Fleury made 24 saves for his 75th NHL playoff win, moving him past Chris Osgood for eighth place on the all-time list. Two of the four goals Fleury allowed came after Washington exploited openings in the Vegas defense.
Center Nicklas Backstrom's goal at 15:23 of the first period resulted from a broken play on forward T.J. Oshie's wraparound attempt; Backstrom skated uncovered through the slot and went backhand over Fleury's blocker pad. Defenseman John Carlson's goal at 8:29 of the second came after the Golden Knights defense moved away from Fleury to focus on Oshie, who made a backhand pass to Carlson in front of an open net.
"Too many scoring chances from prime spots, too many from the slot and losing men in front of the net," Vegas forward Ryan Reaves said. "I just think we gave up way too many scoring chances. I think if we fix that, we'll be good."
Those types of mistakes are what the Golden Knights want to avoid heading into Game 2, but history is on their side. The winner of Game 1 in the Stanley Cup Final has won the past six championships and the series 78.2 percent of the time.
Vegas is also expecting a bounce-back performance from Washington, which is 8-3 on the road in the playoffs.
"They have a lot of offensive weapons," Tuch said. "I thought neither team played their best [Monday] night and we'll both be better. Hopefully, we'll be just that much better than them [Wednesday]."
