from Ed Graney of the Las Vegas Review-Journal,

It’s like accusing a baker of using cheap ingredients.

It’s like suggesting a singer is tone deaf.

It’s like charging an attorney — or, well, football coach — with being honest.

The horror of it.

Professional athletes can be a predictable lot when it comes to what might push their buttons most, certain words or phrases that describe play in a less-than-flattering manner.

None gets their attention more than this: soft.

“It’s not a good word,” Golden Knights goalie Marc-Andre Fleury said.

It’s one Knights coach Gerard Gallant used after a 5-2 loss to Arizona on Tuesday night, the team’s fourth straight at T-Mobile Arena and one that definitely bothered Gallant in terms of how his team did — or, specifically — didn’t compete.

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