The Sin City Sweep.
Former King Brayden McNabb scored in the second period, and the Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Los Angeles Kings, 1-0, in Game 4 to sweep the Western Conference First Round at Staples Center on Tuesday night.
The Golden Knights became the first NHL team in history to win their first four playoff games, and the first team in all of professional sports to sweep a first round playoff series in its inaugural season.
"You guys remind us or tell us about those records, but it's not something that we talk about or shoot for," Golden Knights' goalie, Marc-Andre Fleury said after the win. "All season long, I didn't know any records about expansion teams. We just do what we do. We just play the game and try to win. That's it."
Last summer, the Kings offered McNabb, Dustin Brown, and Marian Gaborik in the NHL Expansion Draft, but the Golden Knights selected the 27-year-old defenseman over the older offensive veterans with expensive contracts.
Ironically, it ended up being the one piece that the Kings didn't want that ended their season on Tuesday night.
McNabb sniped a shot from distance on a one-timer pass from Reilly Smith 4:04 into the second period that gave the Golden Knights the 1-0 lead.
McNabb became the seventh different player on Vegas to score throughout the first round series.
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"It feels great," said McNabb of the game-winning goal. "I'm not a huge offensive guy, so to chip in with a goal feels great. We played well defensively and everyone bought into their role. It was fun."
Marc-Andre Fleury was easily the best player of the series, and he showed that again in Game 4, stopping 31 saves for his second shutout of the series.
"He played really well," Kings defenseman Alec Martinez said of Fleury. "You have to give them credit, they played a hard series. It's a lot of disappointment in this room, but we can't forget how this feels."
Fleury passed Dominik Hasek for 11th place on the NHL's all-time list with 66 career playoff wins.
The Kings out shot the Golden Knights 31-to-21 in the game, but their offense looked stale and stagnant all series long. To make matters worse, the Kings were 1-for-13 on the power play in the series.
Jonathan Quick made 20 saves in the loss and only allowed seven goals over the course of the four-game series. The problem was his offense only scored three goals over that span.
"Obviously, you can't win a series scoring three goals total," said Kings' captain Anze Kopitar. "For sure, we have to give him [Marc-Andre Fleury] credit. I thought he was playing really well. We also had some chances that we didn't score on, so you know, we just didn't score enough goals."
The Kings were looking to become the first team in NHL history to overcome an 0-3 deficit since their 2014 team did it in the first round against the San Jose Sharks.
Up Next:
Another disappointing season has come to an end for the Los Angeles Kings. Meanwhile, the Vegas Golden Knights advance to the second round of the NHL Playoffs where they will play the winner of the San Jose Sharks and Anaheim Ducks.
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