Vegas eliminated in Western Conference 2nd Round by Edmonton
© Jeff Bottari/NHLI via Getty Images
LAS VEGAS – The carving of the Stanley Cup stood on the home dressing room wall at T-Mobile Arena, dotted with 16 holes.
The Vegas Golden Knights had filled five of those holes with the pucks from victories in the first two rounds of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
There would be no more pucks placed on the wall after the Edmonton Oilers secured a 1-0 overtime victory in Game 5 that ended the best-of-7 series.
Edmonton won the series 4-1 and advanced to the Western Conference Final. Vegas, the Pacific Division champion, departed the playoffs 11 wins short of its goal.
“Every year you don’t win feels like a year wasted,” veteran forward William Karlsson said. “I believe in this team and we got knocked out.”
Knocked out cruelly and suddenly. There was no time to process it all.
Depth forward Kasperi Kapanen stuffed a loose puck home in a crease battle at 7:19 of overtime for Edmonton.
All five Vegas players on the ice were within five feet of their goalie, Adin Hill, when Kapanen claimed the loose puck in the crease and shoveled it home. None could prevent the goal, a theme that played out throughout the series as the Oilers won the battles around each crease, according to Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy.
“Any time you have a good team, you feel like you didn’t finish what you set out to do,” veteran defenseman Alex Pietrangelo said. “We got a hell of a team, a hell of a locker room. It’s hard to win in this league and we knew that going in.
“It’s just disappointing.”
EDM@VGK, Gm5: Kapanen cleans up in front in overtime, lifting Oilers’ to series victory
The unfinished Stanley Cup looming on the wall was a reminder of business not finished, of a wasted opportunity.
Pietrangelo and Karlsson were each key cogs in filling a Stanley Cup puck puzzle in the past, doing so with the Golden Knights in 2023 when they beat the Florida Panthers for the franchise’s first championship.
They could savor the triumph as they guzzled champagne and slapped backs in their inner sanctum, the Cup filled with pucks a testament to the greatness they achieved.
Now, though, their dressing room Cup was a haunting reminder of what could have been if things had gone slightly different in this series.
“Unfortunately, we lost too many close games,” Karlsson said. “That was the difference.”
The Golden Knights led Game 1 by two goals before losing. They lost Game 2 in overtime, despite killing a five-minute major in the extra session. So, they limped off to Edmonton in an 0-2 hole.
“We needed to leave here with a split,” Cassidy acknowledged from the podium Wednesday night.
Yet, the Golden Knights showed their mettle in Game 3 with a last-second miracle goal from Reilly Smith for their one win in the series. They were shut out in Game 4, their only stinker of this series.
Game 5 was a toss-up for more than 67 minutes, nothing separating two of the Western Conference heavyweights as they went toe-to-toe.
Vegas played Game 5 without its captain, Mark Stone, who was ruled out with an injury. Yet, the Golden Knights still battled furiously.
“Listen, I liked our game [tonight],” Cassidy said. “I thought we competed hard physically. We wanted to win.
“I’m super proud of the guys, they were committed to playing the right way. I thought it was two evenly matched teams and they found a way to be better than us in certain areas.”
Oilers at Golden Knights | Recap | Round 2, Game 5
The Oilers put 15 pucks in their own Stanley Cup totem last season, losing to the Panthers in Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final. The previous season, they lost to these Golden Knights in the second round in six games.
Edmonton is tired of losing, of wondering what could have been. The Oilers are ready to do what it takes to place the final puck in their dressing room Stanley Cup this season and, in this series, they played a little better in most areas.
“That’s a good hockey team over there,” said Cassidy, who has coached in 119 Stanley Cup Playoff games, winning 62.
So, too were the 2024-25 Vegas Golden Knights. They just weren’t good enough.
Eight other teams already found that out. Six more will during the next month.
That’s what the playoffs are; they are a test of endurance and willpower.
They are an absolute joy for the team that survives, that reaches up with the champagne-soaked hand of a player or coach and bangs the final puck into their Stanley Cup.
For the rest of the field, the postseason is a lesson in heartbreak, a reminder of what could have been and what wasn’t.
“You can look at it 10 different ways,” Pietrangelo said. “We still had to get the job done. You can always say what if.”
