What Bruce Cassidy And John Hynes See As Their Opponent’s Biggest Strength In First Round Series

On a nightly basis in the NHL, most teams and coaches are uber-focused on playing the best style for themselves and almost ignoring the opponent. In the playoffs, teams still want to be true to what they do best, but the concentration level of what makes the other team good is brought much more to the forefront.

With puck drop a little more than a day away, the Golden Knights and the Wild have been preparing for each other. The coaches recently shared where they feel their opponent in this series thrives.

First, the Wild’s concerns about the Golden Knights.

They’re a pretty strong defensive structured team and they have one of the bigger D corps in the league. When you look at their defensive numbers they’re a team that is responsible with the puck. -John Hynes, MIN head coach

Not only are the Golden Knights ranked in the top five in goals against, but they are well regarded as one of the most difficult teams to generate offense against. Vegas’ zone defense keeps teams away from the “house,” the easiest place in the rink to score goals.

To be able to get to the inside is where you have to score this time of year. We’ve got to skate and we’ve got to play fast in the O-Zone. It starts with a shot mentality and strong puck retrievals. You have to play direct, you have to deliver pucks to the net, you’ve got to have shots, shot attempts, rebounds, check it off of sprays. Now they have to get out of some structure, and then you have to attack quick. -Hynes

The Wild are one of the lower shot volume teams in the NHL, especially among playoff teams. However, they’ve upped their numbers recently as they’ve been fighting for their playoff lives the last few weeks. Hynes believes the way to get to the front of the goal against Vegas is by shooting the puck there rather than passing it. This is not a tactic they succeeded at in the regular season against VGK. In three games, the Wild generated just 20.7 shots on goal per game and 45.3 shot attempts. Hynes believes these numbers must be significantly higher if they are going to score goals in this series.

Finally, Hynes sees the key to his team slowing the Golden Knights down as limiting forecheck and offensive zone time.

From an offensive perspective, they have high-end talent. They can hit you in multiple ways. They can do some things off the rush but I think their forecheck and offensive zone presence is something that’s effective as well. They’re just a good strong well-balanced team. When you look at their lineup they play a good strong game. Collectively as a team they play the game that most nights is required to win. -Hynes

This will likely mean a stacked-up neutral zone defense from the Wild that will force the Golden Knights to throw pucks in deep and fight to retrieve them. This is unlikely to be a high-scoring series, so discipline and patience in puck management at the offensive blue line will be key against a Wild team attempting to play low-event, boring hockey.

Bruce Cassidy’s first thought about the Wild’s primary asset is similar.

Team defense. I think they are good at keeping the puck out of their net. That’s usually a product of not allowing the rush game to get going. They are very good at suppressing rush chances and not giving you odd-man rushes and easy opportunities. You’re going to have to get inside, you’re going to have to work to create your offense through O-Zone play. Get on the power play, that’s an advantage (for us). They’ve given up some goals on the PK. -Bruce Cassidy

Cassidy will likely preach to his team the need to work for offensive zone time rather than trying to force it. He often uses the phrase “take the ice that is there,” meaning when teams have good gaps at the blue line, the open ice is behind them and the puck must be dumped in, while it’s only when the opponent sags into the zone that controlled entries are available.

Forecheck will be important. O-Zone puck recoveries will be important. When we do get time and space in their zone we need to make sure our spacing is good. And if it opens up then convert on the rush. -Cassidy

There seems to be a confidence from Cassidy, and a concern from Hynes, that if Vegas can indeed establish the cycle game, good things will happen. The Wild are likely going to wait for the Golden Knights to make mistakes in order to bring the puck the other way rather than trying to force the issue as we’ve seen from a team like Dallas.

Offensively, Cassidy’s eyes are set to the same area of the ice as they always are, directly in front of Adin Hill.

They’ve got a good low-to-high game. Their D are mobile and get their shots through so they are good at rebounds and deflections in the O-Zone. Because they’re not a high-risk team, they tend not to have a rush game themselves. That’s the part of their game that tends to be a little more “half-court”-ish. -Cassidy

In other words, for the Wild to get odd-man rushes or much of anything in transition, it’ll have to come from Vegas mistakes. Take care of the puck, and Minnesota won’t threaten aside from somewhat of a spray-and-pray technique.

All in all, both coaches are expecting low-scoring, low-event hockey where the puck stays away from the center of the ice for the majority of the game. The team that sticks to it longest is likely to come out on top. Typically, that’s been the Golden Knights, and there’s no reason to expect anything different this time around.