Mark Madden

Mark Madden

The Super Genius of Pittsburgh Sports.Full Bio

 

VEGAS CRAPS OUT

“My goodness! It was wide-open!”

Doc Emrick’s astonishment on NBC mirrored my own watching at home.

Ex-Penguin James Neal is a nailed-on sniper. How on earth did Neal miss 24 square feet of nothing but net when it was 0-0 early in the first period of Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final?

Neal scored in the third period. But that made the score 4-1, Washington. The game was long gone.

The Capitals saved their best for last. Vegas finally ran out of good luck, and smack-dab into a torrent of bad.

Neal is a money player. He’ll bounce back, and play well during the remainder of the series. But it won’t be enough to get Vegas the Stanley Cup.

Washington is a peculiar story. Their roster isn’t as good as it was in each of the previous two seasons. But the Capitals are doing more with less.

The Penguins suddenly don’t look so bad for having lost to the Capitals.

As Jason Mackey points out in the Post-Gazette, the Penguins’ Matt Murray has the best goals-against average (3.18) of goaltenders that have faced Washington in the playoffs. Marc-Andre Fleury checks in at 4.08.

Conn Smythe candidate Evgeny Kuznetsov has a playoff-best 31 points. His lowest production came against the Penguins (six points).

The Penguins got eliminated by a very good team. The likely champions. Maybe it wasn’t the disaster some made it out to be.

As least the @Golden Knights Twitter account has been forced to mostly shut the frig up.


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