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Golden Knights look to prevent history from repeating itself in Game 2 against Panthers

Posted on by Jillian Wagner

The Vegas Golden Knights have been here before.

In 2018, Vegas secured a 6-4 victory against the visiting Washington Capitals to take a 1-0 series lead in the club’s first Stanley Cup Final appearance.

The loss gave the Capitals an all-time record of 0-5 in Stanley Cup Final games.

Five years later, the Golden Knights once again took a 1-0 series lead with a 5-2 win over the Florida Panthers in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final Saturday night on home ice.

Golden Knights score three in third to take 1-0 lead against Panthers in Stanley Cup Final
The Vegas Golden Knights took Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final with a 5-2 win against the Florida Panthers Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena. It was the Golden Knights’ second consecutive win and 13th victory of the postseason, tying the franchise record for most playoff wins set back in
Knights On IceJillian Wagner

The Panthers are now 0-5 all-time in the Stanley Cup Final.

After both games, the head coach of the opposing team had similar messages: we can be better.

Washington proved that.

“I think, as a whole, we can play a lot better,” Capitals coach Barry Trotz said following his club’s 6-4 defeat in Game 1. “I know we have another level in our game. It’s got to be our whole roster.”

The Capitals went on to win four games in a row to clinch the franchise’s first Stanley Cup.

On Saturday, following his team’s road loss, Panthers coach Paul Maurice told a room full of reporters to “just f—ing breathe.”

The humorous quote followed a discussion of how the Panthers overcame a 3-1 deficit against the Boston Bruins in the first round.

“We lost the first game in the Boston series, well, got a little better. Then we lost two more, got a little better. Everybody just f—ing breathe.”

It’s safe to assume Maurice delivered that same message in the locker room following the club’s disappointing third period.

When asked about a turnover that he pointed to as the turning point in the game, Maurice dropped another f-bomb and compared it to a root canal.

“On the gradation of tough – like root canal to lumpy oatmeal – it was closer to the root canal side of toughness.”

This isn’t the first time Maurice has taken this approach.

In Game 3 against Carolina, Aleksander Barkov left the game in the first period with an injury. When asked about Barkov’s status following the game, Maurice’s response was playful and sarcastic.

Reporter: “Paul, first, any updates on Sasha?”
Maurice: “Nope.”
Reporter: “Talking to the guys, they talked about—”
Maurice: “—He’s at a bar mitzvah. His neighbor had a…yeah, that’s what we’ll go with. Bar mitzvah. And he didn’t want to disappoint the kids.”
Reporter: “Is that upper or lower?”
Maurice: The bar mitzvah? It was on two floors, both floors. It was a big one; lots of kids.”

His calm demeanor and overall levity has guided this team through an improbable run all the way to the Stanley Cup Final, and he’s hoping it will help the Panthers bounce back with a stronger effort tonight in Game 2.

After all, the Panthers have already demonstrated a mental toughness. The Boston series may not have been the Stanley Cup Final, but the Panthers trailed 3-1 against the greatest regular-season team in NHL history.

“Everything is new for us every time,” Maurice said, “which is a good thing because we get to experience it and learn from it and get better, and we have shown that ability.”

Maurice’s deadpan stare in combination with a heavy dose of sarcasm reinforces that message.

“The losing team talks about too many of something, and the winning team talks about the fabulousness of all other things,” he said. “It’s 2-2 until that puck gets turned over, so it was a tight game.”

Technically, it was 3-2 at the time of the turnover to which he’s referring. But it was a significant momentum shift in the contest when Matthew Tkachuk made a careless clearing attempt that got knocked out of the air by Mark Stone and then deposited in the back of Florida’s net.

Maurice challenged the goal, believing Stone knocked it down with a high stick, but a quick review by the officials deemed it a legal goal, thus putting Vegas on the power play.

Maurice offered a sarcastic quip about how quickly the referees made that decision. “I think they were just excited about getting us into the box one more time.”

Suffice to say, Maurice will have his Panthers relaxed, loose and confident going into tonight’s matchup.

But the Golden Knights will look to prevent history from repeating itself as they work to prevent the Panthers from resetting this series and stealing home-ice advantage.

The Capitals did that in Game 2 thanks to “The Save” by Braden Holtby on Alex Tuch, which was surprisingly similar to Adin Hill’s stop on Nick Cousins in Game 1.

Aside from the end result being a win for Vegas, there were other aspects of Game 1 against Washington that were similar to Game 1 against Florida.

  • The Golden Knights scored three goals in the third period.
  • Shea Theodore made a great play at the blue line
  • The Capitals hit the post multiple times, including on the power play.
  • Vegas got offense from throughout the lineup, including two goals from the top line, three from the fourth line and one on the power play.
  • The series got off to a nasty start between teams that only met twice in the regular season.

There are six players currently on the Golden Knights who were on the Vegas roster in the 2018 series against Washington: Jonathan Marchessault, William Karlsson, Reilly Smith, Brayden McNabb, Theodore and William Carrier.

Those six players know what it’s like to be in this situation and know how imperative it is to keep their foot on the gas.

“I think we’re a little bit more humble to the situation now,” Marchessault said. “We know that it doesn’t mean anything winning one game in one series. So for us, the focus is on next game, and that’s how we’re going to approach every game.”

Carrier said the Golden Knights will apply what they’ve learned in past seasons to their approach moving forward.

“Every year, when you lose that last game, you take a lesson out of it,” he said. “We know that the first game, you’re not winning [the Cup] right off the bat. You gotta keep pushing.”

As he has all postseason (and all season), Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy minimized the accomplishment of winning Game 1 and kept things in perspective.

“Before you can get to two, you gotta win one, so we’re happy to get it done,” he said.

He and the Golden Knights have preached the “one game at a time” mentality all throughout the postseason, and it has helped the Golden Knights overcome difficult stretches in every series. That includes losing Game 1 against Winnipeg on home ice, losing Game 4 (badly) against Edmonton and losing Games 4 and 5 after holding a 3-0 series lead against Dallas.

Despite picking up the win, Cassidy echoed Trotz’s and Maurice’s sentiments about his team’s performance.

“I think our guys know we weren’t at our best [in Game 1],” he said. “I think that’s fairly typical of Game 1 in a lot of series. You kind of go through a feeling-out process. As the series goes on, the temperature rises.”

The Golden Knights were not at their best, but they made the right plays at key moments in the game and survived the rough patches.

“We did enough to win, which we’ve done a lot this year,” Cassidy said. “We’ve found ways to win when we’re not at our best, and stay in the game to fight through the parts where you’re maybe not executing as well as you’d like.”

But unlike the Panthers (and the Capitals, for that matter), the Golden Knights did what they had to do in the third period to take control of the game.

“When it was winning time in the third period and we got the goal from [Zach Whitecloud], I thought we recognized what was at stake and were able to get to the finish line,” Cassidy said.

The Golden Knights played a strong final 20 minutes to finish off a tight game. Tkachuk, who has been a clutch superstar for the Panthers all postseason, committed an unforced error to put the Golden Knights up by two, and he lost his nerve on the power play that resulted from Maurice’s unsuccessful challenge.

While Nicolas Hague was behind held by Marc Staal, Tkachuk sucker-punched Hague in the face.

Hague laughed it off.

With 4:24 remaining in the game, the Panthers had plenty of time to pull Sergei Bobrovsky and try to claw their way back into the game. Instead, the team’s best player got himself thrown out of the game and put Vegas on the power play for essentially the rest of the game. Sam Bennett and Chandler Stephenson also were tossed.

The Golden Knights held Tkachuk – who leads all remaining players with 21 points in the playoffs – to two shots and zero points.

The Golden Knights also scored four goals on Bobrovsky, who had been virtually unbeatable in the Eastern Conference Final. He entered the series against Vegas on a five-game winning streak and had gone 7-0 on the road.

But it’s just one game, and the Golden Knights cannot sit back.

“It’s a good feeling, but at the same time, we’re not even close to being done here,” Theodore said. “We have three more wins to go; we’re gonna be focused on next game and just go from there.”

To do that, the Golden Knights need to keep pushing the pace. The Panthers are a hard team and will continue to be physical both on the forecheck and after the whistle.

“They’ve got some guys that are gonna be physical,” Alex Pietrangelo said of Florida’s forecheck. “I think our group collectively on the back end can stand that; I think our size can handle that. Dallas came hard too, Edmonton came hard, Winnipeg came hard, so I think for us as a group, we’re prepared for that.”

The Golden Knights need to resist the Panthers’ invitations to engage in skirmishes and scrums.

“We knew that’s how they wanted to play,” Theodore said of the Panthers’ physical game. “We’re just trying not to play into it. We’re gonna try and take the power plays when we can and try and capitalize.”

Pietrangelo expressed a similar viewpoint.

“The best way to react is to not react,” he said.

The fact that the Golden Knights won the special teams battle in Game 1 was a surprise considering Florida’s power play had a clear edge and Vegas’ penalty kill has struggled all postseason. Even after going 3-for-3 in Game 1, the Golden Knights’ penalty kill is clicking at 65.3 percent in the playoffs, good for 14th out of 16 teams. Interestingly, the Panthers are right ahead of them at 71.2 percent.

If the Golden Knights do as Theodore said and take the power plays instead of engaging in Florida’s game, the Golden Knights could actually continue to capitalize on the man-advantage. It’s unlikely they’ll get seven power plays again, but if everyone follows Hague’s lead and shakes off the opponent’s antics, the Golden Knights could be in a good position.

Reverting to taking undisciplined and retaliatory penalties is something the Golden Knights need to avoid.

That’s especially true since the Panthers’ power play likely will improve as the series goes on. After facing Edmonton’s record-setting man-advantage, the Golden Knights shouldn’t be overwhelmed, but special teams can turn the game on a dime, so the Golden Knights need to be careful.

Maurice said after the game that the Panthers were still in the mindset of going up against Carolina’s over-aggressive penalty kill, but that’s something that should be addressed ahead of Game 2. The Vegas penalty kill has to be vigilant.

Vegas also needs to continue to play well at both net-fronts.

Taking away Bobrovsky’s eyes was paramount on several goals, including Whitecloud’s game-winner that beat Bobrovsky through a double screen. Playing well behind the goal line, like Stephenson did when he set up Marchessault in front, will make it harder for Bobrovsky to react.

“I think we got big enough bodies where we can get inside and make life difficult for [Bobrovsky],” Pietrangelo said. “He’s gonna make saves; he’s a good goalie. He’s here for a reason. The harder we make it for him … the better off we’ll be.”

One thing that makes it difficult to defend the Golden Knights is that they have four lines that can produce.

Stone said that’s been key to Vegas’ offensive success this postseason.

“You can’t score goals one way,” he said. “We get a power-play goal, our D get two goals, forwards get goals. You gotta find ways to score goals in a lot of different ways.”

As Cassidy has stressed all season, the Golden Knights don’t rely on any one line or one pairing. The Vegas depth is one of its greatest assets.

“We’ve got six guys we can roll over. We don’t rely on wearing two guys out or four guys out, series after series,” he said.

The Golden Knights need to find a way to keep scoring.

“That balance in our lineup, that’s allowed us to do it every night,” Cassidy said. “Special teams can help you get there; our power play’s been hit or miss. … But still we found a way to score four goals, which is usually enough to win.”

The Golden Knights have won 32 consecutive playoff games when scoring at least three goals. Continuing to disrupt Bobrovsky will be key.

But the Golden Knights need to be strong in front of their own net as well.

Like Pietrangelo, Cassidy believes the Golden Knights’ blue line is built to handle a heavy forecheck.

“Our D is built that way,” he said. “I think they can handle that night after night because they’re long and the system requires them to stay around the front of the net as well whenever they can.”

Hill outduelled Bobrovsky, but Bobrovsky has been stellar throughout the playoffs. The Golden Knights need to help Hill as much as possible; preventing the Panthers from getting to the middle will be critical. Keeping the puck out of the net is a six-man job.

Projected lineups

Golden Knights

Ivan Barbashev – Jack Eichel – Jonathan Marchessault
Reilly Smith – William Karlsson – Michael Amadio
Brett Howden – Chandler Stephenson – Mark Stone
William Carrier – Nicolas Roy – Keegan Kolesar

Alec Martinez – Alex Pietrangelo
Brayden McNabb – Shea Theodore
Nicolas Hague – Zach Whitecloud

Adin Hill
Jonathan Quick

Panthers

Carter Verhaeghe – Aleksander Barkov – Anthony Duclair
Nick Cousins – Sam Bennett – Matthew Tkachuk
Ryan Lomberg – Anton Lundell – Sam Reinhart
Colin White – Eric Staal – Zac Dalpe

Gustav Forsling – Aaron Ekblad
Marc Staal – Brandon Montour
Josh Mahura – Radko Gudas

Sergei Bobrovsky
Alex Lyon

How to watch

Game 2: Golden Knights vs. Panthers
When: 5 p.m. PT
Where: T-Mobile Arena – Las Vegas, NV
TV: TNT, TBS, truTV
Radio: Fox Sports 98.9 FM

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