Daily Faceoff Show: Golden Knights searching for chemistry amid injuries

Jesse Granger of the Athletic joined Frank Seravalli and Mike McKenna on today’s “Daily Faceoff Show” to discuss the chemistry of the Golden Knights and their goaltending predicament.

Frank Seravalli: “Jesse, what are you seeing from the Vegas Golden Knights? They are 2-4-1 in their last seven games and dipped a bit in the Pacific Division standings.”

Jesse Granger: “This is probably their worst stretch of the season, other than that early stretch, where everyone was injured. I think, to me, what I’ve been seeing is a team that is very talented even without Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty in the lineup, they have a ton of talent. Obviously, Jack Eichel is out there, the misfit line with Karlsson, Marchessault, and Smith, but they are just not as cohesive and they are playing against some teams like Calgary or Colorado. Those two teams are just as talented as you, but they’ve been running the same lines all season long. They’ve been building chemistry. The team cohesion is so much better than it is in Vegas. So I think you see a team that is playing catch up and trying to build that chemistry.

They are trying to get to know where each other are on the ice at all times, where they aren’t thinking about the system and they can just with their minds free and you are kind of seeing that. Even L.A., maybe not as talented as Vegas, but they are playing really cohesive hockey right now, and the Vegas Knights are behind the 8-ball in that aspect because of injury, because of trades. I think it’s partially their own doing, when you make a bunch of trades like this and you bring in an injured player like Jack Eichel, you are asking for that. But I also think they’ve had some bad luck with injuries that put them in this position. The good news for them is that they have a little under 30 games to get it going but they find themselves in a playoff race that is a lot closer than they expected they’d be in.” 

Mike McKenna: “Let’s stick with Jack Eichel, the big acquisition, coming back from injury. You talk about chemistry and trying to find your place within a team, that seems to be the case for him right now. He hasn’t had a consistent line mate so far. He had Pacioretty for awhile, he’s had Dadonov, he’s had Stephenson. Different units on the power play as well. So, how does he fit in the roster of the Vegas Golden Knights and presuming Pacioretty and Stone are back in the future, how do you see that evolving as the season plays out?

Jesse Granger: “You nailed it in terms of he’s been having to deal with different line mates each time and not only that, he’s got Chandler Stephenson, who hadn’t played wing in Vegas at all in two years here, and he’s on the wing for the first time, so that’s an adjustment and Evgenii Dadonov. I actually asked Pete Deboer how he thought those 3 have been playing and Pete basically said, ‘they make good plays individually, all 3 are very good at creating space for themselves, buying time, opening up room for the other 2, they just don’t seem to be a cohesive unit. Which is kind of what I was saying with this team in general. We’ve seen a lot out of Eichel, he’s so good at hanging onto the puck, and not just that but his confidence in hanging onto the puck allows him to not make that panic pass, he holds onto it for an extra second, he delays, he finds that guy in the neutral zone. Stephenson has been that guy most of the time. Obviously he’s a really fast skater and Eichel has been able to find him with speed through the neutral zone and he has already created a couple goals.

“If Eichel ends up playing with Stone and Pacioretty, that’s a totally different makeup. Obviously Stone and Pacioretty are much better players than Stephenson and Dadonov, but they are not the skaters that they are. You got two really strong guys in Stone and Pacioretty and you got Jack Eichel who skates like the wind between them so I think that line has the potential to be really good, but the thing is if Pacioretty and Stone are ready, you probably are not going to be able to fit them into this lineup, unless they make a move to clear the salary cap. What worries me is that if Mark Stone and Jack Eichel are wearing a Golden Knights jersey for the first time ever in a playoff game, I just, man, they are so talented, and if there’s anyone that can come up with chemistry instantly and just find it, it’s probably those two, but its asking a lot, especially against a team, like I said, a lot further ahead of you in terms of that.”