Stanley Cup Final preview

The Washington Capitals and the Vegas Golden Knights are the last two teams standing in the National Hockey League.

The Vegas Golden Knights, a first-year franchise assembled from the spare parts of the league’s 30 other rosters in an expansion draft, are four wins away from doing what many thought was improbable, if not impossible: winning the Stanley Cup in year No. 1.

As a team, Washington has scored the most total goals, with 66, and is sitting pretty with a 3.47 goals-per-game average.

“I’m going to have a lot of fun with it”, Schmidt says through his perma-grin. He’s keeping a sense of humor about this momentous trip: With a straight face Sunday, Ovechkin said Russian President Vladimir Putin had called him to wish him luck, before adding: “I’m just joking”. Incredibly, though 20 points and 14 wins separated the two teams in the regular season, the Stanley Cup final was close until the final two outings. Washington needed 19 (12-7). NEW JERSEY DEVILS – 2012 STANLEY CUP FINAL Knowing what we know now about what the then-Western Conference eight-seed Kings would accomplish in the seasons to come – appearances in three-straight conference finals and another Stanley Cup victory – Los Angeles’ entrance into the Stanley Cup final in 2012 and their eventual six-game victory, which earned the organization its first ever Stanley Cup, isn’t all that surprising.

The exchange produced a roar of laughter from reporters and a cheeky grin from Ovechkin, who produced another one-liner when he concluded his press conference by thanking a Chinese reporter for informing him he’s huge in that country.

“It’s one of the best shots in the league”, Fleury said with a smile, perhaps flashing back to the moment he stopped what appeared to be a surefire goal by Ovechkin with the shaft of his stick in the Penguins’ Game 7 win over the Capitals in the second round previous year.

Ovechkin, a left wing, led the National Hockey League with 49 goals this season and brings a deadly slapshot and physical presence.

“Ovi’s been on a mission”, Caps coach Barry Trotz said.

But he credits his midseason reprieve for a revival that pushed him and Washington into the Stanley Cup Final against the Vegas Golden Knights. But both teams have been exceptional on the road in the postseason.

For many, though, it came when Deryk Engelland – a Las Vegas resident for more than a decade – stood on the ice before the first home game with hardly a dry eye in the crowd.

Washington, which is also led by Evgeny Kuznetsov, reached the Finals one other time in its history, losing to Detroit in four straight in 1998. If the Knights win, they don’t have a captain to raise the Cup first.

Ryan Reaves and Tom Wilson will fight within the first 10 minutes of game one. “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”. “The guys in front of me have been great”. Braden Holtby has been impressive as well for Washington, owning a 2.04 GAA. Fleury has a 1.68 GAA and.947 save percentage a year after helping the Penguins win the Cup. Holtby will take a shutout streak of almost 160 minutes into Monday.

With this series looking like a dead heat, it’s all about performance now and while there are a slew of great players on each team, there are some very clear contenders. McPhee has his fingerprints all over the Washington Capitals’ current team, but after losing his job in April 2014, he wondered if another team would give him a chance.

But no one could have expected a hockey team would also help a city deal with its grief after a gunman killed 58 people on the Las Vegas strip just days before the team’s home opener.