Golden Knights feeling pain of Cup Final loss to Capitals

LAS VEGAS --The pride will come for the Vegas Golden Knights, but not until they endure the pain of falling short on the biggest stage in hockey.
After the horn sounded on a 4-3 loss to the Washington Capitals in Game 5 at T-Mobile Arena that ended the Golden Knight season on Thursday, forward Erik Haula knelt in his own end of the ice, bereft of energy, and watched the jubilant Capitals celebrate their first Stanley Cup title.

"It was a great journey, a great journey with a semi-sad ending," Haula said in the quiet of the dressing room a few minutes later.
It was a journey like few others in the history of sport, never mind hockey. It just did not end the way the Golden Knights had hoped when they started the Cup Final 11 days ago.
"It's hard to let go, you know," Haula said.
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As the Capitals streamed off the bench to pig-pile goaltender Braden Holtby at the far end of the ice, Haula stared dejectedly at them. After a minute or so, teammate Reilly Smith approached, whispered something in his ear and patted his head before skating away.
"It was very emotional," Haula said of the aftermath on the ice, which ended with the Golden Knights coming together one final time and saluting a crowd that had the players' backs all season. "Kind of the whole season flashes by your eyes. It's tough."
The end to this amazing inaugural season was abrupt.
The Golden Knights lost four straight to the Capitals, the first time all season they lost four games in a row.

"It was a good hockey team; they deserved the Stanley Cup," Vegas coach Gerard Gallant said. "They were the better team in the series and they played great hockey."
Every time the Capitals were presented with an opportunity, it seemed they capitalized. That had been a Vegas specialty during a magical regular season and a stunning run through the playoffs that saw the Golden Knights win 12 of their first 15 games.
Each of the teams Vegas left in its wake -- the Los Angeles Kings, San Jose Sharks and Winnipeg Jets -- bemoaned the ill fortune that is an all-too-common refrain for those who come up short in this city.
"We were playing a good hockey game and it turned around on us and we have been doing that to teams all year," forward David Perron said. "They found a way to do that to us all series long.
"They did to us what we did to other teams. You heard Winnipeg talking about bounces all series long that they weren't getting and we felt like that at times, even last game, but those are excuses and it means you are not creating your own luck."
Said Haula: "They played better than us on both sides of the puck, that's the bottom line. I guess they deserved to win and that is tough to admit."

Goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury had won the Stanley Cup each of the past two seasons with the Pittsburgh Penguins. He came to Vegas in the expansion draft and found a new lease on life, becoming the face of the franchise off the ice and the backbone on the ice.
But he had a nightmarish Final, allowing 20 goals in five games after being in the running for MVP after three rounds. The series-clinching goal came after Fleury could not squeeze a shot by Brett Connolly. Lars Eller found the puck behind Fleury and shoveled it into the net with 12:23 gone in the third period.
"You get so close to the Cup and you miss a chance; it doesn't come every year," said Fleury, who lost the 2008 Stanley Cup Final as well. "It's very disappointing."
The disappointment will linger for a while. the Golden Knights know that. The sharp sting of what-ifs and the rebuke of regrets will come often during a shorter-than-expected summer.
"[You are] always looking forward to next year, but it'll be a little bit before we think about that," defenseman Deryk Engelland said.
When they do get around to thinking about the future, and the past, the smiles will eventually come.
This is a team that beat the odds like few in Las Vegas ever do. In the end, the better team emerged victorious, just as Haula said.
"I know in a couple days we'll feel good about it," Gallant said. "Any time you see that Stanley Cup, you're that close to it, it's going to hurt for a while."