The Vegas Golden Knights took Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Saturday, winning 5-2 over the Florida Panthers. Here’s what you need to know:
The Athletic’s instant analysis:
Marchessault didn’t score a goal in the first seven games of these playoffs. He’s scored 10 in the last 11 since then, including the Golden Knights’ opening goal of the Stanley Cup Final on Saturday.
The 32-year-old received an excellent pass by Chandler Stephenson from behind the Panthers net, and crushed it past Sergei Bobrovsky to tie the game 1-1 in the first period. He’s been Vegas’ most consistent offensive producer since that early playoff drought. — Granger
Emotions ran high in Game 1, with plenty of post-whistle ruckuses. The most surprising individual rivalry that may have come from it was between Vegas goalie Adin Hill and Florida forward Nick Cousins.
The two first engaged early in the first period, when a scrum broke out in front of Hill’s crease, Cousins shoved Hill, and the netminder returned fire with a left. Then in the second period, Hill robbed Cousins with a sensational paddle save from the doorstep.
Cousins isn’t afraid to mix things up in front of the net, so it’ll be something interesting to watch as the series goes on. — Granger
The Golden Knights had only three goals scored by defensemen in the first three rounds of the playoffs, then got two Saturday night.
First Theodore danced around Duclair at the blue line, crept into the slot and rifled a shot off the post and in for his first goal of the playoffs. Then, Whitecloud snuck a shot through traffic and past Bobrovsky to give Vegas a 3-2 lead in the third period.
Vegas hasn’t leaned on its defensemen for offense much of this season, but they came up big in Game 1. — Granger
This has been the Matthew Tkachuk playoff with all of his heroics and dramatic game winners, but he went pointless in Game 1, had only two shots and coughed up the puck to Stone for a late Golden Knights’ two-goal lead.
Panthers coach Paul Maurice took a shot and challenged that Stone knocked the puck down with a high stick on Tkachuk’s attempted exit, but referees Wes McCauley and Dan O’Rourke quickly looked at the video and upheld the goal. That put the Golden Knights on a power play to effectively kill two more minutes of the clock.
And on the ensuing penalty kill, Tkachuk received four minutes for roughing and a game-ending 10-minute misconduct. — Russo
Bobrovsky, a Conn Smythe contender if Florida wins the Cup, saw his five-game win streak and a seven-game road win streak snap with his first road loss of the playoffs. Bobrovsky made a couple of dandy saves on Cousins and one on Stone, but you can tell by his body language he didn’t like Whitecloud’s third-period winner against the grain through traffic.
There was a lot of curiosity if Bobrovsky would get out of rhythm after such a long layoff, but he mostly played a solid game. But in the end, he was outdueled by Hill. — Russo
If there was any worry the Panthers would come out rusty, Staal put an end to that when the 38-year-old scored his first career playoff shorthanded goal midway through the first period on a wraparound. Staal last scored in the Stanley Cup Final on June 14, 2006, or 6,198 days ago.
He last scored this postseason in Game 2 of the Boston series back on April 19.
The goal ended a 14-game drought. According to NHL Stats, it was the third time on record the opening goal of the Stanley Cup Final was scored shorthanded, with the other instances coming in 1997 (Detroit’s Kirk Maltby) and 1936 (Detroit’s Bucko McDonald). — Russo
Filthy stuff from Shea Theodore to set up a Vegas lead! 😮💨 pic.twitter.com/PFa44ahC1m
Nine of Vegas’ 13 games during this playoffs happened in come-from-behind fashion. It’s the most comeback victories among all teams during the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
(Photo: Lucas Peltier / USA Today)
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