Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury has had to chase a few playoff series during his career with the Pittsburgh Penguins, where he won the Stanley Cup three times, including in each of the past two seasons. One loss, he says, does not make a series.
"I don't think so, unless you're playing that last game not to get eliminated," Fleury said when asked if the team's mindset changes after falling behind in a series. "It's one game, right? Nobody is panicking."
What needs to be better in Game 2?
First, says coach Gerard Gallant, the effort needs to improve, especially on the forecheck.
"It wasn't good enough," Gallant said. "Like I said, [the Jets] dictated the game last night, they outworked us, they out-competed us a little bit last night. Again, I said it before, and earlier in the series against San Jose, we weren't good enough to win last night.
"We have to pick up our work ethic a little bit and we will be fine. Our systems are fine, the way they played is fine, we just didn't compete hard enough."
Tactically, Gallant says there are few changes that need to be made. Players need to be harder on the puck.
And be more assertive, said defenseman Nate Schmidt.
The Golden Knights had trouble gaining the offensive blue line, repeatedly turning pucks over in the neutral zone and getting dinged on the counter-attack game.
The first goal, at 1:05 into the game, came after forward Jonathan Marchessault was a split-second late in making a cross-ice pass in the offensive zone. It was intercepted by Winnipeg forward Blake Wheeler and turned the other way with defenseman Dustin Byfuglien slapping home a drop pass by Mark Schiefele.
"You need to make the play earlier in our decision-making process because it closes off," Schmidt said. "They did a great job with good sticks, and we can't take that away from them. We need to be more assertive with less thinking and more reacting."
Said Bellemare: "We made mistakes when the plays were there, and they made those plays too but were successful."
After enduring the three-goal barrage to start the game, the Golden Knights settled down. They allowed one more goal, a power-play deflection by Scheifele in the second period. The Jets had 12 shots in the first period, 14 during the final 40 minutes. The Golden Knights got a point-shot goal from Brayden McNabb and a power-play deflection by forward William Karlsson.
They were competitive, even though it didn't feel like it at times.
"I think we know where we stand, we know what happened," said Fleury. "I'm sure we'll respond. I'm not too worried about it."
