Golden Knights and Kings face off in Game 4 on Tuesday night in Los Angeles. Game Recap
LOS ANGELES -- The Vegas Golden Knights can become the first NHL team to win the first three Stanley Cup Playoff games in its inaugural season with a victory in Game 3 of the Western Conference First Round against the Los Angeles Kings at Staples Center on Sunday (10:30 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, TVAS, FS-W, ATTSN-RM).
[RELATED: Kings hope to find goals at home in Game 3 | Complete Golden Knights vs. Kings series coverage]
Vegas defeated Los Angeles 2-1 at T-Mobile Arena on Friday when Erik Haula scored at 15:23 of the second overtime to take a 2-0 lead in the best-of-7 series. If the Golden Knights go up 3-0, they would join the Pittsburgh Penguins in 1970 and the Florida Panthers in 1996 as the third NHL team to win its first three playoff games. The Penguins and Panthers each was in its third season in the League.
Here are 5 keys for Game 3:
1. Kings get help on defense
The Kings are determined to hold serve at home, and they'll get some reinforcements on defense. Jake Muzzin is expected to return from an upper-body injury that sidelined him for the final five games of the regular season and the first two games of this series, though coach John Stevens said he's a game-time decision. Drew Doughty will be back in the lineup after he was suspended for Game 2 because of an illegal check to the head of Golden Knights forward William Carrier in the series opener.
The return of Doughty and Muzzin will give the Kings some fresh legs after three of their defensemen played at least 30 minutes in Game 2, with Christian Folin not far behind at 29:56. Alec Martinez played 44:58, breaking Doughty's Los Angeles playoff record of 41:41 set in Game 2 of the 2014 Stanley Cup Final against the New York Rangers.
Stevens is also reuniting "That '70s Line" by putting Tanner Pearson with Jeff Carter and Tyler Toffoli. The trio produced 51 points (21 goals, 30 assists) in the 2014 playoffs, when the Kings won their second Stanley Cup championship.
2. Bang and crash
Los Angeles wants to establish its forecheck to generate more chances after scoring one goal in two games at T-Mobile Arena. The Golden Knights have stood up physically and used their speed to keep the Kings hemmed in their own zone.
"As a defenseman, I know it's tough having to go back that many times in a game, you look up and the other team is putting pucks behind you and being methodical," Nate Schmidt of Vegas said. "It's hard, it's taxing on your body. It just wears you down if you continue to play that way."
3. Quick vs. Fleury
The marquee goaltending matchup of the first round has lived up to its billing. Marc-Andre Fleury of the Golden Knights has made a save on 59 of 60 shots (.983 save percentage, 0.39 goals-against average). He's had to be at the top of his game because Jonathan Quick of the Kings has allowed three goals on 84 shots (.964 save percentage, 1.17 goals-against average) and set a Los Angeles postseason record by making 54 saves in Game 2.
Video: LAK@VGK, Gm2: Quick makes save on odd-man rush
"I don't think they have surprised anybody, to be honest with you," Stevens said of the goaltenders. "Both those guys get excited for games like this. I think they get excited for the playoffs, and their performance is exactly what everybody expected it would be.
The Golden Knights have been more successful in getting behind the Kings defensemen and creating traffic in front of Quick; the Kings need to get more pressure on Fleury and cut down on Quick's workload.
4. Score first
The Kings were among the best in the NHL in the regular season at coming back after falling behind early. They were second with 20 wins (20-26-4) when allowing the first goal and first with 12 wins (12-21-4) when trailing entering the second period. They've been behind 1-0 after the first period each of the first two games of the series, and though they've had more success than most teams at chasing the game, the Kings understand how much more difficult that becomes in the playoffs.
For the Golden Knights, scoring first gave their already-boisterous home crowd even more to be excited about. Getting the first goal in Los Angeles could sap some enthusiasm from the crowd at Staples Center and get the Kings thinking about their struggles at home during the regular season, when they were 23-15-3.
5. Kings need stars to shine
Anze Kopitar, Dustin Brown and Doughty, who were 1-2-3 in scoring for the Kings this season, don't have a point in the series. That has to change for Los Angeles to have a chance to win. Playing at home with the final line change should give the Kings more chances to get their best players into favorable situations, but Stevens said Saturday that matchups will be less of a factor when it comes to his top line of Kopitar, Brown and Alex Iafallo.
Video: LAK@VGK, Gm2: Fleury stops Kopitar's backhander
"I think sometimes it's more about continuity and pace with your own team," Stevens said. "They play [center William] Karlsson a lot against Kopitar. When they were in here, we played Kopi a lot against Karlsson. It's a lot like you play Chicago, you play Kopi against [Jonathan] Toews; you go to Chicago, they play Toews against Kopi."
Golden Knights projected lineup
Jonathan Marchessault -- William Karlsson -- Reilly Smith
Alex Tuch -- Erik Haula -- James Neal
Ryan Carpenter -- Cody Eakin -- David Perron
William Carrier -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Tomas Nosek
Brayden McNabb -- Nate Schmidt
Shea Theodore -- Deryk Engelland
Jon Merrill -- Colin Miller
Marc-Andre Fleury
Malcolm Subban
Scratched: Dylan Ferguson , Oscar Lindberg, Ryan Reaves, Brad Hunt, Tomas Tatar
Injured: Luca Sbisa (lower body)
Kings projected lineup
Alex Iafallo -- Anze Kopitar -- Dustin Brown
Tanner Pearson -- Jeff Carter -- Tyler Toffoli
Tobias Rieder -- Adrian Kempe -- Trevor Lewis
Kyle Clifford -- Nate Thompson -- Torrey Mitchell
Jake Muzzin -- Drew Doughty
Oscar Fantenberg -- Alec Martinez
Dion Phaneuf -- Christian Folin
Jonathan Quick
Jack Campbell
Scratched: Andy Andreoff, Jonny Brodzinski, Paul LaDue, Michael Amadio, Kevin Gravel
Injured: Derek Forbort (lower body)
Status report
Perron appears to be ready to return after missing the final five games of the regular season and the first two games of this series because of an undisclosed injury. Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant called him a game-time decision. ... Tatar will be a healthy scratch. … Iafallo will return to the top line after being a scratch in Game 2.
LOS ANGELES – The Los Angeles Kings demonstrated Sunday how tough they are. All the Vegas Golden Knights did was prove again how good they are.
Battered by the Kings all game, the Knights absorbed all the physical punishment and then scored three times in the third period to beat Los Angeles 3-2 and move within a game of winning their first ever National Hockey League playoff series.
In 2018, speed beats physicality. At least it does when you combine it with the skill, cohesiveness, lineup depth and self-belief the Knights have engineered in their improbable, impossible inaugural season.
Those 51 wins in the regular campaign were not lucky. Vegas is that good. Now the Knights are 3-0 in the Stanley Cup playoffs, too, and can make the final eight with a win in Game 4 here Tuesday.
“We’re going to be in all different situations throughout the playoffs here if we want to make a run,” veteran James Neal said after scoring the 26th playoff goal of his career during the Knights’ late surge. “We knew they weren’t going to go away, knew the (physical) push they were going to have. We just believe in ourselves, believe in our team and we continue to play the right way.”
If people were expecting a market correction or reality check for the Knights in the playoffs, it isn’t happening against the Kings, who played their best game of the series and still lost.
“I think people have been waiting since Game 1 and it hasn’t happened yet,” Vegas centre Cody Eakin said. “We don’t plan on slowing down.”
With Vegas trailing for the first time in the playoffs, Eakin tied it 1-1 at 6:10 of the third period when, after his first shot was blocked by defenceman Dion Phaneuf, the Knight got a second chance and buried Ryan Carpenter’s pass behind goalie Jonathan Quick.
Neal then spun away from Kings defenceman Oscar Fantenberg and fooled Quick with a quick shot through his pads to make it 2-1 at 14:23. And 21 seconds later, William Karlsson converted Reilly Smith’s centring pass after the Vegas forward beat two Kings to puck on the end boards following a lost faceoff.
Anze Kopitar deflected in Fantenberg’s shot to bring the Kings within a goal with 2:04 remaining. But Los Angeles still fell to 0-3 in this series and 1-7 since the Kings won their second of two Stanley Cups four years ago.
“They were relentless on their forecheck, turning it up ice and playing the way we like to play,” Eakin said. “We did a good job weathering it and continuing to move our feet and in the third period we capitalized at the right time.”
Unable through two games to join ’em, the Kings tried to beat ’em on Sunday.
They tried to slow down the Knights the old-fashioned way. Well, the old-fashioned way in playoff hockey. The Kings hammered the Knights physically every chance they could.
Off-ice officials in this series have showered the scoresheet with hits as if they were throwing rice at newlyweds. Los Angeles coach John Stevens noted after Game 1 (127 official hits in 60 minutes) that if the stats were accurate there’d be nobody left to play Game 2.
On Sunday, the Kings were credited with 28 hits in the first 20 minutes. That may have included dirty looks and bad breath. But what was indisputable was the physical intensity with which the Kings attacked the Knights.
On one indicative sequence, Los Angeles winger Dustin Brown tripped Marc-Andre Fleury as the Vegas goalie tried to get across his crease, then steadied himself by chopping down with his stick on the back of defenceman Nate Schmidt’s leg. Had there been a folding metal chair nearby, as there is in wrestling, Brown would have smashed it over someone’s head when the refs weren’t looking.
In more conventional hits, Jake Muzzin knocked down Karlsson, Adrian Kempe threw to the ice Jon Merrill, and Drew Doughty blasted Smith. All in the first five minutes. But between all those early hits, the game was still in the Kings’ zone more than it was the Knights’ half of the ice.
Quick, who was easily the best King in Las Vegas – sorry fat Elvis – for the series’ first two games, made a backdoor save against Colin Miller and bumped Erik Haula’s shot straight up in the air, finding the puck just in time to keep it from tumbling in behind him.
Ironically, amid all the human missiles the Kings were launching, it was overly-aggressive play by the Knights’ Schmidt that led to Los Angeles’ opening goal at 13:14.
The Vegas defenceman drifted behind the net to try to land a check on Brown, who was already engaged with Brayden McNabb, Schmidt’s partner. When the puck squirted to Kopitar, there was no defenceman in front to cover Alex Iafallo, who tucked the puck under the bar for a 1-0 lead that had to be confirmed by a video review.
The official scorer’s pen must have run out of ink in the second period because the Kings were credited with only nine hits, which is akin to pacifism. But L.A. maintained its lead until the Eakin line turned the game on one superb, third-period shift.
“It was for sure the toughest one,” Karlsson said. “They came in hard, they were physical.”
And still the Knights won. That should tell you something.
We’re far beyond the point of debating if the Vegas Golden Knights are “for real,” but the expansion team’s first-year accomplishments keep stacking up to a staggering degree.
The 2018 Stanley Cup Playoffs haven’t ruined the party. In Game 1, the Golden Knights grabbed their first-ever goal, win, and shutout in beating the Los Angeles Kings 1-0. Game 2 brought great drama, as even though Jonathan Quick played an incredible game, Vegas ultimately broke through for the 2-1 win in the waning minutes of double overtime. The Golden Knights leveraged their home-ice advantage during those first two games, but it turns out that a change of venue couldn’t stop them.
This time around, Marc-Andre Fleury was the goalie who was stealing the show, stopping 37 out of 39 shots on goal as the Golden Knights pushed the Kings to the brink of elimination with a 3-2 in.
Yes, that’s right, the VGK are now up 3-0 in this series. In their first crack at a playoff series, they’re already getting their first opportunity to complete a sweep in the postseason.
[NBC’s Stanley Cup Playoff Hub]
At this point, it’s insufficient to call the Golden Knights “quick learners.” Instead, their prodigies on the Mozartian scale; maybe their mascot should be Doogie Howser?
Speaking of quick, that’s how this game turned, echoing the Penguins running away with their contest and the Wild doing the same today.
The Kings carried a 1-0 lead into the third period, but Cody Eakin buried a great David Perron pass to complete a busy sequence, tying things up 6:10 in. The dizzying turn of events happened later, as James Neal followed up his wonderful assist on the overtime game-winner in Game 2 to a sneaky goal to put Vegas up 2-1 with 5:37 left in the third:
Neal’s goal is the rare one Quick would want back, although maybe that’s only relative to this series, as it was a pretty nifty move and release. Just 21 seconds later, the Golden Knights stunned the Kings as Reilly Smith made an outstanding play to set up William Karlsson for what would end up being the game-winner.
Anze Kopitar gave the Kings a chance with a wonderful showing of hand-eye coordination for his first goal of the series with a little more than two minutes remaining in regulation, yet it wasn’t enough to nullify that two-goal burst.
***
The Kings enjoyed a far better showing in Game 3 than in Game 2, demonstrating the difference that Drew Doughty and Jake Muzzin can make in a variety of situations. Of course, the Golden Knights’ big addition mattered as well, as Perron generated that sweet assist on the 1-1 Eakin goal.
Vegas isn’t just sticking with the Kings from a finesse standpoint, either. This has been a physical, sometimes grinding series, and the Golden Knights continue to match L.A. halfway. Between the heated exchanges and the controversial suspension, it’s clear that they’ve had Doughty’s attention the entire way.
Doughty with the rare troll clap in Marchessault’s face pic.twitter.com/kwNi6PuTJI — Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) April 16, 2018
Now, the next and biggest challenge so far: eliminating a team on the brink of their season ending.
So far, the Golden Knights have been exemplary in passing these tests, although the Kings have provide very little breathing room on the scoreboard. Vegas would be foolish to rest on its laurels, either, as they merely need to ask the San Jose Sharks how dangerous this Kings animal can get when it’s backed into a corner.
Game 4 airs on NBCSN on Tuesday, with puck drop slated for 10:30 p.m. ET.
James O’Brien is a writer for Pro Hockey Talk on NBC Sports. Drop him a line at phtblog@nbcsports.com or follow him on Twitter @cyclelikesedins.
