Round 2, Game 1 | Bruce Cassidy Postgame: We Didn’t Elevate Our Game

Round 2, Game 1 | Bruce Cassidy Postgame: We Didn’t Elevate Our Game

right? Uh and and so we couldn’t get an opportunity to wear them down that way. And I think the second period that that’s where we’re typically good in our transition game, they’re good at it, too, obviously. But that’s I thought where they got the advantage and they got on the power play twice, right? And they iced it five times and they didn’t call it icing. So there’s an opportunity to pin them in as well. So some of those little things you could use to your advantage. Um you know, we didn’t do a good enough job with. And uh you know, the kill takes some energy against those guys. So you’re using your top guys. So it bleeds into your offensive ability after that, right? Because it’s a lot of work to kill against them. And um but we got through it. That’s that was the good thing. We got through it, but unfortunately didn’t do enough in the third to to get it to go our way. Brandon had mentioned that you guys kind of got stuck playing a little east west there in the second period. How imperative is it against a team like that to not get stuck in that type of game and be able to go up north? Well, listen, that’s when our game goes gets off the rails, it’s turnovers, and we play slow. We play that, slow it down east, west, and you know, listen, you could see the ice, the pucks were balanc, and the ice looks a little bit soft. I don’t know, for whatever reason. Same for both teams. So, sometimes you just got to chuck it up the ice, get in some foot races, win battles on the boards, and I thought we did a better job of that in the first period for sure. We slowed the game down, allowed them to forche us. I think their bottom their lineup for checks well. that’s what they want to do. Get it behind you and they uh if you allow them success doing that now again that’s when you get in your own end a lot right and they can’t get off for a change so you have no energy to play offense and uh well that’s that was the second period Paul then Jesse hi Bruce Paula Los Santos.com usually this season there’s been a lot of puck management you know whether it’s good or bad like how do you feel a puck manager was today and overall like your team’s ability to bounce back after having games when you had poor puck management well I don’t think it was terrible. I really don’t I I don’t think we executed well enough. That’s different than puck management. Um uh you know, offensively we didn’t get the looks needed to make one more pass or we need to win one more battle. And then when we did we some of our better looks, we didn’t have a ton of them. The second period were both I mean we had a couple two or three shot looks that are off net. We didn’t even make force to make a save. In the third the same thing happens. We do create a few turnovers, get it into the middle and we’re off net. So, first of all, we got to hit the net with our chances. Might, you know, might go in and it might be a rebound situ, you know, all it’s going to be positive. Let’s put it that way. Um, and we didn’t do very well with that. So, puck management, I thought it was okay for the most part. Um, you know, there was other areas of the game that, you know, we didn’t defend hard. We got beat one-on-one a number of times. Uh, and our rush coverage at times got their their late guys got good looks. Uh some of that is a product of their top end guys can back you off. Um and we saw that on the the time the second goal. They got a lucky bounce, but that’s how it started. They back you off with McDavid’s speed and uh we weren’t able to put out a fire there. Jesse. Hi Bruce. Jesse Granger at the Athletic. Um were you surprised by the way they played at all or is it pretty much as you expected in terms of game planning? They look like they did against LA the latter part of the series, especially when they got going. Like they they elevated their game today and I don’t think we did halfway through the game. I think it’s that simple. They’re just better than us. And you know, you could almost on the bench see that we needed to get some posit string some positive shifts together uh to start the third, right? Cuz we got out of the second, but they probably felt pretty good about they’re like, “Hey, we’re right there.” And then they get a lucky one to start. So now it’s now they’re really on. So, we needed to build our game from there better um and get all four lines getting rolling and and getting playing. But they did that better than us the second half of the game. Thanks, Bruce. Thank you.

Head Coach Bruce Cassidy speaks to the media following a 4-2 loss in Game 1 of the second-round series between the Vegas Golden Knights and Edmonton Oilers at T-Mobile Arena.

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