Early in the 2nd period of rookie game number two, the Golden Knights were awarded a power play. The puck worked its way around the four forward, one defenseman Golden Knights power play unit when it found itself sitting on the stick of Jack Dugan.
Dugan collected the pass, looked straight at the goal, and fired a low hard shot that beat the goalie clean to for Vegas’ first goal of the game.
It was a classic power play goal, one we’ve seen scored by a number of different players wearing a VGK sweater, but there was a bit more significance to this one because of whose stick it came off of.
I don’t know if you saw the reaction on the bench (when he scored the goal) but we’ve been barking at him on the bench to shoot the puck more. -Manny Viveiros
Following his excellent sophomore season at Providence College where he tallied 52 points in 34 games, Dugan signed with the Golden Knights and played the entirety of last year in the AHL in Henderson. The point production continued as Dugan posted nearly a point per game, 33 points in 37 games.
If you dig into the numbers though, you’ll see that throughout his college career and his first year as a pro he’s produced assists at a rate double that of goals. The coaching staff in Henderson believes his mindset with the puck on his stick is making him predictable and they are trying to break the habit.
He’s got a good shot, but Jack loves to pass the puck, so that’s something that we need to keep on him about. It adds an extra element to his game because last year teams knew he was just passing the puck so they’d take away the lanes. If we get him consistently to shoot the puck it’s going to make him that much better. I’ve told him that some of the nicest goals you’ve score are when you just shoot the puck. -Viveiros
The goal on Sunday proved to both Dugan and the coaches that the plan is starting to take shape.
It was all smiles for sure, it’s been a work in progress so coming back to the bench it was a little bit of ‘I told you so’ but it’s fun and it was good to see that one go in and give me a little bit of confidence going into the season here. -Dugan
Viveiros clearly believes Dugan has the right stuff to eventually break in and become an impact player at the NHL level. Along with a greater emphasis on shooting the puck, he added that he’d like to see his pace of play pick up as well. Both areas though he believes Dugan can, and will improve, in.
It’s a process, it’s not going to happen overnight, but he knows we have his best interest in mind. I’m not going to call anyone stubborn, but sometimes you do have to break habits. -Viveiros
The habit was broken for one day on Sunday afternoon, now it’s up to Dugan to keep breaking it as he continues his budding career as a professional.
Tim
I watched the Arizona game Vegas didn’t show much. The San Jose game was like pulling teeth to find the score. Finally I found it 5-2 again. It’s like the Knights are embarrassed to let us know they lost two in a row. Typical Vegas keep the fans in the dark.
THE hockey GOD
it was streaming, you didn’t miss much. The announcer was better , the HSK announcer called the game and at least he called the players on ice. The Arizona announcer didn’t know any of VGK players and barely knew his own.
IF last two rookie camps (one in Anaheim and this one) are indicative of future, there isn’t much to look for here. Not much spark and they gave a goon the A in SJ game. The goon hardly played at HSK and he can barely skate one two clide (smash someone with club0 one two clide, one two clide. Kings game coming up in 45 minutes. 0 for three again is on slate it appears. Not impressed at all with this HSK staff coaching these youngsters. Not prepared.
On another note two Red Wing prospects got absolutely smoked. One got carted off ice yesterday. Both with evident concussions. In Traverse City rookie face off event.
DC
I hope they get their promising rookies figured out before the VGK play in SLC on September 30th. I bought two tickets and I don’t want to the game to be a snoozer.
Brian Lawrence
It’s only a rookie tournament. Winning games doesn’t matter, it’s evaluating the players. Besides, they only had one day of practice prior to going to Arizona.
THE hockey GOD
What is up with that ? Other teams had development camps, VGK did not, wanted to rest players. Talk about a recipe for disaster. Questionable to say the least.
on further review
today in game 3 vs LA, the Vgk have been much better.
the score after the 2nd period is Vgk 2-LA 0
the goalie, Lindbom, has been outstanding. Swedish Panda-monium
and Dugan and Deliberatore have both been much improved over the previous games.
we’ll see if they can keep it up in the 3rd period.
THE hockey GOD
LA Kings pulled their best player half way through the game.
Blitz
Who was their best player, Fagemo? This was the first game I caught and seemed like he was all over the place and had a pretty sniper goal. He seemed like one of the better players on the ice. I was laughing (yes I am 46 going on 14) cause of his name and all I could think about was I hope the play by play guy has a phonetic spelling and isn’t just guessing.
It was interesting to watch. Camera for the game was a bit shitty, hard to see goal action. Seems like Pearson had a good game (goal and assist I think) and saw Korczak make a couple of good defensive plays. Krebs had a couple of good shots, one off the post. The VGK goalie was robbing LA alot, best I could tell.
THE hockey GOD
Quinton Byfield is allegedly their best prospect, they pulled him half way through the game. The LA kings had a lot of players buzzing around the net. Neither team had a “development camp”, so for VGK to beat this team is a positive.
lakingsinsider -see this site for take on LA KINGS prospects.
Very hard to judge overall competition because some teams had development camps and others did not. And every team won at least one game. I would say the Kings and avs(no2), Ducks (no1), had best play all around. The sharks the worst of it. The Coyotes played the best teams but lost two games but beat the VGK. The VGK first two games were terrible. So I would say the Sharks and VGK were at bottom of bunch considering overall play. Top AVS, Ducks, Kings/Coyotes, lagging VGK/Sharks.
The camera angle was same for all the games, the announcer was 100 times better the last two games.
Dean = Krebs =glass, these former first two must up their game or go the route of Glass. They didn’t show up for first two games. None of them are sharp shooters. VGK are serious lacking in sharp shooters.
The bench coach for HSK for this tourny sucked. I didn’t see much in practice. And they had horrible line changes. Once on penalty it took them over 15 seconds to get a line change. Pathetic. And it’s not the first time, it happened in AHL several times.
DC
Yes, the VGK are seriously lacking sharp shooters. In the playoffs last season they relied on Pietrangelo for a great deal of their scoring, someone who happens to be a D man! That speaks volumes about what the team is lacking.
knights fan in minny
how about those raiders
Tom Mccarthy
Vgk management sucks
Brian Lawrence
No argument there
SMH
Now this is a great take! Never mind that VGK has gone deep into the playoffs in 3 out of 4 years, sells out every single game, and is quite possibly the most successful expansion team in the history of sports. So what? I mean everybody knows that ANY other management team besides McPhee & McCrimmon would have won multiple Cups by now AND have the best prospect pool in the NHL. We sure could learn a lot from real franchises like the ones in Arizona, Buffalo, & Ottawa. I am so jealous of hockey fans in those places – they don’t even have to worry about how many playoff game tickets they can afford to buy – must be so nice!
THE hockey GOD
@SMH, nice, roflmao