General Manager George McPhee Discusses Advancing To Round Two

Following a 4-0 sweep of the Los Angeles Kings in the first round of the Stanley Cup playoffs, players and coaches with the Vegas Golden Knights took Wednesday off.
The team made GM George McPhee available and here is the transcript from his availability.
Thoughts on the series…
I thought it was a very good series. Two teams that played with some real good structure. Very good defensively, and you have to be good defensively if you want to advance and get to the playoffs. I thought the games were really entertaining. They were low scoring, but very entertaining. There wasn't much of a difference between the clubs. Excellent goaltending.
Thoughts on the choice to choose Marc-Andre Fleury in the expansion draft…
We're happy with a lot of our decisions. As you know, we really worked hard at it. We wanted to be as good as we could be. We would see where that would take us. To get a player like that, that can play the way he plays and to provide the leadership that he brings was something that we had to have. As the great Jean Beliveau had said, leadership is number one and everything else is number two. He brings leadership.
Thoughts on the validation of making it to the playoffs…
I don't know. We're just trying to be as good as we can be. I don't know what kind of validation we need. We're just trying to be a good hockey club. We didn't know what to expect with the season or with the playoffs. Nobody knew we were going to win this series and it would be a four-game sweep, either way or go seven games. That's the beauty of the playoffs. You don't know. No one knows what exactly is going to happen. We think we're a pretty good club, but we'll keep trying to do what we're doing and see where it takes us. We haven't really looked at the season in its totality before it started, or the playoffs totality. It's 'what do we have to do to win the first period or the first game of the season' and go from there. That's what we're going in the playoffs. Whatever we have to do to win the first period or the first game in the first round and go from there. Here we are.

Thoughts on what Gerard Gallant and his coaching staff have done with this team…
Our coaching staff is very good, obviously. We know all about Turk, but his staff is outstanding as well. To sit in on some of the video sessions was impressive. To watch them talk about what we needed to do and do it quickly and clearly for the players was excellent. Turk is deploying players the same way he did in the regular season; everybody plays. It really shows a belief in players and how much ice time they all get. The matchups. He'll play our third pair defense or our third or fourth line against the other team's top line. It doesn't matter. This is who we are and what we are. This is how we play. I think by Turk really showing that kind of belief in his guys - and he's done it all year long; it hasn't been for a week, it hasn't been for a month. It's been all year long. It's been done in the playoffs. Look at some of the matchups and you say "wow, that's their top line and that's our third or fourth. Are we going to be okay?" We are. I think the players find that there's a lot of trust in that and a lot of confidence in that. It builds.
Thoughts on what from this last series resonates as the team advances…
I have no idea what to expect in the next series that we're going to play. We played some very sound hockey and when we didn't, when we're having a bad period or a bad stretch, goaltending was there to help us stabilize. That's why he's here and that's what he gets paid to do. He's doing it very well. What lies ahead, we don't know. We'll all know in a couple of weeks.
Thoughts on Tomas Tatar…
I don't think that he's doing anything wrong. I think we have a lot of good players and not everyone is going to get a chance to play or not everyone can be in there every night. They're all going to get a chance to play, we're going to need everybody. We needed bodies at the deadline. We did not want to be one of those clubs that unravels at the last three or four weeks of the season. Some clubs did that. We were banged up far more than anyone would know and we were really thin down the stretch. We needed to add some bodies. I'm happy we added him. He's a good player. He's a great teammate. He'll get back in. We won with the lineup in game three and we won in game four. We'll see what that looks like next time around. We're going to need a lot of good players somewhere along the way.
Thoughts on the time off and if that will help going into the next series…
Personally, I think it will be good for us. We're finally getting healthy for the first time in what feels like six months. We're getting there. This is not like the bye week where they have five days off and they're not skating or they're not training. We're not going to Mexico. We're going to be practicing, training and working on our structures and systems.
Thoughts on if there was anything from the video sessions that helped to expose some flaws in the Kings game…
No it was more about how we do things. How we do our PK and our positioning on different things. It's mostly always about our team. We'll show the other clubs, some of their tendencies, but it's mostly about us. I just like the way that the coaches did it and the way that Turk delegates.
Thoughts on what he's learned about teambuilding and what a team needs to succeed…
I don't know where to begin. I've learned a heck of a lot. You take all of your experiences and try to trust your instincts in the decisions that you make. I think it really comes down to building your scouting staff and your front office the right way. Establishing the right culture before you ever start putting players on the ice. I think you win off the ice before you win on the ice. There's a real emphasis on that. I've said this a million times, finding the best human that we could find for every position in this organization when we started. But it had to go beyond that to being the right kind of people. Hard work and no ego; all of the same things that we've said before, but it matters. We took it seriously. We looked at it.
Thoughts on the beauty of the hockey that was played in this series despite few games being scored…
I don't think you need a lot of offense for the game to be a beautiful game to watch. I thought the intensity of this series was amazing. The physicality, the commitment from the players. Both teams played their guts out. Those were really hard fought games, and tough games to be in. You have to have some guts to be out there, to want the puck in crucial situations to make the right plays. To make the saves, to block shots, to do what it takes. There is so much that goes into the game, and it's such a fast paced game. I don't think you can find a better in arena experience than an NHL playoff game. You know we sort of live in silos around here because we're always in these places or at the bottom of the rink. We don't get to talk to fans and see what's going on, everything around us. But if I was explaining it to fans I would say there is lots to watch and try to understand and appreciate. The athleticism, the guts, and the commitment, the speed.
Thoughts on negotiations with free agents during the playoffs…
No, there are no negotiations. That stops at the trade deadline.
Thoughts on the salaries and current hierarchy of the players…
It's not a bad way to have it if you can get it that way and keep it that way. But it's hard to do in this business. I liked what New Jersey did years ago when they were winning their Cups, everybody played. Everybody contributed.
Thoughts on James Neal's presence and intensity on the ice…
First of all with Jonathan Marchessault, we tried to uncover every rock to find guys that play with that intensity. You don't ever want to dial that back. You want guys that bring that, and they'll learn as they go. It was an undisciplined thing that he did, he knew that. But that is going to happen in the face of adversity. But we have good leadership around these guys, whether that's James Neal, Deryk Engelland, Pierre-Edouard Bellemare, or Marc-Andre Fleury. They are saying the right things to the guys that are going through this for the first time or second time, and it's worked out all year and it worked out in this last series. But you can't just have a bunch of kids, you have to have some veteran players and leadership.
Thoughts on so many guys scoring or assistant in their first playoff experience…
What I like about it is we got big goals from everybody. It's a big goal for Cody Eakin and he had a terrific series. It just got better game by game. To see Brayden McNabb score a goal it just sort of reflects what we've done all year, the goals from different people. I like the way this team is constructed and the kind of personalities that we have. It feels like a team.
Thoughts on looking to next season to outperform the success from this one…
No, we're not looking to next season, and when we get to next season we won't be looking back to this one. It sounds boring but it's the same sort of thing. We're all going to get ready for the first game of the next series and see where it takes us. I've had very little time to reflect on this year, I know in a lot of ways it's been amazing, and the fans response to this market, I don't know how many times we can say awesome, but it has been awesome. But our job here is to get this team ready to play this next series and see where it goes.
Thoughts on Jonathan Marchessault's dollar value matching that of Reilly Smith…
I'm not sure. I just thought of equal value they bring, in different sorts of things, so it equals out. We just thought it was the right number and it worked out. I'm sure not interested in talking about contracts today.
Thoughts on Luca Sbisa's pending return and the current state of the Golden Knights defense…
Well he's getting closer, but this defense as is playing very very well. I wouldn't expect any lineup changes.
Thoughts on Shea Theodore and Alex Tuch's evolution throughout the season…
Well that's the sort of thing that happens when the coach plays young guys. They'll turn into pretty good players and he was really patient with them. They came in here and we weren't sure what to expect, whether they would be ready or not. Both had excellent training camps, and we told both of them we are going to get you back here as soon as you earn the right to be here. And we made the room for them which is what you're supposed to do. Then we brought them back, and they've both really evolved and they're playing really, really good right now. I give Turk a lot of credit for continuing to throw them out there, because there are games where they weren't so good. But he kept playing them, as he's done with everyone, and they turned out to be really good players as a result.
Thoughts on whether decisions were made with the intentions of winning this year or for more long term success…
Well we were trying to be as good as we could be, and you go day by day with that. You try to figure out what's best for right now is what's best for down the road. It worked out, the whole numbers thing worked out.
Thoughts on how frequently he talks with media during a playoff series…
Yeah I didn't talk very much at the other place I was in. I don't know what I can say during a series that you guys would find worthwhile and entertaining, because there's not a whole lot you can say until a series is over and you can evaluate and dissect it, see what has happened. Why you might have prevailed or might have lots. So I always let the coach do the talking during the series, I'll talk after the series. He's probably far more entertaining than I am.
Thoughts on describing this team as magic…
Again, maybe I didn't say it as well as I could have the first time around. That's for you guys to describe this team as, because you are far more creative, and you're good writers. As for us, I don't have that ability. And you see it more than we do, honestly. We're on busses and we're in the bottom of the rink, or way up in the press box. We don't go outside, we don't go to watch parties. So you have a far better idea of what's going on. It's been a special year, we all know that. But we come in here every day and come to work, and figure out what we have to do to get ready for practice or the next game. It's kind of a clustered life that way, it feels like a blue collar, we just work everyday and see where it takes us. You guys can write the scripts and what you think has happened or going to happen.