AP
Vegas Golden Knights’ Ryan Reaves (75) and Vancouver Canucks’ Antoine Roussel (26) rough it up during the third period in Game 1 of an NHL hockey second-round playoff series, Sunday, Aug. 23, 2020, in Edmonton, Alberta. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP)
Tuesday, Aug. 25, 2020 | 2 a.m.
Game 1 went about as well as the Golden Knights could have hoped against the Vancouver Canucks.
The Golden Knights dominated play in a 5-0 victory against the Canucks, who are still searching for their first regulation victory all-time against Vegas.
Here are three keys to a Vegas victory in Game 2, sponsored by Credit One Bank. The game starts at 6:45 p.m.
Play the mental game
This series features two of the biggest agitators in the league in Vegas’ Ryan Reaves and Vancouver’s Antoine Roussel. One game in, it’s advantage Reaves. It was clear in Game 1 how much of an impact Reaves had, even without getting on the scoresheet. He had a playoff career-high 11 hits, and was seen making clucking noises from the bench and heard chirping throughout the contest. On the other side, the Golden Knights were asked about Roussel postgame and laughed him off. Reilly Smith said he was hurting his own team and Jonathan Marchessault said that’s why pay Reaves the big money. Roussel was even assessed a 10-minute misconduct penalty for apparently hugging Reaves in the third period. The Golden Knights are up 1-0 on the ice, but seem to be up 1-0 in the mind games, too.
Improve faceoff numbers
Players and coach Pete DeBoer were both asked after Game 1 where they can improve, and everyone said the faceoff circle, where the Golden Knights won just 37% of the time. None of the four centers hit the break-even point, and Chandler Stephenson managed to win just four of his 14 draws (29%). On the bright side, it didn’t matter at all. The Golden Knights recovered the puck most times immediately after the Canucks won the faceoff, and the possession numbers were skewed so much in the Golden Knights’ favor you’d think they were ones winning all the faceoffs. Still, it was the obvious weakness in an otherwise near-perfect game and something they would like to improve.
Keep up the pressure
One of the keys to Game 1 was stopping Quinn Hughes and Elias Pettersson, the Canucks’ two young superstars. On Sunday neither even had a shot on goal, so mission accomplished in that regard. When Pettersson was on the ice at 5-on-5, the Canucks had just 24% of the expected goals and Hughes helped his team to just 33%. The Golden Knights had no issues with the Canucks’ best players, and if that continues this is going to be a short series.
Justin Emerson can be reached at 702-259-8814 or [email protected]. Follow Justin on Twitter at
