Titilleur,
I agree that the Golden Knights are very disciplined on defense and are forcing individual play. They have also made Fleury look good by not exposing him to rebounds. I noticed that when Winnipeg applied pressure last night Vegas was very organized in front of the net and pucks shot on goal were quickly cleared away. Fleury is of course doing his part and playing very well. Vegas is very, very good on defense. That’s why they are one win away from the Stanley Cup finals. I also observe that they are opportunistic. How many of their goals have been on takeaways? It seems like most of them....
Exactement... Takeaways happen when you force the other team to play individually. You need to isolate the puck carrier. When you can't find teammates to make the pass, you often try to overplay. That makes you vulnerable and prone to lose the puck.
About Fleury... I've never been a fan of him... You expose his weakness when you shoot the puck behind his net or when you make him get out of the crease. He's a "stay at home" goalie...He is not very good at handling the puck at his feet. So, his defense needs to be quick to clear the puck in front of him and quick to send the puck away from the back of his net.
If I was Maurice, I would try to play Byfuglien as a winger and make him forecheck heavily around the crease. If the Golden Knights react accordingly, they'll try to doubleteam him and that would open the passing lanes for Scheifele, Laine, Stastny and co.
You need to shoot the puck from close range on Fleury. It's hard to do and even harder when you are in panic mode. When you are desperate for a goal, you tend to shoot from everywhere and, more often than not, you don't get quality shots in that situation. At the end of the game, you got 50 shots and no goal and that makes the goalie look good in the eye of those who read only statistics.
