The Golden Knights hung on by a petal to grow a 2-1 Western Conference Final lead over the Jets:
There's only one answer here. With 10 minutes left in the game, holding onto a one-goal lead, Flower absolutely wins the game:
You have got to be kidding me pic.twitter.com/g1nguDxT6w
— Pete Blackburn (@PeteBlackburn) May 17, 2018
But what created this nightmare for Marc-Andre Fleury to ward off?
Mark Scheifele and Brayden McNabb race for it, and Scheifele steps in front of McNabb. It looks like Scheifele influences a McNabb turnover, and Blake Wheeler picks it up.
Pierre-Edouard Bellemare has said, of beating Winnipeg's fast, aggressive forecheck, "Your first play has to be a strong play. Any soft plays against a hard forecheck will put the next guy in trouble."
Wheeler beelines toward Fleury, but Nate Schmidt forces Wheeler to circle behind the net. Wheeler hard stops at the left dot, and while Schmidt can skate with him, the hard stop gives the 6'5" forward a little bit of space to do something with the puck before the 6'0" Schmidt's stick can bother him. Here, Wheeler backhands it toward Fleury. It looks like McNabb's stick helps influence an errant Scheifele backhand.
Wheeler claims the puck behind Fleury and circles to the right dot, Schmidt chasing. Again, Wheeler hard stops, but this time, he's on his forehand -- with that fraction of space his reach and quick hands buy him, he fires a hard cross-slot pass to Scheifele in front. Scheifele has subtly backed away from McNabb and blasts a one-timer off a reacting Fleury's right pad. The rebound eludes McNabb, and Scheifele gets another whack at it. Fleury flies across for the stop.
Dream saves by a goaltender are often the result of nightmarish defensive shifts; this was certainly the case here.
Of course, tip your hat to the Jets. Just outstanding work, watching the two-on-two battle between Scheifele-Wheeler and McNabb-Schmidt here was simply mesmerizing.
That said, there are areas for the Golden Knights to look hard at and perhaps improve for Game Four.
First, as mentioned, make a decisive play if you have a chance to clear. Obviously, it's not all on McNabb, as that's Scheifele bearing down at the corner. It's more of a general point. Second, and I think this is more on McNabb, you can't let Scheifele back away like that and get off the one-timer from that location. The gap should be tight enough to step up and block. It looks like McNabb was caught watching Wheeler a little there.
That said, I don't blame McNabb for the second Scheifele chance. That's just a bounce, hard to react to that. It's easy to see why McNabb would be thinking about puck there and not tying up Scheifele's stick.
McNabb admitted Scheifele was his man on the two unbelievable saves Fleury made. Said he owes Flower dinner. #VegasBorn
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) May 17, 2018
I'm not sure what Schmidt can do about this except grow longer arms, but it's a concern, as this match-up between Winnipeg's top line and Vegas's shutdown pairing will go a long way toward deciding this series.
A lot was made of Scheifele-Wheeler's blend of skill, speed, and size; this shift was a healthy display of those attributes.
Pluses
Before a messy third period, however, both McNabb and Schmidt made strong plays to create goals.
McNabb has just stepped up on Wheeler, forcing the puck back. Scheifele comes from behind to pick up the attack, but McNabb hustles to catch him and steal.
He then swings the puck ahead and puts Marchessault in a race with Jacob Trouba, which the prolific winger wins.
"James made a great play along the wall. Broke free," said Tuch. "I was in the right place, right time."
However, it was Schmidt who started everything up with a frankly brilliant play. Watch again:
Schmidt faces a mini two-on-one along the wall here against Kyle Connor and Jack Roslovic.
Great gap by Schmidt -- by the time Connor approaches the blueline, Schmidt has a close stick ready to poke -- this forces Connor to dump it in. Roslovic looks like he's ready to pounce, but Schmidt, in one motion, bats the dump-in down, surprising the Jets forwards. Schmidt moves it forward, Connor and Roslovic caught deep. This play gives Neal and Erik Haula their own outnumbered zone entry, which they take full advantage of.
Minuses
I write about the Knights' poor final frame here:
* What #VegasBorn must improve tonight
— Sheng Peng (@Sheng_Peng) May 18, 2018
* Eakin on luring Wheeler
* Nosek on if his teammates laughed at him after Byfuglien picked him up, "A little bit, maybe."
* Lagace on 🌸's saves, "I was like, Oh...my...God."
Good pre-game reading here: https://t.co/WlHs3hbnwr pic.twitter.com/APhG6nWUWX
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