That was a masterclass in how to win a hockey game in a period. The Vegas Golden Knights have taken the first step towards winning their first ever Stanley Cup as they humbled the Florida Panthers 5-2 to take a 1-0 series lead.
So, the way to beat the Florida Panthers was to…be a better, bigger version of them.
The Las Vegas Golden Knights handed the Panthers their first humbling loss since their 1st round matchup against the Boston Bruins as they beat Florida 5-2 in Las Vegas to take a 1-0 series lead, putting all the pressure and momentum on the Panthers to avoid a 2-0 series deficit. And, even though the series has a lot of hockey left to be played, next game is going to be MASSIVE.
The series most definitely is not even close to be over yet, but we’re already heading towards a crossroads given the historical significance of this victory. Not only has the team who won Game 1 of the Stanely Cup Finals gone on to win the series 9/13 times since 2010, but also the team that won the first game of the series since the NHL introduced the Best of 7 format in 1939 has won the Stanley Cup 76% of the time (63/83).
That’s not a great statistic for Panthers fans.
And it gets even worse when you consider the fact that the last team to overcome a 0-2 series deficit and win the series was the Boston Bruins against the Vancouver Canucks (the two biggest cup finals chokers in league history)…all the way back in 2011. So, it doesn’t happen often.
Nonetheless, putting aside the historical consequences for a moment, this was a fantastic opener to the Stanely Cup Finals.
The Vegas pregame show was as amazing and electrical as always, both teams put all their effort, heart, passion, and hatred into the opening seconds of the game with numerous massive hits being laid out, neither team quite when they went down a goal (there was three lead changes), both goalies had saves of the postseason in this game (and Adin Hill’s might be the best since…Brayden Holtby’s against the Golden Knights in 2018), there were shorthanded and powerplay goalies, last second goals, and even the classic seeing-eye shot.
Coming into the night, I thought this was going to be the worst game of the lot given how much rest the Panthers (9 days off) and Golden Knights (4 days off) have had, the rarity these teams actually play one another, and the nerves of playing in the Stanley Cup Finals would dish out on these players. But I honestly couldn’t have been more wrong.
The Panthers and Golden Knights looked like they just finished their, respective, Conference Finals series yesterday as both had the energy and hunger to fight for all the loose pucks, while both defenses were more than willing to dish out heavy, mean hits on the onrushing forwards.
Surprisingly, Florida was the more active team for the opening two periods despite their near 10-day layoff between tonight’s game and their Game 4 against the Hurricanes as they outshot a fresher Golden Knights team 23-21 and managed to stay in the game until the 3rd period. However, in the 3rd, the Vegas Golden Knights’ offense showed what it could do.
Led by captain Mark Stone (1 G, 1 PT, +1 +/-), Jack Eichel (0 G, 2 A, 2 PTS, +1 +/-), and Ivan Barbashev (1 A, 1 PT, 0 +/-), the Vegas forwards rifled three goals past Sergei Bobrovsky (29 saves, .879% SV) and the Panthers sensational defense through their own forecheck and defense.
The Golden Knights offense and defense are so masterfully interweaved that even when it seems like the Panthers had clear cut chances to clear the puck, guys like Mark Stone or Barbashev would intercept their passes and quickly fire the puck in the back of the net.
Just go ask Matthew Tkachuk (0 PTS, -1 +/-).
And, when the forwards were unable to generate anything on the Panthers defense core, the Golden Knights defense uncharacteristically (at least this postseason) stepped up and scored crucial goals (ex: Theordore’s goal in the 2nd period, Whitecloud’s goal in the 3rd period) to either tie to game or give Vegas the lead. You know, the stuff Stanley Cup winning teams do when the moment gets brightest.
Anyways, once the game got to 4-2, the Panthers really stopped trying to actually score and began running after the Golden Knights players as Vegas’ defense of Alex Pietrangelo (0 PTS, -1 +/-), Zach Whitecloud (1 G, 1 PT, +1 +/-), Shea Theodore (1 G, 1 A, 2 PTS, +1 +/-), Brayden McNabb (1 A, 1 PT, 0 +/-), Nick Hauge (0 PTS, +2 +/-), and Alec Martinez (0 PTS, 0 +/-) were just too big and too good to break two late goals through.
So, the score was slightly unreflective of how close the game actually was.
Still, I’m not counting out the Panthers just yet as they were down 3-1 to the all-powerful, all-conquering Bruins in Round 1 and won three straight to be playing in the Stanely Cup Finals, while the 2018 Vegas Golden Knights were one of those four teams to not win the SC after going up 1-0.
But this was a momentum killer for the Panthers as their 5-game winning streak and 8-game road winning streak came to an end in this game.
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