Vegas Won As A Team By Dominating Every Important Individual Matchup

(Photo Credit: Ken Boehlke, SinBin.vegas)

In a series highlighted by individuals, both head coaches kept using the term “team” in the postgame press conferences directly after Game 6.

Nobody on our team is asked to carry the team on their back. That’s part of the story here is the team that plays the best usually wins. We feel our team outplayed their team. It wasn’t about this player outplayed this player or this goalie against this goalie. -Bruce Cassidy

We win as a team and we don’t win as a team and we stick together. -Jay Woodcroft

While both coaches are absolutely correct, the reason the Golden Knights won as a team was they won all of the key individual matchups in the series. From front to back to on the ice and off, Vegas dominated in all the places necessary to beat the Edmonton Oilers and now they’re headed to the Western Conference Final for the fourth time in six years.

Here are five specific matchups the Golden Knights got the better of on their way to dispatching the world’s greatest player in the second round.

Jack Eichel and Jonathan Marchessault vs Cody Ceci and Darnell Nurse

You don’t have to look further than the scoring numbers when breaking down this matchup. Eichel was 5-1 against Ceci and 4-1 against Nurse while Marchessault was 6-1 against Ceci and 4-1 against Nurse.

Beyond the scoring though, the Golden Knights’ forwards were consistently able to hold the puck in the offensive zone against Ceci and Nurse. Eichel in particular was excellent in gaining controlled entry over the course of the series which relieved pressure on the VGK defense and forced whichever forward line was against them to defend. Marchessault’s forechecking caused havoc and he scored four times from directly in front of the goal.

In a series where puck possession was always going to be paramount for the Golden Knights, Eichel and Marchessault delivered in as big a way as they could over the six games. The Oilers only had one pair that should have been able to handle these two, and they weren’t able to do it.

William Karlsson vs Connor McDavid

In Game 6 in Edmonton, Jay Woodcroft was purposely using his benefit of last change to keep McDavid away from Karlsson. In fact, he was so concerned with the matchup that McDavid saw just over five minutes of ice time in the 1st period, his lowest of any period the entire series.

Karlsson’s ability to limit McDavid’s speed with positioning and awareness kept the Golden Knights from having to constantly defend the light speed entries McDavid is known for. Karlsson dominated McDavid in stick battles along the walls as well, consistently hounding every pass the 153-point man tried to make.

Marchessault said after the series he thought Karlsson deserved much more recognition than he was getting in the series, and he’s absolutely right. In 32:28 of ice-time with both Karlsson and McDavid on the ice, the score in the series was 0-0. For Vegas, that’s about as big a win as you can get.

Ben Hutton and Zach Whitecloud (plus Nic Hague) vs Philip Broberg and Brett Kulak

In Game 5 both Alex Pietrangelo and Darnell Nurse were forced to watch the game from the sidelines after being suspended. This thrust a new player on each team into a much larger role with each team’s biggest minute-munching defenseman out.

The obvious story was Ben Hutton and Philip Broberg coming into the lineup, and Hutton clearly had a bigger impact than his counterpart in this matchup. Hutton allowed just three shots on goal while on ice in his 12:24 TOI and drew a four minute high-sticking call that helped VGK close the game out in the 3rd. On the flip side, Broberg saw just 6:01 of ice time and still managed to allow more than a third of an expected goal (0.34 xGA).

Where the matchup was really won was in the players that actually took over the bulk of the minutes with Pietrangelo and Nurse out. Zach Whitecloud saw his TOI increase over four minutes and he acquitted himself quite well in them. He was on the ice for the game-winning goal at even-strength. That goal was scored, of course, by Whitecloud’s partner, Nic Hague. Compare the performance of Whitecloud and Hague to Brett Kulak who was the beneficiary of the extra minutes for Edmonton and the results were night and day. Kulak posted a 24% expected goals rate in his 20 minutes of ice time, the worst he experienced in any game all series.

Adin Hill and Laurent Brossoit vs Stuart Skinner and Jack Campbell

Coming into the series goaltending was a big focus. With a pair of inexperienced guys in the goals to start the world wondered which side would get the better of one of the most important matchups in the series. Brossoit played well in his time in goal and then when he went out hurt, Hill stepped in and played just as well if not better. Vegas’ goaltending advantage became abundantly clear in Game 6 when both goalies allowed a goal early and Hill went on to stop the next 39 shots while Skinner found himself on the bench to start the 3rd

And, that wasn’t the first, or even second, time Skinner was pulled in this series. Skinner could not seem to put together back-to-back consistent games and he was forced out of the game in three of the Oilers’ four losses.

The series was not won or lost on the backs of any of the four goalies, but Vegas’ tenders definitely helped tip the scales.

Bruce Cassidy vs Jay Woodcraft

From lineup decisions to matchups to challenges to goalie pulls, Cassidy outclassed his opposing bench boss in this series by a wide margin.

Despite a few games going dramatically against him Cassidy stuck with his balanced lineup and continued to trust all four lines to get the job done against whatever the Oilers threw at them. The one significant move Cassidy did make was to move Nic Roy up the lineup and bring in Teddy Blueger while leaving round one hero Michael Amadio on the bench. The impact was limited in Game 5, but he stuck to his guns and it paid off in Game 6.

Woodcroft’s main coaching tactic in this series was the utilization of his two best players. Whether together or separate, Cassidy had a counter which helped his team succeed in other matchups.

Finally, as the series went on, Cassidy helped provide his team with answers on how to slow down McDavid and Draisaitl. After Leon scored six in the first two games, he posted just one point in the final four. McDavid’s offensive was consistent through the series, but at no point was he able to take over the game. The Golden Knights kept getting harder and harder to play against as the series went on and Cassidy’s minor tweaks were a big reason why.