Just back from the game.
It looked like, finally, in this game, Vegas suffered from not having a true shut-down defensive pair. Their coverage was pretty spotty, and the entire game they had no defensive answer for Kuznetsov. Team defense is fine, but when a team can work the puck around like the Caps are doing now, you really have to have a strong blueline. For all DC likes to claim that Schmidt is better than anyone we have on the blueline, that just isn't so. I think he would have been a great partner for Carlson this season, but alas, that's water under the bridge. Heck, if we could have kept Schmidt to pair with Carlson, we might have had a chance at the Cup!
oops .......