It's been a little more than three years since Matt Murray supplanted Marc-Andre Fleury as the Penguins' No. 1 goaltender.
Fleury clearly -- and understandably -- was stung by that demotion, but accepted it without public complaint and ultimately agreed to waive the no-movement clause in his contract, allowing Vegas to claim him in the 2017 expansion draft.
He immediately became the face of the franchise (always smiling, of course) and the Golden Knights' go-to goalie, and never was seriously challenged for either of those positions until Vegas acquired goalie Robin Lehner from Chicago at the trade deadline.
At the time, it seemed like a move to upgrade Fleury's backup, but Lehner has been the goalie coach Peter DeBoer has turned to most often during the postseason that began nearly three weeks ago.
Lehner has appeared in six of Vegas' eight postseason games, putting up a 5-1 record, 2.44 goals-against average and .906 save percentage.
Fleury is 2-0, with a 2.50 goals-against average and .866 save percentage.
Lehner got his only loss in Game 4 of the first round against Chicago, but DeBoer came back with him for Game 5 because -- this should sound familiar to anyone who has heard Mike Sullivan explain a personnel decision -- he felt Lehner gave Vegas its best chance to win.
For the record, the Golden Knights did just that, claiming a spot in the second round in the process.
Although the Lehner-Fleury arrangement has been characterized as a "1A-1B" situation, Lehner clearly is the goalie of choice, at least for now.
If that doesn't change this summer, it will be interesting to see how Vegas handles its goaltending in the future, because Lehner is scheduled to be an unrestricted free agent, while Fleury has two seasons remaining on a contract worth $7 million per year.
• When the Penguins meekly departed the postseason for the second year in a row, it was suggested in some quarters that it was no coincidence that the lack of fire developed not long after Rick Tocchet left their staff to become head coach in Arizona.
There's an obvious logic to that -- Tocchet is as ferocious a competitor as the NHL has ever seen -- but the Coyotes' humbling departure from the playoffs suggests that his presence on the bench isn't enough to elevate a team's willingness to compete to the expected level.
Tocchet challenged his players to respond after they lost to Colorado, 7-1, in Game 4 of Round 1 and got his response two days later, when the Avalanche closed out the series with another 7-1 victory.
There's no disgrace in being eliminated by Colorado, which looks like a legitimate contender for the Cup, but Arizona's back-to-back six-goal defeats reinforces the idea that there's only so much a coach can do to motivate his players.
Especially in situations when no outside motivation should be needed.
• Before Montreal's preliminary-round series against the Penguins, the conventional wisdom was that in addition to needing Carey Price to be at the very top of his game and the Penguins to underachieve, the Canadiens' chance of pulling an upset hinged on getting goals from a handful of veterans such as Brendan Gallagher, Tomas Tatar and Jonathan Drouin.
Well, the Canadiens knocked off the Penguins and have taken Philadelphia to at least six games in Round 1 of the playoffs, but it isn't because those guys have made frequent appearances on the scoresheet.
Gallagher's goal in Montreal's 5-3 victory in Game 5 Wednesday was his first in nine games this summer, while Tatar has two and Drouin one. That means they have combined for four, or the same number as rookie Jesperi Kotkaniemi, who didn't even seem to be assured of a spot in the lineup during training camp.
• In normal times (remember those?), NHL teams travel in style. They get around on chartered, not commercial, flights, and stay in luxury hotels.
The travel is even less grueling than usual this summer, though, because all postseason games are being contested in two hub cities, Edmonton and Toronto. All clubs had to do was get to those cities once, and not worry about departing until their season was over.
Chances are that Western Conference teams are particularly pleased about that, since they routinely log a lot more miles during the regular season and playoffs than their Eastern counterparts.
What impact, if any, the current set-up will have when a club from each conference meets in the Cup final is hard to say, but the Western representative won't even have to travel to get to the site of that series, since it will be held in Edmonton.
• The Stanley Cup playoffs have a long way to go and much can change before the championship is won, but how many people predicted that nearly three weeks into the postseason, Bo Horvat and Nazem Kadri would be tied for the goal-scoring lead? They each have six, more than any other player going into Thursday night's games.
• Remember when there were concerns expressed about whether the Maple Leafs and Oilers would have some sort of home-ice advantage during this postseason because games were being contested in their arenas?
The NHL went to great lengths to minimize the possibility of that happening, including having those teams use a dressing room other than their own when they were designated the "road" team for a particular game.
The league's plan seems to have been effective, since the Maple Leafs and Oilers were eliminated by lower-seeded opponents. (Columbus and Chicago, respectively. Neither of which made it past Round 1 of the actual playoffs.)
• Simply contending for a playoff berth during its first season or two of existence is quite a feat for any expansion team. Actually qualifying then borders on remarkable, and Vegas raised the bar to an almost-unthinkable level when it got all the way to the Cup final to cap its initial season.
The Golden Knights didn't stop there, though. They are one of the most impressive teams in the West and, by eliminating the Blackhawks in Round 1, became just the third team in NHL history to win at least one series in each of its first three seasons.
The others were the 1927-29 New York Rangers and St. Louis in 1968-70. Those Blues, it must be noted, competed in a division made up entirely of clubs that entered the NHL in the 1967 expansion.
• Columbus defenseman David Savard surely is unhappy that the Blue Jackets' season is over -- Tampa Bay eliminated them in five games in Round 1 -- but he probably won't mind having a little extra time to spend in an ice tub.
Savard blocked 44 shots in 10 games. That's a lot of blocks and, presumably, a lot of bruises.
Vancouver defenseman Alexander Edler is the only other player in the league to block as many as 30 in this postseason.
• Lehner earned a footnote in playoff history when he picked up the victory in Vegas' 4-3 decision over the Blackhawks in Game 5.
He became just the second goalie to earn a series-clinching win against a team for which he had played earlier in that season, joining Hal Winkler of Boston, who did it against the Rangers in 1927.
• If there's a Philadelphia-Tampa Bay series at some point, which hardly seems to be out of the question, it will be interesting to keep an eye on which team is able to get on the board early.
The Flyers are 5-0 in this postseason when leading after one period, while the Lightning is 4-0.
Of course, being ahead after 20 minutes doesn't always translate to long-term survival.
Arizona was 4-0 when leading at the first intermission and the Blackhawks were 4-1, but both of those clubs are out of the tournament.
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