Grüße und Vorstellung » that not to happen

Marc-Andre Fleury has been the foundation for the Vegas Golden Knights‘ run to the Stanley Cup Final.

Yet while he has a 1.68 goals-against average and .947 save percentage Texans Jordan Akins Jersey , he’ll be the first one in the locker room to credit the defensemen in front of him.

”It’s a team game – win as a team, lose as a team,” said Fleury, who looks to become the 11th goaltender in NHL history to have his name on the Cup at least four times – and the fourth of that group to win with multiple teams.

”These guys are a big part of our success. We’re well balanced, we got some veteran guys, some younger guys, got some offensive guys, some defensive guys playing together. Those guys have been rallying all playoffs, trying to help me out, blocking shots and letting me see the puck, so it’s been a lot of fun.”

The pairings of Nate Schmidt and Brayden McNabb, Shea Theodore and Deryk Engelland, and Colin Miller with Luca Sbisa or Jon Merrill, have helped the Golden Knights become a very tight defensive team during the playoffs, something that will have to carry into Game 1 at T-Mobile Arena, on Monday against the Washington Capitals.

Schmidt has developed into the team’s top defenseman after struggling to find consistent ice time in Washington last season, when he averaged 15:29 on the ice. The fifth-year pro leads the Golden Knights with an average 22:14 on the ice and brings a familiarity to the Final, having played with Washington’s top scorers Evgeny Kuznetsov (24 points) and Alex Ovechkin (22), who rank first and second Terrelle Pryor Sr. Jersey Jets , respectively, in overall playoff scoring.

”I know a lot of those guys, I know what they like to do,” said Schmidt, who has six points (2 goals, 4 assists) in the postseason. ”For what I want to do on the ice, it helps me and I think it helps our group as well that we’ve had success against them. But it’s a whole other type of animal this time of year.”

The Golden Knights swept the regular-season series against Washington, winning 3-0 on Dec. 23 in Vegas and 4-3 on Feb. 4 in D.C.

With five more Capitals have double-digit points – Nicklas Backstrom (16), John Carlson (16), T.J. Oshie (15), Lars Eller (13) and Tom Wilson (11) – Vegas will need one last big effort from a defensive group that has helped allow the second-least number of goals among playoff teams that have played 10 games.

Washington coach Barry Trotz said he knows the Golden Knights have three dynamic duos that each feature one offensive guy who can skate and move the puck – that being Miller, Theodore, and Schmidt – paired with more of a traditional stay-at-home defenseman who isn’t afraid to get physical, block shots and slow the opposing team’s pace – such as Sbisa, Engelland, Merrill and McNabb.

”But they still bring some offense, too,” Trotz said. ”They play 5-5-5 all three zones just as we talk about with the Capitals. Watch the TV, you see five guys in the picture Josh Rosen Cardinals Jersey , then you’re doing good.”

Schmidt said using speed against them worked during the regular season, by moving their feet more than Washington did, and helping to develop plays in transition. But again, this is the Stanley Cup Final, and Schmidt said he knows Washington can skate well and will be a challenge.

”I think another thing is just making sure you’re really disciplined against this team,” Schmidt said. ”You’ve got to make sure you stay out of the penalty box, keep Ovechkin off the power play and keep that unit off the power play.”

To Vegas’ credit, however, it does have the fourth-best penalty kill in the playoffs, stopping 82.5 percent of the power plays it has seen. And, as Sbisa said, that circles back to Fleury and the chemistry that’s been built with the defensive pairings.

”That bond is definitely there,” Sbisa said. ”You don’t have to worry about anything else, play it loose, play to your strengths and that’s what we’ve been doing as a group. The six Ds that are playing that night, they’re tight; we play as a three-man group (with Fleury). Flower’s a guy that doesn’t take too much credit for himself, even though he should, because he’s been that good and it’s obviously nice to hear stuff like that coming out of his mouth. But he definitely deserves all the credit here.

”As a D-man, knowing that you have the best goalie in the world behind you http://www.saintsauthorizedshops.com/authentic-rick-leonard-jersey , saving you when something happens, it makes a huge difference because it allows you to play your game. Praise has to go both ways.”

Overtime came at the perfect time for the Washington Capitals.

Outshot, outskated and outplayed by the Columbus Blue Jackets in a lopsided third period of Game 5, the Capitals went into their locker room at intermission Saturday with no choice but to talk about what went wrong in blowing yet another lead.

”We knew we had to be better,” Nicklas Backstrom said.

Better they were in a dominant overtime that Backstrom ended 11:53 in with his second goal of the game to give Washington a 4-3 victory and a 3-2 lead over the Blue Jackets in the first-round series. Thanks to goaltender Braden Holtby making 15 of his 39 saves in the third period and Backstrom’s first two goals of these playoffs, the Metropolitan Division champions can close out Columbus on the road Monday in Game 6.

”I think we’ve always regrouped at intermissions and came back,” said Holtby, who has stopped 102 of 109 shots since replacing Philipp Grubauer in net two periods into Game 2. ”It shows our confidence and our experience in a lot of areas.”

The playoff-tested Capitals took punch after punch when they were outshot 16-1 by the Blue Jackets in the third period, including Oliver Bjorkstrand’s deflection goal 2:30 in that tied it. Holtby made saves in quantity and quality, most notably on Columbus No. 1 center Pierre-Luc Dubois on a rebound and again on an attempt to bat the puck out of the air, to get to overtime for the fourth time in five games this series.

That’s when everything changed. Suddenly, two-time Vezina Trophy-winning goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky was besieged, having to stop Alex Ovechkin and John Carlson from point-blank range early in overtime.

”We just came out as a new team,” Carlson said. ”We’ve went out and attacked in every game that we’ve won. That was our mindset, and I think we played a great overtime.”

Overtime has been the difference in this series. Artemi Panarin and Matt Calvert scored the winners in Games 1 and 2 for Columbus, Lars Eller in double OT in Game 3 for Washington and then Backstrom in Game 5, deflecting defenseman Dmitry Orlov’s shot past Bobrovsky to send the sellout crowd in Washington into a frenzy.

”I got a tip on it, and it’s usually what happens in the playoffs,” Backstrom said. ”Tip goals or rebound goals. That’s the way it is.”

The road team won the first four games of a Stanley Cup playoff series for the fifth time over the past 10 years. Holtby’s 39 saves Adidas Joe Thornton Jersey , including a big one on Bjorkstrand in overtime, made sure the home team won Game 5 for the fifth time.

”One of our best players, our goalie, was our best player again,” Washington forward Brett Connolly said. ”He’s come in here and he’s played three amazing games. Kudos to him. He’s been great for us and we obviously need him to keep playing this way if we’re going to be successful.”

Bobrovsky didn’t play poorly other than perhaps a soft goal allowed to Evgeny Kuznetsov early in the second period. After two goals from Matt Calvert and his team’s effort wasn’t enough Saturday, coach John Tortorella is betting on ”Bob” to come up big again in Game 6.

”Two good goalies. Good game,” Tortorella said. ”We’ll be back here for Game 7.”

It’s now the Capitals’ goal to avoid a Game 7 at home, where they’re 2-5 over the past decade in the Ovechkin era. Coach Barry Trotz, whose team has lost the past two times they’ve played Game 7 at home, shrugged off Tortorella’s assurance of a game in Washington on Wednesday after players insisted they know what to expect from Columbus in Game 6.

”What else is he going to say?” Trotz said. ”It’s our job for that not to happen.”

NOTES: Bobrovsky allowed four goals on 29 shots. … Thirteen of the Capitals’ past 24 playoff games have been decided in overtime. … With an assist on T.J. Oshie’s power-play goal, Carlson has eight points through five games. … Ovechkin led all players with seven shots on goal. … Calvert scored twice in a playoff game for the second time in his career. … Blue Jackets C Alexander Wennberg returned after missing Games 2, 3 and 4 following a hit to the head from Tom Wilson. He replaced Sonny Milano in the lineup. … The Capitals made no changes after winning back-to-back games in Columbus, keeping Chandler Stephenson on the second line in the absence of Andre Burakovsky, who’s out for at least the remainder of the series with an upper-body injury.

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