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Vegas Golden Knights: Takeaways from DeBoer’s first ten

By Andrew Steele-Davis

Vegas Golden Knights head coach Peter DeBoer directs his team during the first period of their game against the Boston Bruins at TD Garden. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)
Vegas Golden Knights head coach Peter DeBoer directs his team during the first period of their game against the Boston Bruins at TD Garden. (Photo by Maddie Meyer/Getty Images) /
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LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – FEBRUARY 13: Ivan Barbashev #49 of the St. Louis Blues skates with the puck between Nick Holden #22 and Deryk Engelland #5 of the Vegas Golden Knights in the first period of their game at T-Mobile Arena on February 13, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NEVADA – FEBRUARY 13: Ivan Barbashev #49 of the St. Louis Blues skates with the puck between Nick Holden #22 and Deryk Engelland #5 of the Vegas Golden Knights in the first period of their game at T-Mobile Arena on February 13, 2020 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Ethan Miller/Getty Images) /

2. Transition is key

For the first three games of Peter DeBoer’s tenure, the vastly experienced Head Coach decided to sit back and observe.

He went 1-1-1 during that stretch, giving him plenty of work to do over the course of the All-Star Break and the bye week.

And, since the Knights have returned from the break, we’ve begun to see some of the non-negotiables that DeBoer stressed when he was first revealed as the new bench boss of this franchise.

From being hard on the forecheck to playing aggressive and shorter shifts, we’ve seen some of these come into effect.

And one glaring error we’ve see DeBoer try to rectify is the transition game, which has been a major problem for the Golden Knights.

We saw some of the fruits of DeBoer’s labor in the shutout win over the Nashville Predators on Feb. 1, when one play in particular really stood out.

Nashville dumped the puck in, rookie defenseman Zach Whitecloud retrieved the puck and fed a pass to Jon Merrill, who had both Nic Roy and Tomas Nosek as an outlet in the defensive zone.

Merrill was able to chip the puck to Roy who then gave it to Nosek and the Golden Knights were able to transition out of the zone quickly and smoothly.

However, that was more the exception than the rule and this blueline has still been guilty of coughing up way too many turnovers, including 11 in the 6-5 overtime win over the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night alone.

They have allowed 15 goals in the last three games and it is clear that a lot more work needs to be done.

Granted, if the Vegas Golden Knights can acquire a defenseman at the Trade Deadline then that will help, but it is clear that playing hard on defense and being better on the transition are huge priorities for DeBoer, and we should see a lot more of that in the coming weeks.

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