Graney: Marc-Andre Fleury at best when Knights needed him
Before his team settled into the sort of rhythm everyone (especially bookmakers) expected, before he chucked the helmet of Canadiens forward Brendan Gallagher across the ice following a skirmish in his crease, Marc-Andre Fleury held serve in the most significant of ways Monday night.
He took Montreal’s best shot and didn’t waver.
After that, his teammates were the ones taking shot after shot after … you get the idea.
The Golden Knights grabbed a 1-0 lead in this best-of-seven NHL semifinal series, taming the Canadiens 4-1 before 17,884 at T-Mobile Arena.
Fleury versus Price
There wasn’t a series preview going that didn’t quickly mention goaltenders, Fleury for the Knights and Carey Price for Montreal. Two greats that should one day have their faces and names and accomplishments adorning Hall of Fame plaques.
But hockey is a weird sport and you need look no further than the first period to understand why.
Someone forgot to tell the Canadiens they are massive underdogs to play for a Stanley Cup Final. They certainly didn’t act the part once play began.
They were the aggressors, physically and otherwise, a team that entered having won seven straight playoff games and not having trailed in any of them. When the siren was cranked and the puck dropped, you got the idea that while they arrived to sweltering temperatures in Las Vegas, the Canadiens had no plans to melt under the moment.
Fleury changed that narrative.
“He has been elite for us all year,” Knights coach Pete DeBoer said. “I thought the (first period) was a feeling-out process. Thankfully, (Fleury) was our best player and allowed us to get our legs.”
Fact: The Canadiens aren’t going to out-skill the Knights. More than anything, Montreal has to take advantage of those high-danger chances they create. It needs a dirty goal — or two, or three — to keep up or earn a lead.
Such opportunity was there. They just couldn’t beat Fleury. He had 12 saves over that opening period. Tone. Set.
Think about these numbers after the first 20 minutes at five-on-five:
Montreal had seven high-danger chances to just one for the Knights.
The Canadiens had an expected goals of 1.65 to 0.28 for the Knights.
The score after one period: Knights 1, Canadiens 0.
Yeah. Weird sport.
Price was fine. He faced 30 shots, and four goals from the Knights could have been seven or eight if not for some terrific saves. But his is not a team that can chase and overcome much of a deficit. It can’t chase the Knights and win this series.
“I don’t feel like I’m playing against Carey,” Fleury said. “I have to worry about the shooters and the guys trying to score on me. Carey is obviously a very good goalie. He’s fun to watch and made some nice saves, but it’s still nice to get a few goals and the win.”
Flipped the script
You want to play with the lead against Montreal and once they had it, the Knights were relentless. They flipped things in the second period — 8-0 on high-danger chances — and were never really threatened.
At different times, usually when Price was facing more and more pressure, a chant of “Fleury’s better!” broke out.
He was Monday. He really was in the first period.
Held serve. Didn’t waver.
“I just tried to do my job and keep the score close,” Fleury said. “Got lucky here and there. The guys did a good job clearing pucks and blocking shots. Once we got that first goal, we took over.”
If you want a blueprint for how best the Knights can advance out of the series, watch back the second and third periods.
As for the first, it was a story told time and again this season.
Too much Marc-Andre Fleury.
Ed Graney is a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing and can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be heard on “The Press Box,” ESPN Radio 100.9 FM and 1100 AM, from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Monday through Friday. Follow @edgraney on Twitter.