Fleury indeed is goaling like I cannot remember in recent playoff history. Yeah, Quick is a good comparison.
When your goalie is playing like that, it makes every player feel as large as Byfuglien.
Apart from that, Gallant has instituted a forecheck and defend system, that, I cannot remember ever seeing before.
Winnipeg was playing well and hard, in the fifth game, but Vegas defended so close, so perfectly angled, that Winnipeg was visibly clumsy at times on their skates, the poor guys were that pooped from trying to get into open ice around the net.
Vegas hounded the Jets for five games and Byfuglien especially looked like he might fall, many times during the game, from outright fatigue.
The Leafs had the Bruins looking like that in game six and seven from using their speed, but once again, choked an obviously worn out and defeated opponent.
I love watching Vegas, I have loved them all year. I think the Leafs were a good team, and are, but you have to get rid of a few guys who just won't go that extra mile.
Maybe the most important factor that no one can copy and paste is you have a team of obviously very good players, all feeling like brothers of the damned, because their parent teams gave up on them. How does any team duplicate that?
So yeah, its unique circumstance. If Washington beats Tampa and extends that series, wow, can the script for Vegas be any better than that?
If Vegas can consistently shut down Kucherov and Point, well, call me overly impressed.