The crew of castoffs that carried the expansion Vegas Golden Knights to a division title and two rounds of playoffs wins in a reality-defying season are more than just a feel-good story.
They have proven themselves to be legitimate Stanley Cup contenders.
Marc-Andre Fleury on Sunday was his usual brilliant self with 28 saves in his fourth shutout of the post-season as Vegas benefited from a couple of fortunate bounces to advance to the Western Conference Final with a 3-0 victory over the San Jose Sharks.
Photo: AFP
“It’s a bit crazy thinking about it for sure, but we’re here to win,” defenseman Brayden McNabb said. “We’re not going to get caught up in we shouldn’t be here or whatever. We’re here to win.”
The Golden Knights have done that all season, despite being thrown together at the expansion draft in June last year among players deemed expendable by their former teams.
They won eight of nine games to open the season to take the league by storm, posted 109 points to win a Pacific Division filled with playoff-tested teams and then went 8-2 in the playoffs with a first-round sweep against Los Angeles and a six-game series win over the Sharks.
They became just the third team in NHL history to win multiple series in their first season.
The Toronto Arenas claimed the Stanley Cup in the first post-season in NHL history in 1918 and St Louis won two rounds to win the all-expansion West Division in 1968.
Next up for Vegas is the Western Conference Final against either Winnipeg or Nashville.
The Jets led that series 3-2 heading into Game 6 yesterday.
While the Golden Knights got help from a couple of shots that hit the iron and went out for San Jose, and one that went off the post and into the net for a goal by Nate Schmidt that was only detectable on replay, the recipe for success has been speed, tenacity and depth more than luck.
“We made ourselves a good team,” Fleury said. “We had great chemistry right from the start. We keep improving throughout the season. I feel like we’re using everybody in the lineup to get wins. That’s what’s made us successful.”
Fleury has been a big part of that, capped by his fourth career series-clinching shutout, one shy of Chris Osgood’s NHL record.
Fleury allowed just three goals in the sweep against the Kings, posted shutouts in the opening and closing games against San Jose, and was brilliant in an overtime win in Game 3 over the Sharks, but he has had plenty of help.
William Karlsson scored 43 goals in the regular season and had the overtime winner in Game 3 of this series. Jonathan Marchessault is tied for the team lead with 11 points this post-season, including the first goal in the clincher against the Sharks.
Even the fourth line played a big role on Sunday by controlling the puck and hemming San Jose in their defensive zone.
“We’re having a lot of fun in this room,” Schmidt said. “”The guys have just been having a blast all year with each other. I think that we’ve done a lot more than we thought we were capable of, but we continue to set the bar to new heights with our group. We continue to just set new expectations for yourself. This group believes in each other and that’s more than anything you can ask for.”
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
Rafael Nadal on Wednesday said the upcoming French Open would be the moment to “give everything and die” on the court after his comeback from injury in Barcelona was curtailed by Alex de Minaur. The 22-time Grand Slam title winner, back playing this week after three months on the sidelines, battled well, but eventually crumbled 7-5, 6-1 against the world No. 11 from Australia in the second round. Nadal, 37, who missed virtually all of last season, is hoping to compete at the French Open next month where he is the record 14-time champion. The Spaniard said the clash with De Minaur was
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but