Nothing is impossible, but countless things aren’t probable. What happened yesterday wasn’t impossible, but it was about as close as you can get.
Yesterday, the Vegas Golden Knights removed the “im” from impossible with a 2-1 win in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals to eliminate the Winnipeg Jets. Just 227 days after playing their first-ever regular season game (Oct. 6, 2017) as the Vegas Golden Knights, in a few days, this team will be vying for the honor of lifting the Stanley Cup. Teams have gone decades without playing for the Cup. Vegas will be playing for it in their inaugural season.
The Vegas Golden Knights play in a city known for huge buildings with bright signs filled with machines that lure visitors with flashing lights and rising jackpots. Like the Stanley Cup, these jackpots are based on remote probabilities.
Just like the lights and jackpots, the VGK lured in the Jets by losing Game 1, even giving up 3 goals in the first 7:38 of the first period. After Game 1, however, Winnipeg never led. They were so blinded by flash that their goaltender started to see things no one else was seeing. After stating that Vegas was lucky and the stars were lining up for them, he even had the crazy idea that his game was better than Fleury’s. Yesterday, he claimed that Vegas’ two goals were tip-ins and they were just lucky to win. Sore loser? You be the judge. But I will say this. Tips are goals of skill, not luck. It requires great hand-eye coordination to tip a puck traveling at speeds up to 100 mph.
Before I continue with what this team accomplished yesterday, let me sum up what this team has meant to Las Vegas.
The Vegas Golden Knights started out as a small group of random players assembled by George McPhee on an idea in the dark recesses of the minds of Bill Foley and the Maloof family; they were a ragtag bunch of players from all over the league looking for a home. At that time, Las Vegas was, and always had been, a city of strangers. Last year, many residents didn’t even know their neighbors’ names. That has all changed: The team that came here with no family created one, one big family. We all lost 58 members of our family on October 1 and the VGK, who were here only a short time before that day, turned themselves into the bond that this city needed.
They didn’t just go through the motions, saying the right things. They took to the neighborhoods; they showed up at the hospitals visiting those who were lucky enough to survive the shooting. Then they galvanized the entire city with their winning ways and appreciation of their fan base. Even moments after earning a trip to the Stanley Cup Finals, player after player mentioned how much the city of Las Vegas has energized them and pushed them along. They love their new family and Las Vegas loves our new family members.
Every hockey player’s dream is to win the Stanley Cup. This team not only wants to bring their dream to fruition, but they also want to bring it home to their adopted family, who took them in when they arrived knowing no one.
Neighbors now have something in common. They stop to talk to each other at the mailboxes about hockey, they know each other’s names, all their cars have VGK stickers on them. No matter where you turn in Las Vegas, you see people of all ages wearing VGK apparel. Lines at the bank or supermarket don’t seem to bother anyone, because you can always talk about just how great this is for the entire city.
The only people who aren’t thrilled about this magical run are the sportsbook managers who made the VGK 500-1 to win the Stanley Cup before they played their first game. The word on the Strip is that if the VGK win the Cup, the sportsbooks stand to lose millions. This story started with heartbreak and tears, but is now creating lifelong friends — and a maybe a few million bucks among us.
Unlike Game 1 in Winnipeg where Vegas appeared a step slower and out of sync, yesterday they were ready. They pretty much silenced the crowd by dominating the first 10 minutes of the game. In the first eight minutes, the Jets had only one shot on Fleury. It wasn’t until Colin Miller took a minor penalty for interference that Winnipeg became engaged and took back the momentum, logging 13 shots in the final 12 minutes.
But before that happened, Alex Tuch forced Hellebuyek into hurrying his pass; it bounced off his own player’s skate and over to Ryan Carpenter, who found Tuch alone in the slot in front of the net. Tuch didn’t miss and Vegas, like in Games 2, 3, and 4, scored first. In this 5-game series, the team scoring first has won every game. Overall in the playoffs, the VGK are 10-1 when scoring the first goal of the game.
Winnipeg did tie up the game late in the first period with a goal from Josh Morrissey off of a set play when Bryan Little won the face-off to Fleury’s right. He passed the puck to Morrissey who was just inside the blue line. Marchessault skated toward Morrissey and for some unknown reason, Jonathan lifted his left skate and leg off the ice, which allowed the shot to get to Fleury with no attempt by Marchessaul to block it. This might be the only mistake that the entire team made in the game.
It turned out to be the only shot that Fleury missed; he had 31 saves on 32 shots. Yesterday’s win was his 74th in playoffs, moving him into 8th place overall and tying him with Chris Osgood.
In another piece that just seems to fit this magical ride, Winnipeg native Ryan Reaves, who had never scored a goal for Vegas, tipped a Luca Sbisa slap shot from the left point. His first goal as a VGK was only his second in the 42 playoff games in his career — and the winning goal of the game that won the Clarence S. Campbell Bowl for the Western Conference Championship.
The second period ended with the VGK leading 2-1. Entering the third period with a lead, Vegas has been 9-0, while Winnipeg was 0-7 when trailing entering the third period during the 2018 playoffs.
The VGK are the seventh team to win the first three rounds on the road in the playoffs. Five of the previous six teams went on to win the Cup.
The key to Vegas’ success in this round was their balance, scoring from all 4 lines, while Winnipeg had very little production from their second, third, and fourth lines. Winnipeg scored 43 goals in the 12 games of their first two rounds. In the five games vs. Vegas, they scored just 10 goals.
With their goaltender pulled for the extra skater, even with a 6-on-5 advantage, the Jets registered zero shots on Fleury.
Fleury surrendered four goals in Game 1, a 4-2 loss. In the next four games of this series, Fleury surrendered only six goals and had a 1.50 GAA and a .956 save percentage.
In the three clinching games in the playoffs, Fleury surrendered only one goal on 90 shots and had two shutouts.
This is the third consecutive year that a team will make its debut in the Stanley Cup Final. Debutant teams own an all-time series record of 11-17 in the Final, with the last three instances ending in defeat: The Sharks (2016) and Predators (2017) both lost in six games to the Penguins, while the Senators (2007) lost in five games to the Ducks. The Lightning (2004) were the last team to win the Stanley Cup in their first trip to the Final.
In Round 1 Brayden McNabb, a former L.A. King, scored the winning goal against his former team in the series-clinching game.
In Round 2 Ryan Carpenter, assisted on the series-clinching goal against his former team, the San Jose Sharks.
In Round 3 Ryan Reaves, a Winnipeg native, scored the game-winning goal to send the VGK to the Stanley Cup Finals.
Just three more tidbits to create more heartbreak for the other 30 general managers, who thought they picked George McPhee’s pocket.
On October 10 at the first home game at T-Mobile, long-time Las Vegan Deryk Engelland picked up the mic to address the crowd about the team’s commitment to the city in helping it heal from the October 1 shooting. Yesterday, he picked up the Campbell trophy awarded to the Western Conference Champion. It’s fitting that Deryk was selected by the other players to pick it up.
One of the funniest post-game answer to a reporter’s question was when William Karlsson was asked, “When you were a young boy skating in your backyard dreaming of playing in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Finals, what did you see?”
He answered, “I had on my Vegas Golden Knight jersey.”
Yesterday’s win was Vegas’ 12th in 15 games this post-season.
If Washington beats Tampa Bay, the VGK will have home-ice advantage and may be a small favorite. If Tampa Bay defeats Washington. Vegas will be an underdog and open the series in Tampa Bay.
VGK scorers: Alex Tuch (6), Ryan Reaves (1)
My three stars of the game: Ryan Reaves, Marc-Andre Fleury, the other 18 VGK players.
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