LAS VEGAS - Five minutes into Game 4, the whole Colorado Avalanche season flickered in front of the hockey world like a loose puck on bad ice.

Cale Makar, of all people, appeared to be sprung in alone - the exact guy you’d script for the moment. But Nathan MacKinnon’s neutral‑zone feed was a touch off. Makar reached, lunged, stabbed… and watched it skitter off his stick and into the corner.

That was the Avs’ playoffs in one misfire.

Moments later, the Vegas Golden Knights delivered the counterpunch that came every game. 

Brayden McNabb, from the top of his own circle, launched a perfect Hail Mary flip over two lines - a moonshot that seemed to scrape the rafters at T-Mobile Arena - that Mark Stone gloved down at the opposing blue line while in full stride. Stone walked in alone, froze Mackenzie Blackwood with a backhand to forehand deke, and tucked it home.

One team’s near‑miss. The other’s dagger.

A microcosm of a sweep no one saw coming, and one the heavily favoured Presidents’ Trophy winners will be chewing on all summer.

Colorado wasn’t miles off. They were inches off. Half‑steps off. A hair late, a shade wide, a touch hesitant. And against a Vegas team that’s bigger, deeper, hungrier, and cleaner........

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