Sunday: News And Notes
Marc-Andre Fleury is expected to start in net for Sunday's matchup against the Capitals
© David Becker
Here are some notes and quotes from today's pre-game:
Capitals coach Barry Trotz on the Golden Knights:
Vegas blue line: "They play with speed. They figured out that they can use their speed and their skill as a group of five, and I think they defend well, keep everything to the perimeter. Very similar to the same things that Gerard did in Florida. They keep you to the outside, they're real hard around the net and they just give you layers of resistance all the time."
Not a real expansion team: "They're not a real expansion team by the quality of players that they got. You look back at the history, even this franchise won eight games. I was in Nashville, I met most of my players in the press box (the season before) not seeing them play a lot on the ice. We didn't get a 30- and a 40-goal scorer. We didn't have that. We didn't have a No. 1 goaltender. We had Mike Dunham who played eight games a year. That's what I meant by that: just the quality of players that the new expansion rules allowed Vegas to be very successful, which I think is a brilliant move by the league. You want the nontraditional markets to become very solidified and Vegas has. You look at Nashville _ has over time. ... (1 20-goal scorer in 82 games-Cliff Ronning through trade) Our best players were the guys that we got thrown into deals for not taking a goaltender, for instance. (Kimmo Timonen, Tomas Vokoun)."
His expansion stories: "It's so much different, other than that it's a great experience. One of the things that I said to (Nate Schmidt) when we were in Vegas the first time is I said to him, 'You're absolutely going to love the expansion process, especially in Vegas in a nontraditional market.' I saw him after the game. And I phoned him when he got picked up by Vegas and said, 'Really enjoy the experience because you only get to do that once.' The first group will always have a special bond just like we did in Nashville. The guys that were on that first team still sort of keep in touch with each other. They still all sort of have those good stories where in Nashville nothing was really expected of us. There's no pressure. The other team always had the closed-door meetings after they lost to the Nashville Predators the first year. We led the league in that. Because we weren't supposed to be very good and we ended up winning I think 28 or 29 games.
Vegas Style: The game was different back then. Before we got Tom Fitzgerald we had 75 career NHL goals in our lineup. It was a much different process than it was now. And Vegas has done a fantastic job. They're exciting. The one thing I like about what they've done is they've made it exciting for the league. They've adjusted to the times, they've done all that. I turn on the tube and want to watch Vegas. That's a statement to what they've done. It's a statement to how the league's gone about the process."
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare on his team's recent play:
"The last three games we did not deserve, I think, as many points as we took. ... We've been playing bad and winning games. I think after Minnesota game, that was a nice little slap. We realize that we were not honest with each other and we just have to start working harder."
Golden Knights GM George McPhee:
On returning to Washington: "It's different coming in being an opponent. Two teams on the ice that you've built and are hand in hand in building. It's different and uncomfortable in some ways sort of pulling for one group and not the other when you've pulled for that other group forever. On the personal side, from a family standpoint, it's great to be back. Close to 20 years of friends and family and some nice memories that way."
On the trade deadline: "We're always mindful of the chemistry. Every single day. We're always watching it to make sure nothing slips. We still don't know what we're going to do at the deadline. We're still three weeks away. We'll know more when we get there. Every team in the league has needs. If you don't have needs, maybe you're getting complacent. We'll see. I like our group. I don't know if we're going to do a lot, if anything. We'll try to do everything from within. We'll see. Time will tell."
