“We weren’t playing very well, so maybe we deserved it,” defenseman Brayden McNabb said.
And that came from forward Max Pacioretty 4:09 into the third period of Game 5, when they were already behind 3-0.
When the Golden Knights are at their best, they come in waves, rolling four lines, forechecking, sustaining pressure in the offensive zone, outshooting the opposition, dominating.
I think we go one guy, the other guys are not following there.
“I think with the way the game was going and the lack of success some of our lines have had so far in the series, we tried to jumpstart some guys and look at some different combinations,” DeBoer said.
Forward Mark Stone skated through the neutral zone on the penalty kill and turned over the puck at the offensive blue line, trying to stickhandle through traffic instead of getting the puck deep.
Perhaps Stone was pressing for offense, having scored once in the past 12 games, Vegas behind 2-0.
“We’ve been on a long playoff road here, and we’ve got a lot of unbelievable efforts.
The Golden Knights took a 3-1 lead in the Stanley Cup First Round, then lost two straight and faced elimination in Game 7 against the Minnesota Wild, a team with a defensive structure not unlike the Canadiens’.
We’ve got to go and win a game and get this back to Game 7.
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