This series is going to end in a sweep if it continues this way. The Vegas Golden Knights utterly thrashed and torn apart the Panthers by thumping them for 7 goals, giving LV a 2-0 series lead and the chance to win the cup in Florida.
The Panthers really are allergic to winning Stanley Cup Finals games, aren’t they?
The Florida Panthers may have finally been found out by their opponents as the Vegas Golden Knights completely destroyed the Panthers 7-2 in Game 2 to take a 2-0 series lead, taking both all the momentum of the series and sucking the life out of Florida in the process. And, even though I’m not going to call this series just yet, Game 3 is obviously going to be the biggest game the NHL has seen this season.
I wish I had more I could say about this game other than it was a one-sided, brutal blowout, yet that’s exactly what happened. The Vegas Golden Knights followed up a very dogged, determined Game 1 performance with an even more intense gameplay that saw them take apart the Panthers at the very core of their success: defense and goaltending.
Vegas has figured out Sergei Bobrovsky (9 saves, .692% SV, 4.00 GA on 13 shots) as they were rifling pucks over Bob’s shoulder with ease due to their own forward and the Panthers defenders screening him on nearly every goal against, while Alex Lyon (12 saves, .800% SV, 3.00 GA on 15 shots), who was brought in after the first four goals, was just getting sniped with “A+” chances due to the Panthers defense giving up.
You’d have thought Jack Eichel (2 A, 2 PTS, +2 +/-), Mark Stone (1 A, 1 PT, +1 +/-), Brett Howden (2 G, 2 PTS, +1 +/-), Jonathan Marchessault (2 G, 1 A, 3 PTS, +2 +/-), and Nick Roy (1 G, 1 PT, -1 +/-) were skating against practice dummies given how much freedom and space the Panthers defense gave them on every single rush.
Now, a large part of why the Golden Knights forwards had so much ice time was due to the likes of Ivan Barbashev (1 A, 1 PT, 3 hits, +1 +/-), Keegan Kolesar (0 PTS, 4 hits, -1 +/-), Riley Smith (0 PTS, 3 hits, +1 +/-), Howden (3 hits), etc. were forechecking the Panthers D-core into oblivion (and even knocked Radko Gudas out of the game), yet the Panthers defense has lost their identity these last two games.
Instead of collapsing on the net, shoving forwards out of the way to present clear shots for Bob, and punishing any forward that skated into the zone with a heavy collision on the boards as they did in the opening three rounds, the Panthers defender have been losing their markers, allowing the Vegas forwards inside position to screen Bob, and making basic defensive errors.
In this game alone, goals 1-6 all came from a bad missed defensive assignment (4th, 5th goal, 6th goal), not closing down/hitting a forward along the boards (3rd goal) or failing to clear the front of the net (1st goal, 2nd goal). That’s horrible as it’s not like Jack Eichel or Mark Stone deked through two defenders and sniped an impossible shot over Bob’s shoulder, but rather the Panthers defense core giving the game away to Vegas.
And, when you combined Adin Hill’s (29 saves, .935% SV, 2.00 GA on 31 shots) heroics on the other side of the ice as he made numerous huge saves once again, it was inevitable that Florida was going to find themselves down 7-2 as they again focused on hurting the Golden Knights than getting back in the game.
Don’t get me wrong, I loved every minute of that game as it had two teams lay everything on the line to take a step closer to a Stanley Cup championship. It was rough, brutal, and physical, which is what every hockey fan wants to see when the Stanley Cup is at stake.
Still, it seemed like the Panthers only tried to get underneath Vegas’ skin with scrums after every whistle, massive checks thrown at the detriments of one’s defensive responsibility, and stupid penalties that eventually saw the Golden Knights punish with power play goals after they went down by 3.
It was extremely unlikely they would come back and win the game down 3 with the Golden Knights absolutely rocking, yet Florida has to regain their composure and focus on actually winning the game than sending a message after every loss.
Why? Well, unlike a Game 50 in the regular season that really doesn’t matter too much in the grand scheme of the season, one or two ugly losses in the Stanley Cup Finals can (and usually does) doom every losing team as the momentum boost such a win has for their opponent is usually too hard to overcome.
We’ll have to wait and see if the Panthers can win Game 3 and make this somewhat of a series again, but you don’t need me to say that Game 3 is a must win for Florida.
In the over 100+ year history of the league, there’s only ever been one team to comeback from being down 0-3 in the Stanley Cup Finals and win the cup. And that was the 1942 Toronto Maple Leafs over the Detroit Red Wings…which happened 81 years ago.
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