The Vegas Golden Knights took both games from the Washington Capitals in the regular season, but will that translate in the Stanley Cup Final?
And then there was two. The Vegas Golden Knights and Washington Capitals The Stanley Cup will find a new home for the summer in either Washington D.C or Las Vegas, Nevada.
Neither franchise has won hockey’s hockey grail, as both fanbases are starving for their first title. The Capitals have been in the Cup Final once before way back in 1997-98. Washington was swept by the almighty Detroit Red Wings.
As for the Golden Knights, you all know the story. It’s their inaugural season in the NHL, but there’s no doubt this Vegas crowd is passionate about their hockey team. If the Golden Knights do go onto win the Cup, it’ll be the first major professional sports trophy in the cities history.
The Capitals and Golden Knights had fantastic regular seasons as both teams won their respective division and conference championships. But how did they do matching up against each other during the 82-game campaign? Let’s break it all down:
Vegas Golden Knights def Washington Capitals 3-0 at T-Mobile Arena on December 23rd, 2017.
The Golden Knights came out to a roaring start to this one. Former Golden Knight Brendan Leipsic was all over the ice from the beginning of the game. He had not one, but two breakaways that were stopped by Caps goalie Braden Holtby. However, Alex Tuch knocked in a goal on the rebound off of Leipsic’s one on one opportunity.
The fourth line of the Golden Knights joined in on the fun as Oscar Lindberg roofed one past Holtby for a 2-0 lead. Vegas’ transition game paid off big dividends all year long, and this was just another example. Tomas Nosek carried the puck through the neutral zone and found an open seam where Lindberg could pull off a beautiful shot.
A broken play resulted in another Golden Knights goal. Reilly Smith fanned on a shot that was blocked weakly by Brooks Orpik. Jonathan Marchessault picked up the loose puck found Smith who fed William Karlsson with a tremendous cross-ice pass for his 16th goal of the year. The goal gave Vegas a 3-0 lead, and they never looked back.
From that point on, it was the Marc-Andre Fleury show in Las Vegas. The Sorel, Quebec native stopped all 26 shots en route to his first shutout in a Golden Knights uniform. Overall, a full 60-minute effort from the expansion franchise against a full Capitals team. The second meeting between these two clubs was much closer, however.
Vegas Golden Knights def Washington Capitals 4-3 at Capital One Arena on February 4th, 2018.
Chandler Stephenson got Washington on the board first with his fifth of the year. His snipe shot coming down the wing entirely fooled Fleury, and it gave the Caps a 1-0 lead. But the lead went away just like that nine minutes later.
Tuch started the sequence gaining entry into the offensive zone and made a slick drop pass to Pierre- Edouard Bellemare. Bellemare waited for Ryan Carpenter to jump into the play and once he did, he found him and Carpenter made no mistake. His first Golden Knights goal couldn’t have come at a better time as he tied the game just before the teams went into the first intermission.
The second period rolled around, and Matt Niskanen fired one past Fleury’s glove side to put the Capitals back out in front. Evgeny Kuznetsov found Niskanen through a maze of players, and the defenseman scored a highlight reel goal. Vegas fought back very late in the second to this one back to even.
Smith put two shots in a row on Capitals backup goaltender Philipp Grubauer in close and finally banked one in on his third try. Smith’s power-play goal swung the momentum back into the Golden Knights favor only temporarily.
Christian Djoos found a wide open Nicklas Backstrom and tapped one past Fleury. Couldn’t fault Fleury on that one because he literally stood no chance as no one was defending Backstrom. But eight and half minutes later, Vegas answered once again.
Smith’s beauty of a shot coming down the wing beat Grubauer for his second of the game. A swift feed from Marchessault found open space for Smith to speed away and rip one past the Caps backup. After a few minutes of back and forth play, Vegas got their first lead of the game.
Tuch used his size to his advantage, fought off Niskanen and tapped the puck to Carpenter who found Bellemare who was looking for the shot. Bellemare’s shot got blocked, and Tuch made a bull-rush to the net and slipped one past Grubauer. Tuch’s tenth goal gave Vegas a 4-3 lead.
A late push wasn’t enough for Capitals as Vegas comes into Washington and stole this one. Fleury stood tall in enemy territory as he stopped 20 of 23 and made many critical saves down the stretch.
Next: Vegas Golden Knights Will Play Washington Capitals In Stanley Cup Final
All in all, what happened in the regular season doesn’t matter. Although, it’s certainly a confidence booster for the Vegas Golden Knights to score two wins off the Eastern Conference champions. Will they be able to rattle off four more wins to a Cup?