The Vegas Golden Knights have turned a cute underdog story into a national phenomenon this season, but suddenly they've gone from Cinderella to the pumpkin carriage after dropping back-to-back Stanley Cup Final games.
The Washington Capitals have looked great the past two games, but the Golden Knights have had their fair share of chances to take the games they lost.
Fans don't seem to have the same unwavering confidence that the cup will call Las Vegas home. And maybe it's the Knights' fault for making their earlier NHL playoff series seem easy?
The Stanley Cup Final is proving to be tough for the first year team, but what many people forget is that playoff series should be tough. There's nothing wrong with playing a long series and both coaches having to make adjustments to pull out close games.
In fact, fans should be thrilled about the Golden Knights' current position and the prospects of them bringing home the Stanley Cup. Here are 5 reasons the Golden Knight will win tonight's game and set themselves up to win the entire series.
1. Haven't lost 3 games in a row since Feb. 26 thru March 2.
The Golden Knights are great at making adjustments and their ability to stop prolonged skids is a result of those adjustments. Expect them to shake a few things up and get back to pressuring the Caps.
2. Fleury had a great Game 3 despite the loss.
Fleury made some great saves in Game 3 and most of the other goalies in the league let that game get out of hand in the same situations. The fact VGK was only down one midway through Game 3 is because of Fleury's clutch saves.
3. The teams have the same number of goals in this series, 10.
The Capitals have seemed to hit another gear offensively in the past two games but when you add up the total number of goals scored they aren't blowing away the Knights. Both teams have 10 goals scored in this series, which shows just how evenly matched these two teams are.
4. Whoever wins shots on goal wins the game.
One stat seems to be the determining factor for this series – whoever puts more shots on goals wins. The Golden Knights won the battle in Game 1 and took the victory but in Games 2 and 3 the Caps were able to block more shots and limit the number of times the puck actually threatened the net.
5. Capitals have a history of being bounced in 6 and 7 games.
This year is an anomaly for the Washington Capitals in terms of playoff success. The team has made the playoffs all but one time in the past 10 seasons but have lost 8 times in the conference semis or finals in that span. More importantly, all but one of those series losses came in long drawn out series. The Penguins were notorious for crushing the hopes of their fan base and their goalie for those series was none other than Marc-Andre Fleury.