FSM Essential Playoff Recap: VGK vs Blackhawks - Round 1 - Game 4 - 8/15/2020

FSM Essential Recap: VGK vs Blackhawks – 8/17/2020

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The Chicago Blackhawks defeated the Golden Knights 3-1 to extend their season for at least another 48 hours.

 

The storyline of this one was simple. VGK threw everything, including the kitchen sink at Corey Crawford, and he stood tall. This was one of his best playoff performances.

Chicago had an early goal by Drake Caggiula that Robin Lehner had no chance to stop. Matthew Highmore got a fluky one to find the back of the net off Lehner’s head. VGK had an immediate response when Shea Theodore slapped a one-timer by Crawford.

That is how the first period would end, and the only other goal to be scored was an empty netter by Chicago.

Give all the credit to Crawford. At one point in the third period, Vegas held an 83-38 shots attempted advantage over Chicago. Vegas put a total of forty-nine shots on goal to Chicago’s twenty-five. This is the type of game that Vegas wins nine times out of ten. Please do not discount the overall performance of the Blackhawks, they had a solid game, but Vegas will not come out of this one thinking they did anything wrong.

 

With Chicago’s win, we get another round of the “which goalie will be starting for Vegas” questions.

 

Lehner did what he was supposed to do tonight; he gave his team a great chance to win. Marc-Andre Fleury did what he was supposed to do on Saturday; he gave his team an excellent opportunity to win. If I had to handicap it, there is a 55% chance Marc Andre Fleury starts on Tuesday.

The absence of Paul Stastny has hurt our scoring. With Stastny in the lineup, Vegas has scored eight goals in round 1. Without Stastny, Vegas has scored three goals in round 1.  Reilly Smith and Jonathan Marchessault have also been held off the scoresheet since Stastny went down.

Vegas is still in a great place, and tonight’s game was hopefully just a minor flesh wound. However, it is worth noting that Vegas is now 0-4 in their last four games when they had a chance to eliminate their opponent before going 3-0.

 

Quotes of the game:

 

“It’s probably as good as he’s ever been,” Chicago defenseman Duncan Keith said. “I don’t know what the shots were, but they had a lot of shots, and he made himself big every time. There weren’t a whole lot of rebounds lying around either, so that was a big part of that. He was our best player tonight.”

“The mood in the room is that if we continue to play like that for Game 5, we’re going to give ourselves a heck of a chance to win the game,” Vegas defenseman Nate Schmidt said.

“I think, for the most part, we kept them to the outside when they did have those looks where they had maybe a second or two to hold it and shoot,” Corey Crawford said. “It wasn’t really coming from the middle, so that helps me a lot to be on the angle and give up less net.”

“It went in the net, so I wasn’t very happy about it,” Robin Lehner said. “It’s a game of mistakes. I made a mistake. It was a pretty good shot too. But I have to have that.”

 

 

Series game schedule:

 

Tuesday, Aug. 11: Vegas 4, Chicago 1
Thursday, Aug. 13: Vegas 4, Chicago 3 (OT)
Saturday, Aug. 15: Vegas 2,  Chicago 1
Sunday, Aug. 16: Chicago 3, Vegas 1
Tuesday, Aug. 18: Chicago at Vegas – 7:30 pm
*Thursday, Aug. 20: Vegas at Chicago – TBD
*Saturday, Aug. 22: Chicago at Vegas – TBD

*if necessary

 

 

The magic number for the Golden Knights to hoist Lord Stanley’s Cup remains at 13. Tuesday’s game will be on NBC Sports Net at 7:30 pm PT.

VGK vs Blackhawks

Go Knights Go!

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-Chris Gawlik – Franchise Sports Media

Twitter: TDChrisG

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