Vegas Golden Knights: The Good, The Bad, The Ugly from Game 5 elimination
Let’s go through The Good, The Bad & The Ugly from Game 5 for the Vegas Golden Knights.
It was a crushing 3-2 loss in Overtime for the Vegas Golden Knights, who were eliminated from the Western Conference Final with the Dallas Stars advancing through to the Stanley Cup Final.
Built to win right now, this was a huge and bitter disappointment for the Golden Knights, who now face an interesting and busy off-season.
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Game 5 started perfectly for Vegas too with Chandler Stephenson beating Anton Khudobin with a slick deke after a stunning pass from Shea Theodore.
Reilly Smith added a second for the Knights just 15 seconds into the third period, but that was as good as it got for the Golden Knights.
Jamie Benn made it a one-goal game midway through the final period, before Joel Kiviranta converted on the power play to take the game to Overtime.
And, after rookie defenseman Zach Whitecloud was sent to the box for Delay of the Game, Denis Gurianov delivered the deadliest of knockout blows with a wicked one-timer on the power play to eliminate the Vegas Golden Knights from the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The championship dream is now over for the Golden Knights so let’s go over The Good, The Bad & The Ugly from a series-ending Game 5…
The Good
Theodore’s Play – There is no doubt that the biggest positive to come out of The Bubble for the Golden Knights was the high-end play of Shea Theodore.
After carving out a career-year during the regular-season, Theodore elevated his game once more in the postseason and is rapidly establishing himself as one of the best offensive defensemen in the entire National Hockey League.
And he showed exactly why in Game 5.
With the game still without a goal midway through the first period, Theodore conjured up a slice of magic.
Puck on his stick, Theodore saw that Chandler Stephenson had the Dallas defense beat and proceeded to put a sublime and inch-perfect pass onto the stick of the forward, who got separation before beating Anton Khudobin on the breakaway.
It was a stunning play by Theodore and it was a play that was made constantly by the Hall of Famer Scott Niedermayer.
If Shea Theodore can carve out a similar career to that of the great Niedermayer, then the Golden Knights will be incredibly happy indeed.
Robin Lehner – The elite goalie wasn’t to blame for this loss and he was arguably one of the standout performers for the Golden Knights throughout the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
He gave his team a chance to win every single game and, ultimately, he was let down by a combination of bad defense and a stagnant offense that slumped at the worst possible time.
Lehner made 23 saves on 26 shots in Game 5 and, with reports suggesting that a deal to remain in Sin City beyond this season is close, the Golden Knights may well have just found their new long-term starting netminder.
The Bad
Vegas’ PK – The Golden Knights were stellar on the penalty kill throughout the Western Conference, killing eight out of nine penalties against the Stars prior to Game 4.
However, it failed them when they needed it most.
After going 0/3 on the power play themselves (more on that later), the Golden Knights had two huge man advantages to kill but failed both times.
The first of which came at the end of the third period with Joel Kiviranta scoring the game-tying goal that sent this contest to Overtime.
Then, after defenseman Zach Whitecloud was sent to the box for Delay of Game, the Golden Knights couldn’t get the job done on the PK in Overtime and it resulted in Denis Gurianov scoring the goal that eliminated Vegas.
You need elite play from your special teams in order to be successful in the postseason but, when it really mattered, the Golden Knights failed in that department.
The Power Play – Speaking of which, the Vegas PP left a lot to be desired yet again in a game they couldn’t afford to fire blanks on the man advantage.
The Golden Knights went 0/3 on the power play in the second period, where even one goal on the man advantage could have really helped to shut the door on the Stars.
Instead, an ability to strike on the PP left the door wide open and it allowed Dallas to turn the game on its head in the final period.
While this coming off-season will be a truncated one, the Vegas coaching staff will need to pay a lot of attention to fixing this power play for the 2020-21 season.
Vegas went 5/23 on the man advantage in the series against the Vancouver Canucks, and 3/22 in the Western Conference Final.
That shouldn’t be the case when you boast the plethora of offensive weapons the Golden Knights have.
The Ugly
DeBoer’s Coaching – A large chunk of this postseason disappointment has to fall on the shoulders of Peter DeBoer, who was hired to push the right buttons and take this team to the promised land.
However, DeBoer did anything but press the right buttons and refused to budge from a system and a style of play that was shut down by the Stars in Game 1.
While the Golden Knights dominated every game they played in, they failed to generate a lot of high-quality chances and they were being picked off by Dallas.
Four games should have been enough of a sample size for DeBoer to know something had to be changed for a must-win Game 5, but he stuck to his guns and was ultimately burned.
And, to make things worst, DeBoer failed to make any major adjustments throughout the course of Game 5 when the going got tough, leading to a disappointing conclusion to life inside The Bubble.
Next. Sights & Sounds from Game 5. dark
DeBoer isn’t going anywhere but he will have to learn from the mistakes made in the Western Conference Final in order to make sure the Golden Knights live up to expectations in 2020-21.