(Photo Credit: SinBin.vegas Photographer Brandon Andreasen)
**Brayden McNabb took line rushes with the team in warmups prior to Game 3. He is expected to play despite what was said this morning.**
With Brayden McNabb likely sidelined in an essentially must-win Game 3 for the Golden Knights, head coach Bruce Cassidy and his trusted defensive assistant John Stevens had a tough decision to make in how they roll out their defensive pairs.
The first choice that had to be made was between Kaedan Korczak and Ben Hutton. Korczak is a much more similar player to McNabb in regards to size and style, but he plays with the opposite-handed stick. Korczak played in 40 regular season games this year and posted a +15 rating while Hutton appeared in just 11 with a 0 rating. Unsurprisingly, the choice was Korczak.
So then, someone had to be moved to the other side of the formation. For much of this season the Golden Knights have used Alex Pietrangelo, Shea Theodore, and Zach Whitecloud as their right-side defense. Theodore is the only one of the three who plays with a left-handed stick.
We kept as much consistency as possible. Just move Theodore over to the left to play with Pietrangelo. He started the year there, we tried that switch. So it’s not new to him but it’s been a while. -Cassidy
Typically, NHL defensemen are played on the same side as the curve of their stick. Right-handed players play on the right side, left-handed players on the left. But with Theodore, there’s been a preference to playing on his off-side because of the benefits in the offensive zone. A left-handed player playing on the right in the O-zone can be much more active with the puck at the blue line. Vegas often use a low-to-high style that sends pucks back up to Theodore and he’s afforded more options with his body facing the play rather than the boards if he were right-handed. It does offer some limitations, though, that Cassidy and Stevens certainly kept in mind.
He’s going to play the same amount of minutes. He should have the same skill set on either side. Obviously when you are on your off side and you’re an offensive guy there’s a little more of a one-timer threat. There’s also the offensive ability to be able to move a little, especially with his lateral movement, so we may lose a little from that. He’s still a threat to pop in from the left side. You know Theodore is more of a get it to the net than pound one-timers type of guy. -Cassidy
Theodore and Pietrangelo paired up for the first six games of the season, in which VGK won all three at home and lost all three on the road. In those six games, the Golden Knights allowed one more goal than they scored with the pair on the ice, they were outshot by nine, and they posted an expected goals share of just 41%. In short, it didn’t really work, and Cassidy broke it apart fairly quickly. He used the pair just one more time the rest of the season, a 5-2 loss to Washington. Pietrangelo and Theodore were much better, but the team was not.
So it’s just how comfortable will (Theodore) be over there or not? But you’ve got to make adjustments with who is healthy in your lineup so if that’s where he has to play then that’s what we’ll try first as opposed to moving a right stick over to the other side. -Cassidy
In the first road game of the series, without last change, and a hungry Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl after a lackluster Game 3 on the other side, loading up with Pietrangelo and Theodore together is a massive roll of the dice. Cassidy and Stevens are hoping the move doesn’t crap out.
