The Dallas Stars have stormed back to win two straight road games against the Vegas Golden Knights after HC Pete DeBoer made some interesting comments.
The Dallas Stars have stormed back to win two straight road games against the Vegas Golden Knights after HC Pete DeBoer made some interesting comments.
After the Golden Knights won Game 2 in Dallas, DeBoer commented on how the Golden Knights have everyone "figured out". Since he made those comments. The Stars have evened up the series.
The comment was shocking to everyone. Was the team's head coach giving in or was he playing mind games. At this point, it doesn't matter because the Stars have pulled themselves out of a deep hole.
So the question now is have the Stars figured out the Golden Knights? In Game 1 and 2 they generated a lot of chances and a lot of high-danger chances. In Games 3 and 4 the Stars played similarly offensively but they got the timely goals they needed.
The Stars were throwing more pucks at the net and it paid off. The Stars scored two of their goals from the goal line in Game 4 and their other off of a rebound in tight. The Stars have upped the pressure on the forecheck and it's forced turnovers.
HC Bruce Cassidy has seen the mistakes and wants the team to clean up those mistakes.
"On the last goal, we missmanaged the puck. We did that a lot the other night, that's got to clean itself up or we're going to have to rely on guys to really put out fires continually and that's no way to win".
The Stars have flipped the script on the Golden Knights. In Game 1 and 2 the Golden Knights were the aggressors. They were hard on the Stars defence but in Games 3 and 4, the Stars have benefited from the forecheck. The Stars are getting sticks on pucks and making life difficult for the Golden Knights.
"We want to be aggressive on the forecheck we're a big team, we're going to finish checks," said Cassidy. I think there's areas of the ice that you have to finish Dallas because they have a lot of skill".
The Golden Knights put a lot of emphasis on slowing down the Stars rush game. The stats backed that up as well. In Games 1-3 the Stars held a huge share of the high-danger chances and expected goals but in Game 4 it was a lot closer.
Through four games I don't believe either team has figured each other out. Both have rosters built of star players who eventually find ways to produce and capitalize on mistakes. The winner of each game has been the team that has made fewer mistakes. The series has become a best-of-three and it will be interesting to see how it shapes up from here.
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