Stanley Cup Game 1 Goes to Vegas

Written By: Mitch McCombs

Monday, May 29th

Vegas Takes Game One, Stanley Cup Record 4 Lead Changes Take Place

Vegas 6, Washington 4

The Golden Knights surprisingly came out with the win in game 1, although they didn’t perform up to expectations. The Capitals were keeping the puck in the Knights defensive zone for a good amount of the game. Even though watching the game, it appeared as though Vegas was getting blown out of the water,  but yet they have stats to prove otherwise. 

The Knights out shot Washington 34 to 28, even having been in their own defensive zone for a better portion of the 2nd and 3rd periods. They also dominated with 22 takeaways while the Capitals only had 9. Improvement could have been used when trying to contain the Capitals top players, like on John Carlson’s goal, Riley Smith left him open, resulting in a goal to tie the game at 3 a piece. 

The Knights were just sloppy during some points of the game, especially on defense. They had multiple scoring chances, but Holtby was holding them to nearly no opportunities with how he played his game.

The Capitals played a good, fast paced and physical game against the Knights. They out-hit the Knights 38 to 25, beating them up all game long with their physical play. T.J. Oshie outplayed his teammates all game by playing physical and setting up scoring chances for the Caps and landing 2 assists. Tom Wilson also played a physical game with 9 hits. He also put up a goal during this game to put them up 4-3 in the 3rd period. The defense of the Capitals also looked a bit sloppy in this game. They gave up a lot of scoring opportunities for the Knights to convert on which they did with a few of them especially in the 3rd period when the Golden Knights 4th line went to work to score 3 goals. 

This is going to be a fun, fast, high scoring, and physical series. There is no way that by the end of this series you will be disappointed with how the two teams have performed. Game 1 was nerve racking for fans of both teams, and players as well, because it was a back and forth game and no team could hold onto a strong lead until the end of the game when the Knights scored on an empty net goalwith just 2 seconds to play. I still have this series going to the Golden Knights in 6 games.