Loaded with playoff veterans, the Golden Knights keyed on Cooley, holding him longer, drawing him into scrums and goading him into wasting energy.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou need to find different ways to still be able to produce and play the game the right way,\u201d Cooley said. \u201cFor me, that\u2019s something that I\u2019m still learning. When guys are keying on you a little more and it takes away your Plan A, I think you always need to rely on, like, a Plan B.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cooley called it \u201can unbelievable learning experience\u201d for Utah as a team.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s getting over that hump, I think, is the hardest part,\u201d Cooley said. \u201cIt\u2019s great to get to the playoffs, but at the end of the day, it\u2019s nothing if you just lose in the first round, so you want to make sure you\u2019re capitalizing when you\u2019re in the playoffs and playing at your best down the stretch and winning the series too.\u201d<\/p>\n
Along with Cooley (six), Mammoth forwards Lawson Crouse<\/a> (15), Clayton Keller<\/a> (15), Nick Schmaltz<\/a>\u00a0(10) and Dylan Guenther<\/a>\u00a0(six) have played a combined 52 playoff games in the NHL.\u00a0<\/p>\n Lee, who signed a three-year, $16.2 million contract ($5.4 million average annual value) July 1, has played 46 playoff games in his NHL career, advancing as far as the Eastern Conference Final with the New York Islanders in 2020.<\/p>\n Trocheck, who was acquired in a trade with the Rangers on July 1, has played 56 playoff games in his NHL career, advancing as far as the conference final in 2024. He also helped Team USA win gold at the 2026 Winter Olympics.<\/p>\n Each brings another element too.<\/p>\n \u201cI feel like we have a lot of similar guys that like to possess the puck, but I think we can get caught on the outside a lot, so I think adding those guys who love being at the net will definitely help,\u201d Cooley said.<\/p>\n Trocheck said he is excited to help Utah on and off the ice. He has been there for a month already.<\/p>\n \u201cThey start school early here,\u201d he said, \u201cand I\u2019ve got two kids.\u201d<\/p>\n Well, two at home. More at the rink.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Loaded with playoff veterans, the Golden Knights keyed on Cooley, holding him longer, drawing him into scrums and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":850558,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[385,99],"class_list":["post-850557","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-nhl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850557","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=850557"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/850557\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/850558"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=850557"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=850557"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=850557"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}