The Caps have dropped Game One on the road in an explosive 10-goal affair that made neither goalie look like a Conn Smyth winner.
First up was Colin Miller, who slapped a power-play goal before the game was eight minutes old. The Caps woke up with a Brett Connolly deflection, and they briefly held a lead after Nick Backstrom backhanded a goal, but Bill Karlsson cleaned up a rebound to keep it tied after one period.
The Caps looked better in the second, but Vegas struck first again anyway off the stick of Reilly Smith. TJ Oshie sent a gorgeous pass to John Carlson for an equally gorgeous goal, and we were again tied after two periods.
Under threat of Tom Wilson, Marc-Andre Fleury own-goal’d in the third, but then Ryan Reaves scored in defiance of all law and reason to tie it yet again. Devante Smith-Pelly’s failed clear gave Vegas the lead when Tomas Nosek finished on a great pass from Shea Theodore. David Perron added empty netter late.
Knights beat Caps 6-4. Knights lead the series 1-0.
- After a delightfully absurd but also oppressively long pregame ceremony, the first period of the game clocked in at 47 minutes in length. That was 47 minutes of the Vegas Golden Knights being relentless in all three zones. Their forecheck too often found the Caps unaware or complacent with the puck, so turnovers were common and breakouts were nonexistent.
- The solo exception: The Lars Eller line, who seemed to do fine against Cody Eakin‘s line (until Andre Burakovsky’s beef-up boarding penalty). For a long while Brett Connolly owned the team’s only shot on goal, so it was fitting he was the first to score as well, deflecting a tumbling puck past Marc-Andre Fleury.
- While Vegas controlled play, they did not get the edge in quality. Scoring chances and high-danger chances were roughly equal through two periods.
- Two things I did not expected Nick Backstrom‘s banged up body: big hits and a halfhand backhand goal. I got both.
- After two games and two-thirds shutting out Tampa, Braden Holtby returned to the land of mortals. With all the chaos in front of him, I’m not surprised that Holtby looked less composed. He seemed to settle down just as the rest of the team found their footing in the second.
- Meanwhile, Marc-Andre Fleury just straight-up scored an own goal. Haha. Delightful.
This is the arena where Game 1 *isn't* being played. #StanleyCup https://t.co/RB3DCLvJLe
— NHL (@NHL) May 29, 2018
- Twelve thousand, four hundred fifty eight fans packed Capital One Arena to watch the game on the big screen in each other’s company. That’s an amazing turnout for what was basically TV night. I love you all.
- The Caps did not score on their lone power play, a too-many-men penalty, I was very encouraged by the puck movement. Should they ever get another man advantage, I trust good thing will happen.
- For it to count, Ryan Reaves‘ goal required his cross-check on John Carlson just prior to go uncalled. In a game this close, that missed call is tremendously impactful in all the worst ways.
Ryan Reaves scores to tie it up 4-4 pic.twitter.com/FeK6aFxLKI
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) May 29, 2018
- It got worse a few minutes later, when Tom Wilson put a huge, late hit on Jonathan Marchessault. Marchessault went to the quiet room for concussion screening while the referees retconned penalties. Wilson absolutely deserved a penalty, but so too did Reaves. By not calling the latter, the refs have to improvise and bullshit everything that follows to make up for it. The NHL just shoots themselves in the foot with this stuff, which I say to distract from the other point I’m about to make which is that Tom Wilson should not play like this because it ruins people’s lives, okay hopefully no one saw that and you’ll be nice to me in comments.
Tom Wilson's late hit on Jonathan Marchessault pic.twitter.com/QhWfEbyMdK
— Ian Oland (@ianoland) May 29, 2018
- John Carlson hit the post twice tonight. So he was a fraction of an inch from a hat trick, after which his next contract would be so big he’d technically own the team.
I Miss Joe B of the night
This was a game of chess played with firecrackers, a duel obscured by explosions. Each time a team eked out a lead, the other team responded appropriately. And with so many goals, it should have been an excellent night for fans, but this is the NHL, and they can’t not shoot themselves in the testicles. The Reaves no-call, then the handwringing over Wilson’s bad hit, then the mysterious no-calls for the duration of play all serve to make the Stanley Cup Final look like Calvinball.
Oh, and the Caps. Yeah, the Caps need to dial it in here. They were too punchy to start, too delicate. The Knights are too tenacious for a finesse game. If victory can be had, it’ll require hits – clean ones – to make space. So let’s see that on Wednesday please.
