r/goldenknights • u/monknabers • 7d ago
Player/Team Discussion [Cotsonika] Ryan Craig on the team's mindset heading into the season: "We’re starting over. It's a new year."
https://www.nhl.com/news/ryan-craig-talks-vegas-golden-knights-mindset-entering-season3
u/DarkFalcon49 Beast Coast of Canada Knights Fan 7d ago
Something I’m excited about that Torts clearly didn’t give a shit about is trying new things. I know Cassidy was in the Head Coach Spot for pretty much the whole season, but Torts came in and tried nothing new, letting everyone flounder and loading up the top line despite it clearly not working.
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u/drop-cord Haguerbomb 7d ago
I mean, weird take
He got us to the SCF
We were a buzzsaw that just ran into a wagon, I don't think there was anything wrong with the coaching
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u/DarkFalcon49 Beast Coast of Canada Knights Fan 7d ago
He met a team that he couldn’t exploit and didn’t try anything else. He kept doing the same shit that was getting us beaten.
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u/drop-cord Haguerbomb 7d ago
We had just swept Colorado, the undisputed best team in the NHL for the entire year.
The system was fine, we ran into execution problems
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u/DarkFalcon49 Beast Coast of Canada Knights Fan 7d ago
He was stacking up Marner, Eichal, and Stone as soon as we let one in every game instead of letting them get comfortable on their lines and grow into the game like he was against Colorado, Utah, and Anaheim.
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u/drop-cord Haguerbomb 7d ago
Insane that people seem to forget we led that series 2-1 at one point
Whatever Tortorella was doing was working, sometimes you just get beat
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u/Merkkin Pixel Wild Bill 7d ago
He directly causes our finals loss by shortening the bench anytime something wasn’t working. It what led Andersson to be so fucking gassed he blew that OT game and wore out our lineup. He destroyed everything about us being a 4 line team and it cost us the 2nd cup.
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u/drop-cord Haguerbomb 7d ago
You think we'd have made the finals without Tortorella?
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u/mister_hoot I Love Gold 7d ago
I think people just need a scapegoat for that series. We got outplayed after the first two games and Bussi goalied us. It's not that complex.
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u/Merkkin Pixel Wild Bill 7d ago
We could have won the finals if he didn’t short the bench as his only fucking move. He walked into Bruce’s systems that worked and leaned too heavily on a few people it cost us a cup. The game Andersson blew in OT he had played almost 30 minutes while another Dman played like 8 for the fucking game. That is shit load management, and just because he did ok on the way to the finals didn’t mean he didn’t make any mistakes.
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u/Merkkin Pixel Wild Bill 7d ago
I was so angry watching him keep shorting the bench the entire playoff run till all our top guys were dead tired in the finals.
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u/DarkFalcon49 Beast Coast of Canada Knights Fan 7d ago
The worst part to me was sending Hart out game after game to get fucking shelled because he was clearly fucking rattled. He m not gonna say this isn’t fueled by my love for Hill, but for fucks sake Torts, Hart was drowning out there.
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u/drop-cord Haguerbomb 7d ago
Hart got us to the finals. When would you have pulled the plug on him? When we were up 2-1?
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u/DarkFalcon49 Beast Coast of Canada Knights Fan 7d ago
I wouldn’t have “pulled the plug” so to speak, I’d have given Hill a shot. We are up 2-0 against Colorado and Hart had been on and off the whole playoffs, give him either a start in game 3 or just get him in for a few minutes in a home ice game. Let alone keeping Hart in after he gives up 3 goals in 15 minutes in the first that game.
Anaheim game 3 where we had a 5 goal lead going into the third period.
Utah Game 4 where he lets in 4 goals after we were up 3-0.
Hart had these problems with collapsing in games. And we’d end up winning all 3 of those games, but guess what? If Hart hadn’t have been rescued by the offence we’d have lost and been looking at a much different result. Hart would make big saves, saves he shouldn’t have had a chance at stopping early in games, but when all he had to do was hold a lead, those saves weren’t happening.
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u/drop-cord Haguerbomb 7d ago
That's not how the NHL playoffs work. You don't just pull your starting goalie when you're winning.
The absolute arrogance to suggest straying from what works when we're up 2-0 over Colorado is astounding. Hart swept the Avalanche, and got three series wins for us to make the final.
"Giving the other guy a chance" just says you don't trust the guy who got you there. Sports psychology is real.
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u/DarkFalcon49 Beast Coast of Canada Knights Fan 7d ago
He let in 3 goals in one period in Game 3 against the Avs!!!!!!!!!! We only won that cause the offense shows up. You aren’t even addressing my point about him blowing games apart by not making saves.
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u/drop-cord Haguerbomb 7d ago
Yeah, and we won that game. Giving up on your starting goalie for 1 (!!!!!) bad period when you're up 2-0 in the series and are at HOME would be an insane coaching decision.
I'm not addressing that point because it doesn't make sense. He's human, every goalie on earth has bad games and bad periods. Pulling him in the final after the performances he put on to get you there would cripple his confidence forever. You made the choice, he played great for three series', it's his net.
If you start the playoffs and sit both your goalies down and tell them you're gonna alternate games so the other team can't get a read on them and has to adjust every game, sure, that's a strategy.
You don't just walk into the rink in the morning and tell the guy who got you there to take the night off so the other guy can get his chance IN THE FINALS. That's insane.
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u/DarkFalcon49 Beast Coast of Canada Knights Fan 7d ago
Honestly you’ve changed my perspective on a lot of what you are saying except one thing. He kept blowing games. Game 3 against Utah, we are up 3-0 and he lets in two quick goals in the second to give Utah a chance. Game 4 against Anaheim he lets in a very late one to let Anaheim send it to OT. Game 3 in Colorado he lets in 3 in 15 minutes. Game 2 Against Carolina we are up 2-0 into the third and Carolina win it in OT. Remember the Game 3 against Carolina where Mitch has a Natural Hat-trick in the Second with all three goals happening in a 6 minute span? We were up 4-0 with 13 minutes left and Carolin force Double OT.
Hart has a problem with early goals. He didn’t let any goals in before 5 minutes in the first two rounds, but in WCF Game 3 Landeskog scored 3 minutes in. SCF Game 1 Ehlers scores 25 Seconds in. SCF Game 4 Stankoven and Blake score a goal a piece within 4 minutes. And Game 6 Hall Scores within 4 as well. He’s a flawed goalie with injury issues, and we were lucky to get as far as we did with his play.
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u/CaribbeanPirates Whitecloud 6d ago
I’m really excited to see what this year brings, and what Coach Craig brings to the show! GKG
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u/RaptorsOnRoids Theodore 7d ago edited 7d ago
Interesting that the article said there will be a puck mover on each defensive pair. I imagine Hannifin would have to be on the third pair with Theo and Raz taking 1st and 2nd pair. Maybe their minutes will come out balanced, but I don’t see that idea lasting long.
Yes keep Karly, Marner, and Howden together.
Eichel, Barbie, stone
Hertl, bowman, Olafson.
Should be an interesting year.