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I Watched This Game: Capitals crush Golden Knights 6-2 in Game 4

Evgeny Kuznetsov tallies four assists to lead the way for Washington.
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It feels like the rest of the NHL has been waiting all season for the other shoe to drop for the Vegas Golden Knights.

It started when they came out of the gate by winning eight of their first nine games. It was a nice feel-good story, but it couldn’t possibly continue, particularly since some of their underlying possession numbers suggested regression was on the way. You could practically hear that other shoe hit the ground.

But then, in November, they were still winning games and were first in the Pacific Division. On top of that, their possession numbers massively improved, suggesting they might actually be for real. But surely they couldn’t keep up their incredible pace and would slow down eventually. The other shoe might be little smaller than expected, but it would still drop.

Then they went on an eight-game winning streak in December and moved into second place in the entire NHL. And they kept winning and winning and winning. I swear, I just saw that other shoe somewhere. I must have misplaced it.

But surely the playoffs would provide that dose of reality, right? They’d run into the tough Los Angeles Kings, or the experienced San Jose Sharks, or the high-flying Winnipeg Jets, and that other shoe would be knocked out of its orbit and come slamming down to earth.

Whoops.

Instead, the Golden Knights rolled over some of the best teams in the Western Conference and made it to the Stanley Cup Final in their very first season.

Now, in Game 4, they got crushed by the Capitals, losing 6-2. Some might suggest the other shoe has finally dropped on the Golden Knights’ season, that they have finally run out of gas after playing such an aggressive, headlong style of hockey all season and all playoffs.

Only, the Golden Knights definitely didn’t look like a team that had run out of gas. In fact, they dominated early, created a ton of grade-A scoring chances, and hit multiple posts. As much as the score said “dominant Capitals win,” large portions of the game disagreed.

Some might say the Golden Knights are done, but I would hesitate to count them out, even after I watched this game.

  • Here’s the issue for the Golden Knights: they might need to completely change the way they play defence. As much as they created a figurative buttload of scoring chances, they had no answer for the Capitals’ cross-ice passes to the backdoor. Their sometimes over-aggressive play in the defensive zone has created numerous opportunities for the Capitals’ skilled playmakers to exploit.
  • David Perron had 66 points in 70 games for the Golden Knights this season, finishing third on the team in scoring. He was also one of their most effective players on the power play, finishing second behind Erik Haula with 18 power play points. And Gerard Gallant made him a healthy scratch for this game.
  • Perron’s scratching makes less sense than the modern classic of French cinema Holy Motors, unless it’s actually an unhealthy scratch because Perron has a secret injury. While Perron hasn’t been as effective in the playoffs as he was in the regular season, it’s still baffling to see a team scratch their third-leading scorer. Notably, with Perron out, the Golden Knights power play went 0-for-4.
  • On the ice, the Washington Capitals are one win away from the Stanley Cup, which is good, because off the ice, they’re terrible. In the battle of the pre-game shows, Vegas has already won by TKO. The pre-game concert this time around was Fall Out Boy and, even if you’re a fan of the band, it was not particularly good. That sentiment was shared by Don Cherry, apparently, who didn’t realize his mic was on and declared, “Awful. Glad that’s done,” as Fall Out Boy finished.
  • The Golden Knights had the early pressure and James Neal had a golden opportunity to open the scoring. Faced with a wide open net and enough time to watch a marathon of the entire Marvel Cinematic Universe, Neal somehow shot the puck across the face of the goal and hit the post. We used to call that the TSN Turning Point, but because it was so early in the game, we’ll call it the CBC Starting Point.
  • It seems like the Golden Knights early aggressive pressure has almost always paid off with a goal or two. So, like “Caution: Prairie Dogs have Plague!” it was a bad sign when they couldn’t find the back of the net on their initial push.
  • Instead, it was the Capitals that struck first. And second. And third. And also fourth. The game slipped through the Knights’ fingers like a fistful of sand, which seems a fitting metaphor for a team in the desert. It was either that or “like your life savings in a Vegas casino.”
  • On the first goal, the Vegas PK got over-aggressive on a Capitals rush. Deryk Engelland and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare both pressured Nicklas Backstrom on the boards, but he snuck a pass through to Evgeny Kuznetsov. That forced Brayden McNabb to come across on Kuznetsov, whose shot went off Marc-Andre Fleury’s shoulder. With no defenceman in front of the net, T.J. Oshie was able to control the rebound with his skate and give it a lift like an Uber driver to beat Fleury.
  • Kuznetsov provided another primary assist on the 2-0 goal, setting up Tom Wilson in the slot with a pass from the goal line. Again, two Golden Knights defenders got locked on to the puck carrier like Ash Ketchum on Volcanion, leaving Wilson wide open.
  • Minutes later, Devante Smith-Pelly kept a puck in at the blue line, then made a beeline to the backdoor. That’s where Matt Niskanen’s attempted shot wound up, and Smith-Pelly kicked it to his stick, then went under the bar where the bartender keeps his baseball bat. 3-0 before the end of the first period.
  • You always hope that refereeing won’t be a story in the Stanley Cup Final, but it always is. There were just some bizarre non-calls, like Neal getting cut by a high-stick from Wilson, but Neal getting the only penalty for an earlier slash. To be fair, some of the non-calls turned out, on replay, to be the right decision — Oshie’s reverse hit on Miller wasn’t an elbow, for instance, and what looked like an Orpik high stick on Reaves was actually Reaves’ own stick hitting his face.
  • The non-call on Wilson for Neal’s bloody lip stands out because Washington made it 4-0 on that power play. John Carlson and Alex Ovechkin switched spots in the middle of the power play and it immediately paid off. With one forward cheating up high to prevent an Ovechkin one-timer and the other on the ice after a collision with Oshie, there was a wide open passing lane for Kuznetsov to set up Carlson for a lightcycle of a one-timer.
  • After giving up four goals on 14 shots, you might think that Fleury would get pulled, but he stayed in the game. One reason is that they’re missing their usual backup, Malcolm Subban, who has actually been out with a mystery ailment for the entire Stanley Cup Finals. Instead, Maxime Lagace, who had an .867 save percentage in 16 games this season, was backing up Fleury. If Gerard Gallant was hoping for a third period comeback, sticking with Fleury was completely understandable.
  • The comeback almost came, but then it went back. Neal got the Golden Knights on the board just after a power play expired, as Niskanen gave him too much room down low. He walked off the line like a bad Johnny Cash impersonator, then beat Braden Holtby past the blocker.
  • Then the Knights got within two. Luca Sbisa pinched down the boards to keep the play alive, then Jonathan Marchessault flung the puck across to Reilly Smith. With Niskanen again out of position, Smith had all day to go backhand on Holtby, but instead took just two seconds.
  • That was it for the Golden Knights, however, and it’s hard to avoid thinking it’s because of who they sent over the boards after scoring their second goal: Ryan Reaves. Instead of trying to keep the comeback rolling with another strong offensive shift, Reaves simply tried to goad Wilson into a fight. Eventually both went to the box for roughin, leading to 4-on-4 hockey, which seemed to kill Vegas’s momentum.
  • The Capitals officially put the game out of reach late in the third. Oshie skated the puck in, then dropped it off while simultaneously throwing a reverse hit on Miller, whose nose seemed to contact Oshie’s helmet. At first glance, it looked like an elbow, but closer inspection revealed a pretty solid and legal shoulder check to the chest. With Miller out of the play, Backstrom had plenty of room to set up Michal Kempny for the 5-2 goal.
  • With the game out of hand and frustration over perceived missed calls boiling over, Vegas started taking liberties. McNabb threw an ugly hit from behind on Oshie and a brouhaha ensued. As Don Taylor would tell you, never pass up a chance to say “brouhaha.” The scrum led to a couple ten-minute misconducts, one of them to Oshie himself.
  • With Oshie heading to the dressing room, Brett “Molly” Connolly took his place on the power play and came through with the 6-2 goal at 5-on-3. Getting the cross-ice pass, Connolly patiently walked into the slot before beating a scrambling Fleury.
  • Like I said in the intro, I don’t think you can count out Vegas just yet. But now they have to win three games in a row against a Washington team whose best player might not even be Ovechkin. Kuznetsov had four assists in this game, raising his playoff-leading point total to 31 points in 23 games.