Category: Winning Play

Winning Play: The MacKinnon Rules

By Sheng Peng | May 1st 2019 | 5 min read |

DENVER, Co. — In 1988, the Detroit Pistons devised a defensive strategy for limiting Michael Jordan called “The Jordan Rules”. Pistons coach Chu...

Winning Play: Losing MacKinnon

By Sheng Peng | Apr 30th 2019 | 4 min read |

The San Jose Sharks had mixed results checking Nathan MacKinnon’s speed in Game 2. In my series preview, I spoke with a former head coach who put a ...

Winning Play: Burns keeps Sharks afloat

By Sheng Peng | Apr 28th 2019 | 4 min read |

Burns Keeps Sharks Afloat Perhaps suffering from Game 7 hangover, the San Jose Sharks’ legs appeared heavy at the outset of Game 1. Just 2:10 in, Ga...

Winning Play: Five minutes that changed everything

By Sheng Peng | Apr 24th 2019 | 5 min read |

Was this the greatest first-round series in NHL history? We had seven games. Two overtimes. A Game 7 winner in overtime. We had unprecedented (public)...

Winning Play: Burns goes aerial

By Sheng Peng | Apr 22nd 2019 | 4 min read |

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — As the Longfellow poem goes, “One if by land, and two if by sea…and 88 if by air.” That’s where Brent Burns (88) went ...

Winning Play: Vlasic returns to form

By Sheng Peng | Apr 19th 2019 | 5 min read |

The hottest thing this side of the Evander Kane-Ryan Reaves feud in this San Jose Sharks-Vegas Golden Knights series was the Mark Stone line. That is,...

Winning Play: Blueprint for a comeback

By Sheng Peng | Apr 18th 2019 | 5 min read |

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — It’s not often that you can draw positives from a 5-0 rout. But for the San Jose Sharks, down 3-1 in their series with the Vegas...

Winning Play: Thornton loses his way

By Sheng Peng | Apr 15th 2019 | 4 min read |

LAS VEGAS, Nev. — There’s no doubt that emotion is important to winning hockey. But there’s a thin line between engaged and enraged, and Joe Tho...

Winning Play: Handling Hertl

By Sheng Peng | Apr 13th 2019 | 8 min read |

Carrying over from last year’s series, Tomas Hertl decimated the Vegas Golden Knights, especially down low, in Game 1. my goodness, Hertl! pic.twitt...

Winning Play: When a plan comes together

By Sheng Peng | Apr 12th 2019 | 5 min read |

For the San Jose Sharks, the plan all came together last night. At Monday’s practice, Peter DeBoer appeared to place a heavy emphasis on beating the...