Sunday August 23 - Vegas Golden Knights 5 - Vancouver Canucks 0
Vegas leads series 1-0
I was hoping that the Vancouver Canucks' confidence after beating the St. Louis Blues, perhaps combined with a little complacency and the draining effect of a goalie controversy for the Vegas Golden Knights, might lead to a positive outcome for Canada's Team on Sunday.
In the end, we pretty much got a typical Vegas-Vancouver outing. The Western Conference's top-seeded team dominated from start to finish to take a 1-0 lead in the best-of-seven second-round series.
Here are your highlights:
On a night when starter Jacob Markstrom gets pulled and there are no goals on the scoresheet, it's pretty tough to find positives.
Thatcher Demko now has a 1.000 save percentage in the playoffs after stopping all five shots he faced in 8:26 of action, so there's that.
And there isn't even any revelatory game analysis that I can offer up. The Golden Knights usually dominate the Canucks in practically every facet of the game when the two teams get together, and Sunday was no different.
So I will say that I disagree with the thinking that Antoine Roussel should have let sleeping dogs lie. Robin Lehner been very public with his mental health journey over the last couple of years and his battle with substance abuse. But before that, he had a reputation as a hothead who could be thrown off his game. I don't mind seeing Roussel trying to tap into that, especially with all the drama that surrounded the Vegas goaltending situation leading up to the game.
Lehner's personal stats coming into the series weren't especially dazzling — a .904 save percentage and 2.44 goals-against average. But his 5-1-0 record is what matters in the playoffs, and was the reason why he got the nod to start Game 1 over Marc-Andre Fleury.
I can't quite believe that Fleury's agent, Allan Walsh, went to such a graphic extreme in his weekend Tweet depicting Fleury getting stabbed in the back by Vegas coach Peter DeBoer. The violence of it all was unsettling and I'm glad it has been taken down. Imagine his kids seeing that?
I was also surprised when Hockey Night in Canada actually ran a graphic during the game with a list of some of Walsh's other aggressively controversial moves in defence of his clients over the past decade or so.
The one-time deputy district attorney for Los Angeles County has no qualms about stirring the pot.
Before the game on Sunday, Fleury told the media that he had asked Walsh to delete the tweet. "He cares a lot about his players," Fleury said. "I really appreciate his passion for the game. I think it was merely a way to defend me."
I suspect Fleury also appreciates the fact that Walsh convinced the Golden Knights to sign his then 33-year-old client to a three-year contract extension with a cap hit of $7 million a season, a month after the Golden Knights went to the Stanley Cup Final in their first season. Talk about striking when the iron was hot!
Fleury has two years left on that deal — and the thing that hasn't been discussed much is that his play has been on the decline over the course of his three years in Vegas. Here are his basic regular-season numbers:
2017-18: 2.24 GAA, .927 save percentage
2018-19: 2.51 GAA, .913 save percentage
2019-20: 2.77 GAA, .905 save percentage
Fleury has played twice since Vegas arrived in the bubble, giving up four goals in a round-robin win over St. Louis and one in Game 3 against the Blackhawks. But he faced just 17 shots against St. Louis, and the Golden Knights overcame 2-0 and 4-3 deficits in that game to earn a 6-4 win. It's also the only game in the tournament so far where Vegas gave up more than three goals.
For me, goaltending looked like the Golden Knights' one area of weakness before Lehner was acquired at the trade deadline. After that, he and Fleury alternated games. Fleury went 2-2-0 with an .894 save percentage and 2.51 GAA, while Lehner was 3-0-0, 1.67 and .940. To my eye, the table was set for this scenario months ago. But I think DeBoer was right in not being too committal, too soon. Who knew what bubble life would bring?
As it turns out, the situation does not appear to have affected the Golden Knights, or Lehner and Fleury's relationships with each other, or thrown Lehner off his game in any way.
"This team is a [heck] of a group and everyone is really tight, and when this happened, I saw Marc and we were just laughing," said Lehner after recording his first career playoff shutout. "That's all it is. At the end of the day, he didn't do anything. It was his agent, and if he wants to be unprofessional, go ahead. He looks terrible, but it is what it is."
So, Roussel didn't get to Lehner, but it's not a bad thing to let him know that he's not going to get an easy ride in this series. And yes, Roussel attracted the attention of Ryan Reaves, who needled and heckled him throughout the game. But I'm pretty sure that would have happened anyway.
When I was working on this story for the New York Times, I noticed that Vegas was by far the most vocal team I'd seen (heard?) in Edmonton, particularly during their qualifying-round win over the Colorado Avalanche.
From the story, which ran on August 15:
“We’ve got a lot of vocal guys,” Vegas forward Alex Tuch said last Saturday. He noted that forward Jonathan Marchessault and wing Ryan Reaves had been the team’s most chattery members in a round-robin game against the Colorado Avalanche, “whether it’s toward our bench, trying to pump us up, or getting under the other teams’ skin.”
During that game, I was able to pick out taunts that were directed at both Nathan MacKinnon and Nazem Kadri, so I think everyone is fair game as far as Vegas is concerned. And while Reaves' size and toughness probably help make him fearless, it's interesting that Alex Tuch also singled out the much smaller Marchessault as the other really mouthy guy on their bench.
"I guess when you’re playing at T-Mobile, it’s kind of hard to hear the players down on the ice. But in an empty arena, it’s probably a little bit easier," said Tuch. My guess is that the ear-splitting volume at Vegas home games is part of what has led them to jabber and jaw with such impunity.
This is who they are. Part of how they intimidate their opponents is by giving them an earful. The Canucks will need to find a way to block out the noise. They also need to play better.
I'm not so worried about the mental strain on Quinn Hughes or Jacob Markstrom from Game 1. They're pros, they'll bounce back. I'm more concerned about the fact that Vegas did such a good job of game-planning for the Canucks — and that a small tweak like challenging Hughes along the blue line had such a significant impact on Vancouver's offense.
Travis Green out-coached Dean Evason in the qualifying round, and Craig Berube in Round 1. Now we'll see if he has more tricks in his bag as he looks to prepare his team to respond in Game 2 against Vegas on Tuesday.
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