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I Watched This Game: Golden Knights overthrow the Capitals in Game 1

Vegas takes 1-0 lead in the 2018 Stanley Cup Final with thrilling 6-4 win.
Daniel Wagner
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Las Vegas knows how to put on a show.

I’m not just talking about the spectacle of the Golden Knights’ pre-game entertainment, a ludicrous assemblage of America’s Got Talent rejects, LARPing on ice, and the legendary voice of Michael Buffer announcing the starting lineups. Though, let’s be clear, that was fantastic.

I’m talking about the show on the ice. The Golden Knights play fast-paced, aggressive hockey in every area of the ice. When they have the puck, they attack the net in waves, but when they don’t have the puck, they are just as relentless.

“Hockey should never be boring,” said GM George McPhee before the team even had its first player. “That’s the way we’ll build our team.”

And so he did. The team that was predicted to finish dead last in the NHL, even after they put together their roster out of the expansion draft, played aggressive, entertaining, fun hockey all the way to the Stanley Cup Final.

“It’s an entertaining way to play for your fans, it’s a fun way to play for the player,” said McPhee, adding, “It can be successful.”

In Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final, the Golden Knights were successful. Vegas put on a show when I watched this game.

  • Michael Buffer should announce the starting lineups for every single hockey game. His iconic “Let’s get ready to rumble!” was chill-inducing. And when he announced the jersey colours as if they were boxing shorts (“white with red and blue trim”) and added their regular season records as if they were a boxing win-loss record, I actually laughed out loud.
  • Early on, the Golden Knights were all over Washington like a horde of lobbyists. Through the first 13 minutes, they out-shot the Capitals 7-1 and opened the scoring on the game’s first power play. After he and Erik Haula won a puck battle along the boards, Colin Miller pulled the puck into the middle and stepped into a slap shot like Superman into a phone booth, blasting it past a screened Holtby.
  • The Capitals responded on just their third shot, a sign that perhaps Marc-Andre Fleury was playing at slightly less than the Conn Smythe-level standard he’s set this postseason. He’s been nigh-unbeatable in the playoffs, but in this game he leaned pretty heavily towards the “nigh”side of that hyphen.
  • After the Capitals cycled down low, Andre Burakovsky moved the puck to Michal Kempny at the point, who blindly threw the puck towards the net. There, Brett Connolly tipped it back against the grain, tying the game at one. Fleury overplayed the initial shot, sliding way too far to his left like he was listening to Marcia Griffiths. The Golden Knights equipment manager told him the headphones built into his mask were a bad idea, but Fleury insisted.
  • William Karlsson continued his regression-defying run, making it 2-2 before the end of the first period thanks to some quick hands and a dash of good luck. He made a fantastic pass to Reilly Smith for a scoring chance that missed, then picked the puck up off the boards and quickly got it back to the front of the net. All of that was pure skill, but Lady Luck ducked in just long enough to help the puck go in off Holtby’s left shoulder and give Karlsson a wink.
  • Here’s the impression I had of Deryk Engelland before this season: physical depth defenceman without much in the way of offence. So of course he played more than 20 minutes a night for the Golden Knights this season, while tallying 23 points, which would have been second among Canucks defencemen this year. And of course the Golden Knights took the lead in this game when Engelland jumped up in the rush and swooped behind the net to pick up a missed shot and sent a centring pass to Smith in front, who went roof like Doug Billings for the 3-2 goal.
  • I don’t blame the Capitals for having a massive breakdown in defensive coverage on Smith’s goal. When even Engelland is rushing up the ice and setting up goals from below the goal line, what are you supposed to do?
  • Braden Holtby wasn’t great in this game, but he did have one fantastic moment when he reached back with his stick to pull a puck off the goal line. Sure, he only had to make that stick save because he couldn’t swallow up the initial shot, but that surely would have been seen as a turning point if the Capitals had pulled out the win. Instead, it’s just a minor footnote. Such is the ephemeral nature of a narrative.
  • Fleury’s over-aggressive netminding got him in trouble once again on the 3-3 goal. John Carlson took a pass from Backstrom and slipped the puck through Smith’s legs to Oshie. Fleury charged out to challenge Oshie’s shot, but Timothy Jimothy instead swung the puck back to Carlson, who backhanded it into the vacated cage.
  • Vegas’s forechecking was something to behold. As an example, at one point Carlson was waiting behind the Washington net with the puck, waiting for his teammates to set up. Vegas didn’t wait. Suddenly, Jonathan Marchessault darted behind the net, flushing Carlson out to a waiting Smith. The resulting confusion for the Capitals led to a turnover in the neutral zone. Their aggressive forechecking schemes are something that other teams will likely want to copy heading into next season
  • Washington took the lead early in the third period after an oddly off-balance shot by Ovechkin. He was checked as he slapped the puck towards the net, shortening his follow-through and sending him tumbling to the ice. Tom Wilson got his stick on the shot, sending it into the feet of Fleury, who inadvertently kicked it into his own net to make it 4-3 for the Capitals.
  • If it’s any consolation to Fleury, Martin Brodeur had an infamous own goal during the Stanley Cup Finals in 2003. He dropped his stick accidentally while skating out to play the puck, which instead deflected directly into his own net. He went on to win the Stanley Cup that year.
  • A minute-and-a-half later, the Golden Knights tied the game up again when Ryan Reaves took advantage of the referees pocketing their whistles, cross-checked Carlson to the ice, then went under the bar like Tiluck Keisam. It was a gorgeous finish to a gritty play, which isn’t recommended: you generally want to sand down the grit before applying the finish.
  • The Golden Knights took the lead for the last time midway through the third, taking advantage of a failed clear by Devante Smith-Pelley. Carlson chose to front Holtby instead of man-marking Tomas Nosek at the backdoor. As The Spleen would say, “Big mistake!” Shea Theodore threaded the needle to Nosek and, unlike Carlson, Nosek made no mistake.
  • The Capitals had a golden opportunity to tie the game in the final minute. With Holtby pulled for the extra attacker, Wilson set up Lars Eller with with a wide open net in front, but Brayden McNabb hacked his stick at the last second. Whether it was a slash or a stick-check is open to interpretation, but let’s be serious: in the Stanley Cup Final, that’s definitely not going to get called unless Eller’s stick was slashed in half and blood started pouring out of it.
  • Nosek added another goal into the empty net, sealing the victory for Vegas. Just like that, they’re up 1-0 in the series, despite what was probably the worst game of the playoffs for their prime Conn Smythe candidate. If Fleury bounces back, the Capitals could be in some serious trouble.