Andersson makes a monumental mistake that costs the Golden Knights dearly
Rasmus Andersson found a way to tie the game for Utah Tuesday night. Unfortunately for Bruce Cassidy, the Vegas defenseman was wearing the wrong jersey for it.
The Swedish blue-liner kicked the puck into his own net in one of those sequences that will follow him for a while. A deflection, a bad bounce, a skate in the wrong spot at the wrong time.
Tortorella saw the whole thing live. Andersson saw it twice. Once off his skate, and once on the jumbotron replay.
The clip is already everywhere. Hockey has a long memory for moments like this, and playoff hockey has an even longer one.
A brutal bounce for a defender playing his best hockey
The cruel part is that Andersson has been rolling. He posted 4 goals and 9 points in his last 10 games, carrying a plus-9 rating into the playoffs.
That's not a guy in a slump. That's a top-pair defender doing everything right. Then the puck finds your skate and nobody remembers the previous month.
The 29-year-old also handled big minutes on the Vegas power play during the regular season, chipping in 6 goals with the man advantage.
Tortorella leans on him heavily. There's no benching coming. There's no public criticism. But there's a long flight and a mirror waiting after a bounce like that.
Vegas took Game 1 by a 4-2 score on Saturday at home. Utah needed a response, and Andersson's skate gave them one they'll happily take.
Andre Tourigny's club struggled all regular season against the Golden Knights before winning the final two meetings. The series was already going to be tight. It just got tighter.
Is one weird bounce going to decide this series? Probably not. But it absolutely decides one game, and games in April are the only currency that matters.
Anderson needs to leave that unfortunate moment behind. A player of his caliber will almost certainly find a way to respond later in the series.
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