“There’s no way they’re going to be a better team than us by the end of the season,” insisted Drew Doughty on December 28, 2017, immediately following a game that Vegas won in L.A. Doughty scored a goal late in the 3rd period to tie the game and send it into overtime. The VGK win came when David Perron scored with just 1:30 left in OT. Drew thought it was a fluke that night; he might have even still believed it—until last night.
It was an important win, but Doughty’s declaration in December turned out to be even more important. You never want to give your opponent any incentive to want to beat you. Never in Dougthy’s wildest dreams four months ago did he think this would echo all over Las Vegas. The VGK players would never admit that they used these words as a motivation tool, but trust me, they did.
Of course, this team has had a lot of incentives this season. Doughty’s was just one expression of all the non-believers. “It’s an impossible mission. “It’s all just a fluke.” “The collapse is just around the corner.” Every general manager in the league wanted nothing more than for this to be a flash in the pan.
Those 30 GMs found out the hard way: Never give an opponent an extra incentive. And in a fitting end that makes this even sweeter, the winning goal — in fact, the only goal in last night’s game — was scored by former a L.A. King, Brayden McNabb. Unprotected by the Kings, McNabb played a sum total of five playoff games in his entire NHL career, all with the Kings during the 2015-2016 season. During those games, he registered zero goals and zero assists. It’s poetic justice that his first-ever playoff goal comes against a GM who thought he could do without Brayden.
During the 14 periods in this four-game series. L.A. was the better team in one of them. It was a complete team effort: Each of Vegas’ seven goals in the series was scored by a different player. Leading up to the playoffs, I said that all 4 lines would have to contribute for the Knights to advance through the rounds. And that happened. Oh, and goalie Marc Andre Fleury standing on his head didn’t hurt.
Years from now, people who didn’t have the privilege of watching the dismantling of the Kings might look back and think, wow even though Vegas won all 4 games, it must have been a close series: 1-0 in game 1; 2-1 in game 2; 3-2 in game 3; 1-0 in the series clincher. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Mr. Doughty, your team not only wasn’t better. Your team was completely dominated. You might want to consider sticking to hockey, at which you’re pretty good, and stay away from evaluating other teams’ talent. The only thing that was close was the goaltending. Jonathan Quick and Fleury put on a clinic for the ages. I almost want to say that Quick was the better goaltender here, but with two shutouts under Fleury’s belt, I just can’t.
Maybe Fleury’s time in Pittsburgh was over, maybe it wasn’t. But I can tell you this: The hockey minds in Steel Town may be wondering if exposing Fleury was a good decision. Actually, more than a few GMs around the league might have undervalued the level of talent that had under their noses.
The first period of last night’s game was that period, the one out of 14 where L.A. was the better team. But hockey games are at least 60 minutes long.
While I was watching the game, I kept on saying to a friend, “If Vegas gets out of the first period scoreless, the game is over for L.A. She didn’t understand that; she’s new to hockey. L.A. gave it all that they had in the first. In the first 12 minutes, they had 22 attempts at Fleury, while Vegas had only 4 on Quick. It’s almost like running too fast in the first part of a marathon. You’ll have nothing left in the later stages of the race.
L.A.’s fore-check was causing multiple turnovers that resulted in quality scoring chances on Fleury. Of course, he was a rock in the first period when he was left with no support.
With the break between periods, Coach Gallant settled the team down and when they returned to the ice, they looked like the same bunch that outplayed L.A. in the previous 11 periods.
Only 4 minutes into the 2nd period was all that Vegas needed. The player who created the entire score unfortunately isn’tt recognized on the scoresheet. Jonathan Marchessault made a breakout pass to William Karlsson, and with Reilly Smith tagging along, they were coming down the left wing. Quick had to focus on both Smith and Karlsson who were bearing down on him. Both L.A. defensemen slid over to their right.
This is where the L.A. GM Rob Blake’s nightmare began to unfold.
Ex-King Brayden McNabb joined the rush entering the zone from the right wing. Karlsson passed the puck to Smith and in one swift motion, he slid the puck over to McNabb who like a gunslinger had his stick up, poised to blast the expected pass from Smith. Before Quick could even move, McNabb’s one timer was in the net. Thirty-five minutes and 56 seconds later, the VGK swept the Kings in four straight. They’ll face the winner of the San Jose Sharks-Anaheim Ducks series. San Jose leads that series 3-0.
The Kings had a number of quality scoring chances. Three stand out. One happened late in the first period when Tyler Toffoli with just 47 seconds remaining took a pass 15 feet in front of Fleury and had an uncontested shot. Somehow, Deryk Engelland got his stick in front of the shot that sailed out of play.
Then there was the save on Anze Kopitar with 12:45 left in the 3rd period. Kopitar gathered the puck on the side boards, then turned, looped up to the blue zone, and headed to the net. He kept skating closer and closer to Fleury uncontested, even as Shea and Engelland were deep in the zone. Alex Tuch tried and failed to intercept Kopitar, whose blister of a shot was snapped right out of the air by Fleury’s glove like it was just a soft shot from 50 feet away.
The last save with just 15 seconds left before advancing to Round 2 was off the stick of Dustin Brown. This time Fleury didn’t glove it, but he got just enough of it to send it a few inches wide of the left post.
As the final seconds ticked down in an ironic ending, Drew Doughty wound up with the puck on his stick and all that he could muster was a weak backhand shot that even never made it to Fleury.
By sweeping the series, Vegas doesn’t play another game for almost a week at best, since the second round can’t begin until all Round 1 games are completed. Vegas will have home ice advantage in Round 2. If this impossible mission continues past Round 2, they can only have home ice in Round 3 if somehow both Winnipeg and Nashville don’t make it past Round 2.
Your Vegas Golden Knights are just eight wins away from playing for the Stanley Cup. I don’t work for the VGK, but take this into consideration. I did work for the NY Rangers in 1994. For any readers who weren’t following hockey back then, the Rangers won the Stanley Cup that year. You can check out my Twitter account @TheRealJoePane, where you can see me standing next to Adam Graves and the Stanley Cup.
Will history repeat itself? I sure hope so! This has been one feel-good story since Octover 2017.
VGK scorer: Brayden McNabb — his first-ever playoff goal and against his former team.
Never miss another post
coach: so great to see this. I coached hockey for 28 yrs. and watched each teams
release of available players; I could almost see this coming. McPhee is a
good judge of talent ( just look at his record ) and he picked the best available/ some with revenge on their minds