“He’s a good man, a good pro, and a good teammate.” That was how Coach DeBoer described Marc André Fleury in his \comments following the VGK’s 2-1 win in Game 3 of Round 1 vs. the Chicago Blackhawks.
With yesterday’s win, the VGK took a complete stranglehold on this series. Teams achieving a 3-0 lead in a best-of-7 series hold an amazing 190-4 record of winning the series, a 97.9% chance of advancing to Round 2.
The way DeBoer described Fleury is not an embellishment at all. He’s exactly as described and you could see the love his teammates have for him. In the post-game interview, Fleury sat alongside Nate Schmidt and when Nate was asked a question about Fleury’s performance, he said that it was good to see the gold pads hit the ice and that Flower is a world-class goaltender, which prompted Fleury to smile and reach across and tap Schmidt in a sign of great appreciation for the recognition from a fellow pro.
Trust me, it hasn’t been easy for the Flower to play second fiddle to Robin Lehner. DeBoer knows this full well and that’s exactly why he said what he said about Fleury.
You will never know this now, as winning is like a warm and wonderful blanket that keeps you feeling safe and secure in the darkness, but I’m sure a number of VGK players feel Fleury is getting the short end of the stick, sitting on the bench in favor of Lehner. But they’re in Edmonton for only one reason: to win 19 games.
Normally, it takes 16 wins to hoist the Stanley Cup, but in 2020, it’s 16 plus the 3 round robin games they had to play to achieve the #1 seed in the Western Conference. Vegas has won 6 straight games (7 if you want to count their exhibition game against Arizona). As a matter of fact, out of the 24 teams that entered the NHL bubble in Toronto and here in Edmonton, Vegas is the only team that hasn’t lost a game. The last time the VGK lost a game was 161 days ago, on March 6 to be exact, against the Winnipeg Jets by a score of 4-0.
Yesterday, Fleury was determined to cast doubt on anyone who thinks he’s lost his focus or desire to win no matter what. The first person he wanted to notice was Pete DeBoer. Fleury was spectacular, stopping 26 of the 27 shots he faced. He had to be, as the VGK, who scored 8 goals in their 2 previous games against Chicago, could beat Cory Crawford only twice yesterday. One was a shorthanded goal by William Karlsson, who was set up by an impressive backhanded saucer pass from Mark Stone to squash the Chicago power play and give Vegas a lead they never surrendered.
Then some guy named Brown scored what turned out to be the winning goal in the second period for the 2-0 lead. Yes, Patrick Brown was inserted into the Reaves and Carrier line, taking Tomas Nosek’s spot, after Paul Stastny was ruled unfit to play in Game 3. Brown followed a rush into the offensive zone by Alex Tuch and Nate Schmidt. Crawford stopped the initial shot by Tuch, but Brown, who was right behind Tuch, found the loose puck in front of the net and put it past Crawford for the game-winner.
The depth of the VGK has been on display since they arrived in Edmonton. No Max Pacioretty, their leading scorer, for the round robin series? No worries. Tomas Nosek fills in and before he’s injured, he scores a big goal in Game 2. Paul Stastny, who set up Reilly Smith’s OT winner, is unavailable for Game 3? No worries. We got the guy named Brown who scores the game-winning goal.
Vegas has dominated every third period and OT since arriving in Edmonton, but they weren’t so fortunate yesterday, as Chicago hardly laid down their sticks and waved the white towel. They came in wave after wave and dominated good portions of the 3rd period.
It seemed like Vegas was struggling to even get the puck out of their zone and Fleury had to be the world-class goaltender that Nate Schmidt referred to post-game. Chicago did score a goal that somehow found a minuscule space between Fleury’s right arm and his chest protector. It appeared that Nick Holden, in an attempt to block the shot, got a tiny piece of the puck, which caused it to slightly change direction and go sideways. If the puck remained flat, it would have never been able to squeeze through such a small opening. The only goal that Chicago scored prevented Fleury from achieving another playoff shutout. But it didn’t prevent the Flower from recording his 80th playoff win, which ties him for 6th place overall in lifetime playoff wins with Ken Dryden.
With Stastny’s absence from the lineup, the DeBoer blender was plugged back in and the line of Karlsson, Smith, and Marchessault was reunited and Stephenson was put between Stone and Pacioretty, who returned to the lineup after missing Game 2. The 3rd line of Roy between Tuch and Cousins remained the same and that guy named Brown filled in for Nosek and scored the winning goal.
If you’ll allow me to look ahead past Chicago, if the VGK complete this series today, they may be looking at at least 7 days off before Round 2 begins. This could be a bit of a problem; sitting around for that long isn’t good, especially locked away in a bubble with no place to go and nothing to do. Unless, of course, Nosek and Stastny are still not fit to play and this extra time would be a blessing. According to DeBoer post-game, Stastny’s is not a major injury and will be a game-time decision later today. There was no news on Nosek.
My 3 Stars of the Game: Marc Andre Fleury (26 saves on 27 shots for a .963 save percentage and a rock in the critical 3rd period), Patrick Brown (game-winning goal), William Karlsson (shorthanded goal)
Next game is today at 3:30 p.m. on ATT Sportsnet
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