The team’s owner sees his hockey team creating a global influence, of small children running through a sprawling Yu Garden of traditional pavilions and towers and ponds in China while wearing … a T-shirt with Chance on it?
Ed Graney
Ed Graney is a sports columnist for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, covering a variety of topics and the Las Vegas sports scene.
egraney@reviewjournal.com … @edgraney on Twitter. 702-383-4618
History has defined the Golden Knights since their inception. But this is the kind they won’t soon forget. This kind will be talked about for decades to come, and not in a flattering manner.
The Sharks on Sunday night avoided elimination for the second straight game in dramatic fashion, beating the Golden Knights 2-1 in double overtime of Game 6 in this Western Conference quarterfinal before what ultimately became a despondent 18,458 fans at T-Mobile Arena.
San Jose forward Tomas Hertl said the Sharks were better than the Golden Knights and would win Game 6 in Las Vegas to force Game 7 at SAP Center.
This best-of-seven Western Conference quarterfinal series isn’t over because San Jose didn’t want it to be, because they were the better side Thursday night in beating the Golden Knights 5-2.
Here’s how the Knights need to approach Game 5 of the best-of-seven playoff series Thursday night at the SAP Center: Play their game and let the San Jose continue to implode.
Nothing separates playoff teams like the skill of goaltenders, and right now the Golden Knights hold a large advantage thanks to the play of Marc-Andre Fleury.
The star forward from Russia, fresh from signing a one-year, entry level contract, will be wearing a suit instead of skates Tuesday night when the Knights and Sharks meet in Game 4 of a best-of-seven playoff series at T-Mobile Arena.
Golden Knights forward Mark Stone had a hat trick Sunday and has six goals in the first three games, leading a second line that is giving the Sharks all sorts of matchup headaches.
If the idea about March Madness is to survive-and-advance, the Knights on Friday night defined playoff hockey as survive-the-lunacy, and in the process won 5-3 and climbed straight into this best-of-seven Western Conference series.
Home ice for San Jose in the first round of this best-of-seven Western Conference playoff series means for the Knights to advance they would have to win at least one game — and perhaps more — in a place the Sharks were terrific over a majority of the season.
The Golden Knights need to be a whole lot better at everything to have a chance at evening the best-of-seven series against San Jose in Game 2 on Friday, and near the top of such a list is making things far more difficult on a couple star blue liners.
San Jose has come to play in this best-of-seven Western Conference affair with the Golden Knights, and whichever team survives to advance will do so with plenty of black and blue to show for it after the Sharks’ 5-2 victory Wednesday night in Game 1.
Of the three Western Conference opponents the Golden Knights eliminated on their way to a Stanley Cup final as an expansion team last year, San Jose extended things longest in a six-game series.
Iron man Marc-Andre Fleury started 43 of the team’s first 50 games and 59 of its first 71 this season, along the way making his second straight and fourth All-Star game overall and putting the Golden Knights in position for another Stanley Cup run.