trained to be calm in the face of adversity. After the 10 game mark les Boys struggled to put it together. They didn’t get much by ways of momentum, and didn’t exactly excel through a trying season. Lots of close matches, and glimpses of glory, but their season was marked by (ahem) trials and tribulations.
Brian Burke called it so in honor of him this section bears the word that is forever his. BTW, check out Steve Dangle’s face when Burkie says the Habs will go farther. I love Steve Dangle, he is one of my favourites. This is still funny, though.
On the measurements of toughness, tenacity, and will, we know who has more of that. We know who is ready for go time. This shift from Gallagher, where he beats 4 guys, sums it up.
During Adversity, players no longer play within themselves.
We saw it in game 1. The Habs made all sorts of uncharacteristic mistakes and the Knights made them pay. In nearly every one of those moments, a player put too much pressure on themselves. They left a position, or they were too aggressive. They lost their team structure and it cost them dearly.
Last night it was Alex Pietrangelo’s turn. He is a fearsome player. His level of function and his ability to affect a game is completely amazing. He can’t do it alone, though, and this play was an uncharacteristic gaffe from such a terrific player.
https://www.sportsnet.ca/nhl/video/gotta-see-caufield-rips-goal-fleury-golden-knights-turn-puck/
If he keeps his stick on the ice for that poke-check he likely fouls the pass in some way, breaks up the play, and when Pacioretty scores it is a 2 – 1 game. The game is still winnable. Instead, a series of mistakes by himself and Stone turn into an important opportunity for the Habs on the stick of Cole Caufield.
Oops.
Styles make fights.
I’ve said it before, but I’m not above saying it again. There are a limited number of ways to generate offence and play defence. Right now the forward group for the Knights are struggling to find their way through the Habs full court press. They rarely put more than two passes together without the puck changing course somehow, or being met with a battle. They are dangerous when they get their momentum going, but their speed often carries them straight to the areas where the pucks become 50/50 contests. We all know who is winning the puck battles.
In every game the Habs have won, they have dominated one particular stat. Forget shots and hits. You can even overlook faceoffs to a point. It is giveaways that have dictated the wins in this series. If the Habs dominate in that department, and win by somewhere between 8 and 10, they are likely to win.
The Habs are a game away. They can seal it at home. They’ve already played well enough to win the series, they just need to keep doing what they are doing. At this point, anyone who thinks the Knights have lost this series has ignored how well the Habs have played to get here. I’m not saying book it. I’m saying the Habs are really, really close.
A moment of doubt
The Knights are soul-searching at the worst possible time. They scratched Ryan Reaves, and played an increasingly floppy Marc-Andre Fleury in game 5 – thats how high their level of doubt is in their team identity.
Let me leave you with some thoughts from Peter Deboer. They are eerily similar thoughts to Claude Julien during the losing streaks that eventually cost him his job.
“We’re searching for those answers. That’s our job here: to turn over every stone. Is there some X-and-O answers? The moments in this series where we’ve had success, we’re doing certain things. But we’re not doing them for long enough stretches, and with enough participants… I don’t have a clear answer for you.”
The bravado from game one is gone.
The clock is ticking.
Habs Spectator 