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Vegas Golden Knights Battle Washington Capitals On Super Bowl Sunday

By Richard Cardinale

LAS VEGAS, NV - DECEMBER 23: Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Nate Schmidt (88) and Washington Capitals center Jay Beagle (83) battle for the puck during the second period of a regular season game between the Washington Capitals and the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday, Dec. 23, 2017, in Las Vegas. (Photo by: Marc Sanchez/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NV - DECEMBER 23: Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Nate Schmidt (88) and Washington Capitals center Jay Beagle (83) battle for the puck during the second period of a regular season game between the Washington Capitals and the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday, Dec. 23, 2017, in Las Vegas. (Photo by: Marc Sanchez/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) /
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Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury faces an old rival back east.

The last time these two teams faced off was back in Vegas at T-Mobile Arena when the Vegas Golden Knights shutout the Washington Capitals 3-0. Marc-Andre Fleury stopped all 26 shots he faced to earn the shutout and made a couple of timely saves. On the offensive side, the Golden Knights scored all three goals in the first 15 minutes of the first period.

Alex Tuch, Oscar Lindberg, and William Karlsson beat Braden Holtby early on to secure the win. The balanced Vegas scoring attack continued as eight different Golden Knights registered at least one point each. It was one of the marquee victories of the entire season for the expansion club.

However, its time to turn the page to Super Bowl Sunday where our Golden Knights play these same Capitals for a morning showdown. It will be Philipp Grubauer taking on the Flower this time around. Dating back to last postseason, Fleury has an incredible shutout streak going over Washington of 127:31. Head Coach Gerard Gallant also is making a change to his blue line slotting Brad Hunt in for Jason Garrison.

I’m dying to see how this matchup goes the second time around because the Golden Knights contained Alex Ovechkin for much of the previous game. Ovechkin did have three shots on goal, but he wasn’t a factor creating offensive scoring chances like he usually does. And with four power-play opportunities against Vegas, you’d think the Capitals would find a way to give the puck to their star player more, but it didn’t come to fruition.

Let’s not forget how dangerous the Caps team is though. They’re first in the Metropolitan division, and Ovechkin is a big reason why as he leads the league in goals with 32. Evgeny Kuznetsov and Nicklas Backstrom are also two of the leagues best playmakers combining for 67 assists.

Brendan Leipsic was a force early on in the previous game against the Caps earning a breakaway against Holtby who made a fantastic save. Then just moments later Leipsic got another great shot off on Fleury and Tuch followed up on the rebound to stuff it in the back of the net. The Golden Knights need to find a way to get Tuch back on the horse.

Tuch only has one assist in his last 11 games as he may be hitting that rookie wall. The Syracuse, New York native must use his big body in front of the opposing netminder. That’s one of the essential ways he’ll start scoring at a reasonable rate again.

Lindberg also hasn’t notched a single point since this game against Washington on December 23rd. He’s been disappointing only because he had a hot stretch in October scoring five goals. Since then he only tallied two goals and hadn’t produced many quality scoring chances in that timeframe.

Next: Vegas Golden Knights Have Shocking Record Without Brendan Leipsic

All in all, this should be a very entertaining hockey game. Don’t forget this game is on at 9:30 AM PT on AT&T Sportsnet. Dave Goucher and Shane Hnidy will have the call for puck drop at Capital One Arena before the big Super Bowl between the Philadelphia Eagles and the New England Patriots. Who do you have winning Super Bowl LII?

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