Twitter Space Pre Game 6 VGK vs COL – June 9th, 2021

Ken, I think you are missing a very big factor – AVS play much better at home because they use altitude acclimation to their advantage. You say elevation doesn’t matter that much because VGK also practices at elevation. With respect, you are wrong.

AVS have a huge advantage at home, they are able to play that balls out style whereas their opponents normally cannot.

Game 1 and game 5 is how AVS play at home. Game 2 VGK was ACCLIMATED to the elevation because they were already a few days in Denver, follow?

We WILL NOT SEE AVS play that way at our rink. They will play somewhat like that, but VGK will be faster and able to better handle AVS pressure as we did in the 2 home games here.

AVS might win because hockey is strange that way, but I don’t think I’m right here, I know I’m right here because in part, it’s what I study and do.

You are absolutely missing this factor and not quite understanding why AVS were so great at home this year.

VGK will be able to match AVS pressure at home. If we lose game 6, we will need THAT SAME LUCK as in game 5 to win the series.

Trust me, you are over analysing this – the elevation and acclimation to it means TONS MORE than you think. Mark Stone pretty much showed us that as he was OUT OF BREATH for his post game interview.

Conclusion – AVS can play in stronger pressure waves at home if both teams have the same 1 day of acclimation, but if both teams have 4 days like between games 1 and 2, what happened? AVS looked NORMAL, are you following?

Trust me on this. Again, AVS might win as I mentioned before but I guarantee you that game 6 WILL NOT LOOK anything like game 5. VGK will not be as breathless and will be able to match AVS intensity – the forecheck, intensity, things you mention here will return because of the elevation issue, or lack thereof.

Ken, another excellent analysis – thanks for this! A few thoughts:

– I have been pleased to see that although VGK has basically gone with short passes strong side on breakouts with dump & chase into the OZ, that they have their heads up looking for opportunities to carry or pass the puck into the zone and have used those chances well. I think it’s been helpful and created numerous scoring chances for them. Same goes with cross ice passes in the NZ and stretch passes – limited but employed when available.

– Last game there were a couple of poor decisions by D to try stretch passes that were deflected or intercepted. But they seemed to keep those to a minimum. I’m wondering if Shea’s lesser involvement in play might be related to that, as well as what looks like an intentional effort to reduce shots from the point by VGK.

– I like Holden’s play. In the last game Hague played there were at least 2 or 3 occasions where he either made a blind pass to the center of the ice or tried to force a pass out of the DZ that led to COL opportunities. Holden tends to make better decisions on passing and also on shot selection.

Hoping (like you are) that Vegas finishes this tonight, but it’s probably going to be a ‘knock down drag out’ event. We’re lucky to be able to still be watching our team play. Hope we get more of what we saw in G4,P1 – the pace of play was breathtaking and the passing and puck movement reminded me of the 1980 Isles cup team. Some of the best quality hockey I’ve watched in years.

The thing that everyone failed to mention was Patch was the the first to congratulate Stoney on that goal, way before others got there, which means he was on Stoney’s right wing in case he missed or the puck got deflected by Grubby. With both Graves and Mack tangled up on the left side of the ice, Patch would have been all alone to score that rebound. That’s how VGK plays. Always have an insurance guy just in case.