Golden Knights look for blue line to get involved without sacrificing defense

By Justin Emerson

Saturday, Nov. 16, 2019 | 11:37 a.m.

The game was probably over on Wednesday before Chicago forward Dylan Strome scored to put the Golden Knights at a three-goal deficit.

Strome had no one to beat but Vegas goalie Marc-Andre Fleury. Shea Theodore was the only defenseman back and he had to cut off passer Alex DeBrincat, which left no one to account for the shooter. So where was everyone else?

It was one of six instances where Chicago got behind the Vegas defenseman and forced at least a partial breakaway or odd-man rush. It was a problem for the Golden Knights on Wednesday, and something that they will need to shore up ahead of a crucial week as they claw back in the standings.

After this afternoon’s contest in Los Angeles against the Kings, the Golden Knights will play four-straight at home, and four of the five games through next Saturday are against divisional opponents. Currently seven points out of the Pacific lead and closer to the bottom of the division than the top, Vegas is facing a critical part of its schedule.

But it won’t matter who the Golden Knights face if they make their goalie see so many open looks.

“It’s too much, not good enough to leave our goaltender out to dry like that,” defenseman Jon Merrill said. “It’s going to happen every once in awhile. You’re going to give up a 2-on-1 or a breakaway, but it can’t be four, five in the same game.”

Let’s start with the Strome goal. When Chicago corrals the puck, there are three Golden Knights — forwards William Karlsson and Jonathan Marchessault and defenseman Nate Schmidt — below the goal line. Reilly Smith floated back to cover the point on the left side, while Theodore is manning the right.

Because of how defensively sound many of the Golden Knights’ forwards are, defensemen aren’t afraid to jump into the play, knowing they’ll have someone — in this case Smith — covering their spot at the blue line.

“You’ve got to make sure that everyone’s working together so that if we’re coming in, someone’s coming out,” defenseman Nick Holden said. “When you don’t have to think and check your shoulder to see if guys are there, you can play a little faster and keep plays alive.”

So that’s why Schmidt is so low. Most of the time, he can afford to take that chance because how fast and defensively minded Smith and Karlsson in particular are.

But this time, Chicago starts its breakout and it looks like Strome (No. 17), DeBrincat (No. 12) and Patrick Kane (No. 88) will have a 3-on-2 against Smith and Theodore. Not great odds for Vegas but manageable. Instead Smith pinches in to try to head off Kane, who sees all the ice about to open up. He feeds Strome to set up the 2-on-1 with DeBrincat against Smith.

Karlsson back-checks, but the two Blackhawks have too much of a head start. Theodore cuts off DeBrincat at the Vegas blue line, but the numbers catch up to the Golden Knights as no one is left to cover Strome, who beats Fleury on the forehand.

It’s the anatomy of how odd-man rushes happen. Smith was too far away from Kane to cut off the puck, but Smith was only in that position because he had covered Schmidt’s spot when he went down low. The idea was to get offense from the defenseman Schmidt, who has averaged about half a point per game for the Golden Knights, but obviously it didn’t work this time.

“It’s nice when it happens, but I’d rather have real good defense than giving up what we gave up (Wednesday),” coach Gerard Gallant said. “You don’t want to force things that are going to sacrifice your defense.”

Not all odd-man rushes are created equal though. With 10:47 remaining in the second period the Golden Knights had the puck deep. Alex Tuch is low in the zone and sends a cross-ice pass to a pinching Schmidt looking for a back-door tap-in. The puck gets by Schmidt, bounces off the boards and Kane, DeBrincat and Strome have a 3-on-1 against Brayden McNabb. Kane’s shot went into Fleury’s chest and no harm was done.

No one was at fault. Defensemen need to help create offense too, particularly one as skilled as Schmidt. The pass missed, the puck took a fortuitous bounce for Chicago and it went the other way. It happens.

We’ll look at one more. Five minutes into the game, Merrill swats the puck away from Brandon Saad (N0. 20), then joins Cody Eakin to chase the puck. Saad meanwhile slips behind Merrill seeing that Jonathan Toews is going to win the race to the puck. Alex Nylander (No. 92) sees the same, and joins Saad in turning up ice before Chicago even has it. Merrill goes after the puck, leaving Nick Holden to cover both Saad and Nylander once Toews retrieves the puck.

Mark Stone is two strides behind Nylander can’t catch him, leaving Nylander with a golden chance once Saad flips him the puck. His deflection is swallowed up by Fleury.

“We can do a better job of trying to contribute and score a few goals,” Merrill said of the defensemen. “I think at times we’ve just been stuck trying to do a little bit too much and caught going the other way a little bit.”

The Golden Knights received good production from its defensemen in their first two seasons, but not through 20 games this year. Theodore leads defensemen with seven points. Holden and Schmidt lead with two goals apiece.

Vegas will need more production out of its blue line going forward. But it’s a fine line between jumping in to extend the play and allowing the opposition open ice the other way. The Golden Knights were on the wrong side of that line against Chicago on Wednesday, so keep an eye on their defensemen during an important week for the team.

Justin Emerson can be reached at 702-259-8814 or [email protected]. Follow Justin on Twitter at twitter.com/@j15emerson.