Series Stories: Vegas vs. Dallas

A quick one

Since I’m doing every playoff series, I figured it would be better to post the recaps here instead of having them lost to the void of Twitter. That and there’s always more I want to say beyond the 280 character limit.

The Story Behind The Stats

Vegas was probably the easiest team to “fix” this year. Having everyone stay healthy enough to get in the playoffs was part of it. Another thing was they had a very one-dimensional offense last year and I assume that’s what they were hoping to correct by making the switch from Pete DeBoer to Bruce Cassidy. They scored the highest proportion of their 5v5 goals off the rush last season and were one of the most extreme teams at going low-to-high for their shots in the offensive zone. Those are typically low-percentage shots where you’re at the mercy of rebounds & deflections for your goals. Dialing that down just a little bit & getting just 10-15 more goals off the forecheck was all they needed & they seemed to have figured that out. Although that’s still a big part of their game, as the stats show here (31 point shots vs. 17 for Dallas).

The difference this year is that it’s not their only offense and they aren’t SOL if the neutral zone is shutdown. If anything, Dallas was the team that couldn’t do anything if they couldn’t carry the puck. DeBoer’s brought a lot of what worked in Vegas to Dallas, mostly their lethal counter-attack game off neutral zone reloads, but some of the limitations went with it. Although Vegas has made it tough for most teams to get to the net against them. Their “keep-away” style of playing with the puck in the defensive zone is frustrating to play against, because they’re never not in control of the play even though they’re hemmed in.

Dallas could take advantage of this in Games 2, 4 & 5. Vegas is a team that kind of has an on-off switch depending on the score. They sit back when they have a lead & give teams the offensive zone without much resistance. In Game 6, they kept the switch after getting the lead, outchancing Dallas 21-3 at five-on-five to cruise to a win. Some teams have another level & Vegas’ looks particuarly lethal.

Individual Stats

• It’s surprising that Eichel didn’t have a goal all series because he was the best player among both teams. He had a similar impact against the Oilers where he was driving his line’s success while scoring on the power play. This series, he did everything. He was the catalyst for Vegas’ rush offense, leading the team in zone entry workload and having twice as many carry-ins as the next closest player (35 to 15). Those entries weren’t going to waste, as Vegas created a scoring chance on 12 of his entries. He might not have always got points out of those plays, but his impact is felt.
  

  
  Eichel had a few of these plays, where it was almost like a player winning a faceoff & getting off the ice, except his job was to gain the zone, wait for the puck to stay deep & Vegas would try to get a sneak attack with the fresh player coming onto the ice. This is how you become less of an all-or-nothing play off the rush and Eichel being able to hold onto the puck for days without taking a hit is a big part of that. He also led the team with 22 controlled zone exits, so he really was a “do-it-all” guy for Vegas. The game is always more than just points & Eichel proved that.

• When the Dallas top line was good, they challenged Eichel for best player in the series. Jason Robertson’s Game 4 was one of the top performances of the playoffs and Joe Pavelski was one of the few Stars who was consistently creating chances even in their first two losses. He actually took over some of Hintz’ workload in the neutral zone, leading the team in carry-ins and making a lot of smart, touch passes to help Dallas’ rush offense. They were great, but not enough to overcome the two stinkbombs the team dropped in Games 3 & 6.

• I’m not sure if I’ve seen a defenseman under more duress than Miro Heiskanen was this series. Vegas entered the zone against him 71 times at five-on-five and while he did a decent job of mitigating scoring chances from a percentage standpoint, they still created 9 against him. It’s just a lot for one player to take on and Heiskanen to defer to his partner more often than usual, exiting the zone only 12 times on 56 DZ retrievals, which is what happens when the forecheckers know you’re the only one who can do anything with the puck. Dallas tried to mitigate this by playing him with Thomas Harley (who had a great series) more, but it wasn’t enough.

• I never have much to say about Vegas’ defensemen because they play such a simple game. I do want to give a shoutout to Nicolas Hague & Zach Whitecloud for how good they are at the basics. Hague had the fewest number of turnovers off retrievals & was Vegas’ best player at leading zone exits off retrievals. Whitecloud had yet another solid series defending entries, allowing only three on 47 attempts.

• I’m really glad to see how much Nicolas Roy has blossomed into an NHLer with Vegas. He was always such a good, versatile player with the Checkers and he’s doing the same with Vegas, playing the wing with William Karlsson and centering their fourth line. He wasn’t the player I expected to rank third in Game Score with how many goals Karlsson scored, but the little things Roy did add up. Setting up Karlsson a few times & being one of the team’s best forecheckers.

• Max Domi had a very good series. Whichever line he was on was Dallas’ secondary rush offense and it was a problem for Vegas as the series dragged on. Seguin also had a good series here too, but Domi was an automatic zone entry whenever he got the puck & it gave the Stars a jolt when their top line was on the bench. His best games in Carolina were when they tried him at center & he was following that script here, making a dangerous line with Joel Kiviranta & Ty Dellandrea in Game 5.

• Something that has stuck out to me with Vegas is they always have one line that doesn’t create much offense, but scores on most of their shots. Against Edmonton it was Stephenson, Stone & Howden. That carried over into this series & eventually shifted to Karlsson’s line. Every team that goes on a Cup run has a line that does this, but it also goes back to how this team kind of has an extra gear. They could have a bad 50 minutes, but dominate you for 10 & sometimes that’s all they need. Dallas, Edmonton and Winnipeg were all able to get to them for portions of the before eventually getting stomped out. Will be interesting to see how much Florida can frustrate them with Bobrovsky on top of his game.