Braden Holtby, goalkeeper of the Washington Capitals, fell to the fans of the Vegas Golden Knights with a play for the memory of the NHL.
Sometimes it gives the feeling that a play, just an instant, is what a match needs to be explained. As unfair as it may seem, everything that we saw in the second game of the Stanley Cup 2018 final between Vegas Golden Knights and Washington Capitals can be encapsulated in the small fraction of a second in which Alex Tuch, of the Las Vegas Vegas, ends with his stick the safe goal of the tie and, in a physically incomprehensible way, Branden Holtby, goalkeeper of the Caps, stops the pill.
The enthusiastic followers of the Golden Knights who followed the match at the T-Mobile Arena shouted, howled, jumped, waved what was most at hand to celebrate the goal. Watching it at home, the television viewers turned their hearts around: Vegas had come back and we were going to extra time. We all took a second to realize that no, that Holtby had managed to stop the night, perhaps the final, perhaps the season.
There were two minutes left to conclude the game. The Capitals won 2-3 and the Golden Knights tipped the ice rink towards the goal of their rivals. H till 37 pitches made in that final period of the match. Pam. Pam. Pam. Skating, moving the pill a couple of times and pam, zambombazo against the body of Holtby that had already become a bastion and end point of Washington's hopes. Either it stopped everything, or they would suffer.
He stopped everything . Everything, and the miracle of Tuch, that deserves the aside that I have dedicated to him.
To reach that moment of sporting magic, there was, first, to be an evening of maximum tension and almost violence. We are in Las Vegas, we can not expect less either. No less than 85 combined shots were thrown between the two teams . No player avoided contact or bad slobbering.
One of the victims was Evgeny Kuznetsov. The star, and top scorer, of the Capitals was attacked aggressively by Brayden McNabb midway through the first period and injured on the left wrist. He left the game and did not return. By then, James Neal had already scored the first for Vegas and the feeling was that the Golden Knights dominated the game.
Washington have not reached this final to be affected something like this . They are the team of a thousand defeats, of a million disappointments: it is impossible to put before them some failure that they have not dealt with. So, of course, they clenched their teeth, returned hosts with hosts, and goals with goals.
Lars Eller tied the game and, finally, the giant Alex Ovechkin, one of the best players in history, could wear his name as thrashed in the Stanley Cup , putting the 1-2 on the scoreboard at the beginning of the second period. Ovechkin, exceptional gunner, knew how to shine in defense too. The absence of Kuznetsov caused it to multiply.
In this second period he scored, also, Brooks Orpik and those of Washington climbed to 1-3. There was a lot left, but the feeling was that the Capitals had escaped from the jail of aggressiveness and emotionality that the Golden Knights had mounted them as an entity, both players and fans.
The second-to-last break of the match was caused by Shea Theodore, of Vegas, who put what would be final 2-3 when the second period ended. For the third, what has been said, continued assault of the Golden Knights and the presence of a Holtby that has to be considered the great factor that has equaled the final 1-1 and that makes the Capitals have the advantage of the field, because the Stanley Cup now travels to Washington, where the next two games will be played.
Seen the seen, that is the least: at the end of the second meeting, the players of both teams engaged in war of guerrillas, with grabs, blows, feints of great fights, completely alien to the environment that surrounds them, knowing that they are before the great moment of their sports careers, and that whatever will be necessary to take the great cup home.
