the Vegas ice with the in-house crew.

**elaine95** 06 ноя 2018, 07:56

SAN JOSE http://www.billscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-josh-allen-jersey , Calif. (AP) The crew of castoffs that carried the expansion Vegas Golden Knights to a division title and two rounds of playoffs wins in a reality-defying season are more than just a feel-good story.They’ve proven themselves to be legitimate Stanley Cup contenders.Marc-Andre Fleury was his usual brilliant self with 28 saves in his fourth shutout of the postseason and Vegas benefited from a couple of fortunate bounces to advance to the Western Conference Final with a 3-0 victory over the San Jose Sharks on Sunday.”It’s a bit crazy thinking about it for sure,” defenseman Brayden McNabb said. ”But we’re here to win. We’re not going to get caught up in we shouldn’t be here or whatever. We’re here to win.”The Golden Knights have done that all season despite being thrown together at the expansion draft last June among players deemed expendable by their former teams. They won eight of nine games to open the season to take the league by a bit of shock, posted 109 points to win a Pacific Division filled with playoff-tested teams and then gone 8-2 in the playoffs with a first-round sweep against Los Angeles and a six-game series win over the Sharks.They became just the third team in NHL history to win multiple series in its first season. The Toronto Arenas won the Stanley Cup in the first postseason in league history in 1918 and St. Louis won two rounds to win the all-expansion West Division in 1968.Next up for Vegas is the Western Conference Final against either Winnipeg or Nashville. The Jets lead that series 3-2 heading into Game 6 at home on Monday night.While the Golden Knights got help from a couple of shots that hit the iron and went out for San Jose and one that went off the post and into the net for a goal by Nate Schmidt that was only detectable on replay, the recipe for success has been speed, tenacity and depth more than luck.”We made ourselves a good team,” Fleury said. ”We had great chemistry right from the start. We keep improving throughout the season. I feel like we’re using everybody in the lineup to get wins. That’s what’s made us successful.”Fleury has been a big part of that, capped by his fourth career series-clinching shutout, one shy of Chris Osgood’s NHL record.Fleury allowed just three goals in the sweep against the Kings, posted shutouts in the opening and closing games against San Jose and was brilliant in an overtime win in Game 3 over the Sharks.But he has had plenty of help. William Karlsson scored 43 goals in the regular season and had the overtime winner in Game 3 of this series. Jonathan Marchessault is tied for the team lead with 11 points this postseason, including the first goal in the clincher against the Sharks. Even the fourth line played a big role Sunday by controlling the puck and hemming San Jose in the defensive zone.”We’re having a lot of fun in this room,” Schmidt said. ””The guys have just been having a blast all year with each other. I think that we’ve done a lot more than we thought we were capable of, but we continue to set the bar to new heights with our group. We continue to just set new expectations for yourself. This group believes in each other and that’s more than anything you can ask for.”The Golden Knights took control of this game with some good fortune in the second period. It started when usually reliable Marc-Edouard Vlasic turned the puck over in his own zone. Reilly Smith took control near the blue line and found Marchessault alone in front for a goal that trickled between Martin Jones‘ pads.The Golden Knights then added to the lead after an icing by Brent Burns led to an offensive zone faceoff. David Perron beat Tierney on the draw and Schmidt took a shot that appeared to deflect off the post and out.Play went on for 25 more seconds before the buzzer rang Cheap Tre'Davious White Jersey , with the situation room in Toronto calling for a video review. That quickly showed that the puck bounced off the post, off a piece equipment inside the net and out.Vegas then had a delayed celebration for the goal that made it 2-0.That was the type of bounce the Sharks didn’t get early in the game when they hit the post or crossbar three times in the opening period and then again in the third when they tried to cut into Vegas’ lead.”It’s a fine line,” coach Peter DeBoer said. ”I think we had a couple of those that didn’t go in. That’s hockey. But Vegas deserves to be moving on. They played great. They finished the chances when they needed to and got saves when they needed to.”— LAS VEGAS (AP) After just one game, it’s already clear this Stanley Cup Final is on thin ice. Thin, patchy, slushy, rut-riddled ice.The Vegas Golden Knights have shocked the sporting world by playing for a championship in their inaugural season. But their incredible playoff run has taken them straight into summer in the Mojave Desert, where temperatures routinely soar past 100 degrees from May to October.With sizzling heat outside and a frenzied sellout crowd inside, T-Mobile Arena’s ice melted into an inconsistent playing surface for the Golden Knights and the Washington Capitals in the series opener.Despite constant sprucing from attendants during timeouts, both teams chased the puck through dozens of weird bounces and unpredictable slides while Vegas rallied for a 6-4 victory.”It was pretty bad,” Washington forward Jay Beagle said. ”It’s so hot outside, so it’s not like it’s a surprise.”And it’s about to get worse: The mercury on the Strip could hit triple digits Wednesday for Game 2 Authentic Tre'Davious White Jersey , when the league is likely to see its hottest outdoor temperature ever recorded at a Final game.But before any Canadians develop heatstroke at the prospect of their national game being played in a Nevada swimming pool, players on both teams were eager to make it clear the Vegas ice is absolutely playable.”It’s the same for both teams, which is why it doesn’t matter,” Vegas forward James Neal said. ”It’s still the same game for everybody. Of course, everybody would like to play on perfect ice, but that doesn’t happen at this time of year.”Middling ice quality can be a fact of life year-round in NHL rinks, particularly for the Sun Belt teams from Anaheim to Miami, yet their players still thrive. It’s common to see ice deterioration in rinks at various latitudes when temperatures rise while the NHL playoffs roll through spring.The Capitals are well aware they won’t skate onto a pristine Nordic pond when they return to Capital One Arena for Game 3 on Saturday – not with 85-degree temperatures and 70-percent humidity in the Washington forecast.”It’s probably the time of the year where it’s pretty hard to keep the ice fresh,” Washington forward Evgeny Kuznetsov said. ”But both teams play on the same ice.”Both coaches used the Vegas ice quality to emphasize points in their game plan that would probably be important on any surface. Washington’s Barry Trotz and Vegas’ Gerard Gallant want a north-south approach with crisp passes, minimal puck-handling and no turnovers.It’s all easier said than done when the puck refuses to behave.”The pucks were bouncing pretty good,” Trotz said. ”Unfortunately, the ice wasn’t great. There was a lot of chaos.”Dan Craig http://www.billscheapshop.com/cheap-authentic-tre_davious-white-jersey , the NHL official responsible for masterminding and maintaining the temporary ice sheets at outdoor games across the continent, has been working on the Vegas ice with the in-house crew. The sheet only went down one day before the series opener because T-Mobile had a Pink concert booked Saturday night – again, something that happens in playoff rinks all the time.Gallant hopes the ice will be more consistent after two more days to set up. Most of the Capitals reported better conditions during practice at T-Mobile on Tuesday – although the arena also wasn’t filled with more than 18,575 screaming, sweating people.”I don’t know if it was the empty building or – just like everything – it needs to cure a bit, but I thought it was really good (at practice),” Trotz said. ”So hopefully, that will help both teams.”—More Stanley Cup coverage: https://apnews.com/tag/StanleyCupFinals