Chicago Blackhawks: Vegas way too much to handle in Game 1

The Vegas Golden Knights were way too much to handle for the Chicago Blackhawks.

We all knew that the Vegas Golden Knights were a far superior team to the Chicago Blackhawks. They were playing in the round-robin round apposed to a play-in series (let alone the last seed in the play-in round) for a reason and they went 3-0 against the other best teams in the Western Conference. Well, they showed everyone why they are so good in this first game against the Hawks. They are so deep and that made them way too much to handle for the Blackhawks in game one.

The Golden Knights decided to go with Robin Lehner in the net which might surprise some people. Marc-Andre Fleury has been the face of their franchise since they selected him from the Pittsburgh Penguins in the expansion draft but they went with Lehner. Lehner was traded over to Vegas from the Hawks at the trade deadline so that adds to the storyline. Since going to Vegas, he hasn’t lost a single game. He went 3-0 in the regular season before the pause and was 2-0 in the round-robin which is probably why he was the choice for Peter DeBoer in the net.

Outside of goaltending, Vegas is also very deep in other areas of the ice. They have so many great forwards that allow their coach to run four lines at a pretty steady pace. The two scoring lines at the top are right there with some of the best teams. Mark Stone is Vegas’s best player but Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith were the two standout skaters in the game. Smith had an assist on the Shea Theodore goal to go with two goals himself that were both assisted by Marchessault which led to the 4-1 Golden Knights win.

Where do the Blackhawks go from here? They need to be better at controlling the puck. Vegas was clearly the better team all game long and they dominated possession as a result. It also led to them outshooting the Hawks 33-20. Corey Crawford let up a couple of goals that he would like to have back but he was also left out to dry on multiple occasions. This needs to get cleaned up if they want to have a chance in this series.

They are back at it against Vegas on Thursday afternoon. This will be their best chance to redeem themselves against a very good team. The Golden Knights have won 9 of 10 games that they have played in their history against Chicago so they need to start turning that around. Vegas’ deep lineup might be too much for this Hawks team to handle as they are clearly a lot different than the Edmonton Oilers. They have to show that they can keep up with them otherwise this is going to be a short series.