Golden Knights receive pushback from scrappy Canucks

The Golden Knights finished with fewer hits than the Vancouver Canucks in each of the past two games of the Western Conference semifinals.

When confronted with this statistic Wednesday, defenseman Brayden McNabb countered that it’s tougher to hit people when the Knights are in possession of the puck as much as they were in Game 5.

Touche.

Coach Pete DeBoer also dismissed the hit totals as subjective and based on numerous variables each game.

But after bossing the physical confrontations during the early stages of the series, the Knights have been dragged into the championship rounds by the scrappy Canucks and face a Game 6 on Thursday at Rogers Place in Edmonton, Alberta.

“If you’re winning most of the puck battles, that’s big physicality compared to the crash-against-the-glass hits,” DeBoer said. “That’s not how I measure our physicality or our compete level. I thought those things were in a good area (Tuesday) night.”

The Knights, who were fourth in the league during the regular season in hits per 60 minutes (26.51), have been at their best when they’ve played a heavy game against the speedy Canucks.

Fourth-line forwards Ryan Reaves and William Carrier roughed up Vancouver in a Game 1 shutout and combined for 20 hits to help the Knights finish with a 54-45 advantage in that category.

The Knights’ forecheck zeroed in on 5-foot-10-inch, 170-pound defenseman Quinn Hughes and had a 39-30 edge in hits as they pushed around the Canucks again during a 3-0 victory in Game 3.

In both games, the Knights took advantage of the extra room they created with their physical play and outscored Vancouver by a combined 8-0.

“I think playoffs in general you want to play a heavier game. You want to finish all your checks,” McNabb said. “Definitely, if we get a chance to get a lick on someone, we want to do that.”

But the Canucks responded to the challenge Tuesday, bumping the Knights’ puck carriers to the perimeter and making life easier for backup goalie Thatcher Demko (42 saves). Vancouver outhit the Knights 38-31 in the 2-1 victory.

The Knights were outhit 36-34 through two periods of Game 4 when they trailed 3-2 before rallying with three goals in the third. Vancouver finished that game with a 47-39 advantage in hits.

“I would first say I don’t think that hit number on a stat sheet is indicative of the physicality of the game a lot of nights,” DeBoer said. “One, it’s a very subjective stat and it’s different almost every night. And two, there’s a lot of factors that go into it.”

One way for the Knights to balance out the hit column is to roll through four lines.

Carrier didn’t play the final 7:10 of the second period in Game 5 and had only two shifts in the third period as the Knights chased the tying goal. He finished with 6:26 of ice time and was not credited with a hit after averaging 10:10 and nearly six hits per game in the opening four games of the series.

Reaves, who led the league in hits for the second straight season, averaged 10:57 of ice time in Games 1 through 4, but played only 7:31 on Tuesday. He was on the ice for 5:11 in the first period but was given five shifts the final two periods and totaled three hits.

“I think we’ve got to go to some different places and do some different things in order to create some more offense and make it tougher on their goalie,” DeBoer said. “But that hit number doesn’t really factor into our evaluation of the game, either good or bad.”

Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.