Kings look slow in Game 1 shutout by Golden Knights

The Vegas Golden Knights struck first, shutting out the Los Angeles Kings 1-0 on a historic night in Las Vegas.

History was made Wednesday when the first-year expansion Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Los Angeles Kings 1-0, making the series 1-0 as well. Behind a stellar performance by goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, the Golden Knights played an energetic fast-paced puck control game against the veteran Kings.

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First of all, the Kings looked slow — perhaps they hit the town Tuesday night, as they appeared somewhat hungover in this game. From the very start, the Kings never really seemed to get on track. They looked sloppy in their own end and had trouble putting two passes together late in the game when they needed a goal to force overtime. They had no sense of urgency as they pulled Quick for an extra skater with about a minute to go. Coach John Stevens is going to have to find a way to slow down Vegas, as they seemed to rush all night. 

Act like you’ve been there before

The Golden Knights look like a team that has been playing in the Stanley Cup playoffs for years. Quite frankly, they look like the team the dominated at home for most of this season. Short of them only scoring the one goal this evening they looked comfortable, calm, cool and collected as though they are old pros at this. 

The standouts for the Knights were on their fourth line, which seemed to be fired up as winger Will Carrier starting handing out big hits — the first two on Drew Doughty setting the tone for the whole evening. Every time you looked up, Carrier and linemates Tomas Nosek and Pierre-Edouard Bellemare were seemingly shutting the Kings’ second and third lines down and unleashing punishment on the battle-tested Kings.

Quick was outstanding

Jonathan Quick was simply outstanding in Game 1. The only goal he allowed was on a deflection in front of the net with a little bit of traffic. Looking at previous playoffs, opposing teams stressed generating traffic in front of Quick to beat him. Early in the first, Shea Theodore deflected a shot in front of Quick for the game’s only goal.

The Kings spent the rest of the entire game clearing up traffic in front of Quick, allowing him to see shots. The ones that did get through, he made some spectacular saves, going from side to side on a couple of attempts. Late in the third period, he flat-out robbed Tomas Tatar on two separate occasions to keep the Kings in it.

Where is Jeff Carter?

Seemingly missing from tonight’s game was top-scorer Jeff Carter.  Approximately two-thirds of the way through the game it seemed like he hadn’t been on the ice. The truth is he just didn’t show up tonight. It’s unclear if that had more to do with him or the way that the Knights played. Carter was nowhere to be found Wednesday. Short of a few power plays and a few times late in the game, Carter couldn’t find the magic of playoffs past. 

Medieval Times

Finally, the best part of this game may have very well been the scene at center ice pre-game as the Golden Knight fought with a character representing the Kings and of course the Golden Knight was victorious. It looked like a Medieval Times show, only instead of horses, they were on ice skates.

If the Kings want to get back in this series they might want to remember that the Kings men are in fact the Knights. If they don’t find that leadership and energy from playoffs past the Knights just may dethrone these Kings.

Next: 10 reasons Stanley Cup Playoffs are better than NBA Playoffs

It’s only one game, but in the Stanley Cup playoffs momentum and a statement like the Knights made tonight are a dangerous recipe for the two-time Cup winners.

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