The Vegas Golden Knights have dominated the first two games of the 2023 Stanley Cup Final.
They have outscored the Florida Panthers 12-4 through two games, including a 7-2 drubbing in Game 2 in which the game was already decided by the third period.
It felt like a distant memory when the Golden Knights and Panthers were tied 2-2 at the end of two periods in Game 1.
Since then, the Knights have scored the next seven goals and have outscored Florida 10-2.
It was outright domination.
Vegas' 12 goals in two games are tied for the most in the opening two games of a Stanley Cup Final, and won their first two games by at least eight combined goals. The last team to accomplish the latter feat was the 1996 Colorado Avalanche, who, ironically, beat the Panthers by a combined nine goals in the first two games.
They were pounding the Panthers on all facets.
That first goal by Jonathan Marchessault was an example of it. He was the one drawing the Ryan Lomberg cross-checking penalty, and he makes Florida pay for it, from the right faceoff dot while Mark Stone was taking Sergei Bobrovsky's eyes away.
Later in that first period, Marchessault drew another penalty when Brandon Montour was called for roughing, and while Paul Maurice was screaming at the officials, there was no argument. It was a penalty.
Florida then got a power play, where they had five shots and several great looks, but it was Adin Hill continuing to stand his ground, turning away all five shots, and Aleksander Barkov fired a shot off Alex Pietrangelo, but unfortunately for Florida, the puck bounced outside the far post.
And, like clockwork, after the penalty expired, it was Marchessault setting up the next goal, winning a puck battle against Anthony Duclair, sending the puck to Ivan Barbashev, who found an open Alec Martinez. Martinez picked the top corner, knew that Josh Mahura was screening his own goalie, and he made it 2-0.
But that was just the beginning.
Left and right, the Golden Knights were frustrating the Panthers in that second period, and Hill was continuing his stellar play, stopping Carter Verhaeghe on a breakaway in the first, and later hit Matthew Tkachuk, who was inside his net, with the blocker and then angrily slashed him.
Hill followed that up with a save on Montour's wraparound attempt and a glove save on Colin White.
Florida even lost one of their big, physical guys in Radko Gudas, when he was injured 6:39 into the first period on a hit by Barbashev. That big hit caused Gudas to leave the game.
But the frustration that Florida has mounted throughout the game and series caused one of the biggest hits of the postseason: Tkachuk absolutely drilling Jack Eichel late in the second period.
While both of these hits were clean hits, Tkachuk caught Eichel with his head down, and one can get the notion that Eichel was already falling down before the hit, but nonetheless that hit felt like a violent car crash!
But Eichel eventually returned to the game and set up Marchessault's second goal.
Eichel won a puck battle against Josh Mahura, and, not giving up on the puck, takes it from the near corner in the offensive zone, and found an approaching Marchessault, who was cutting to the net, and the former Florida Panther beat out Alex Lyon in Eichel's first point back from the hit.
It was Marchessault's 12th goal of the postseason, a Vegas record, with all of the goals coming after the first round. Pavel Bure is the only player to score more than Marchessault has after the opening round, with 13 in 1994.
And for the record, Lyon was put into the game after Bobrovsky allowed four goals on 13 shots.
It was the third straight game in which Bobrovsky allowed at least three goals after he allowed just three in the first three games of the Eastern Conference Final.
The goal that got Bobrovsky pulled was one of the best shifts from Mark Stone. After he had his stick broken on a blocked shot, he shoves aside Montour when the defenseman got the puck off his stick, got a new stick from the bench, and when Vegas got the puck, after getting the feed from Chandler Stephenson, he found an approaching Brett Howden, who, with great patience, fooled Bobrovsky in going forehand backhand for one of the sweetest goals in the postseason!
The one that came before that was from Nic Roy. While he lost the puck for a moment after getting it poked away by Verhaeghe, he immediately got the puck right back, and while three defenders were on him, he fired it off the left post and it beat Bobrovsky.
It was the 5th time in the last 12 games that Vegas chased the opposing starting goaltender out of the net.
Bobrovsky has now allowed eight goals on 46 shots in 86:56 of ice time in the series after he gave up just six goals on 174 shots in 321:05 through four games in the Eastern Conference Final.
The only Florida goals came from Anton Lundell and Tkachuk. Lundell got one 14 seconds into the third period off a bouncing puck that went off Martinez and in the net, and Tkachuk got a cross-ice feed from linemate Sam Bennett to bank it past Hill.
The Knights did an outstanding job at containing the Tkachuk line, which they were held without a point up until the third period with the game already decided.
And one could say that them shutting down the Tkachuk line seemed to have frustrated the line.
In fact, 36 of Tkachuk's penalty minutes in these two Finals games alone. 30 of them have came on 10-minute misconducts.
If you think that was enough, Vegas added two more goals after Marchessault's goal, the first from Mike Amadio off a 2-on-1 rush off the feed from William Karlsson, who set up the rush on a well-timed poke from the defensive zone, and the other from Howden on the power play with 2:08 left in the game.
And now the Panthers have lost back-to-back games for the first time since dropping Games 3 and 4 against the Boston Bruins in the first round. In between, they went 11-1 through the 12-game stretch.
They are already without Eetu Luostarinen, who was lost to an injury in the Eastern Conference Finals, so they are without one of their most reliable depth players. But losing Gudas for games beyond Game 2 is the kind of loss that demoralizes a team, since he is a heart-and-soul type of player.
They lost a defenseman who, despite being 5th among Panthers on 5-on-5 ice time, he has the 3rd-most penalty kill time among the team, and that loss was felt quickly.
The power play wasn't doing matters either, which is kind of surprising because they were converting at a 28% rate on the man advantage while the Knights struggled with a penalty kill that had a 63% success rate.
Things have turned around, as the Panthers have not scored on all seven power plays through two games in the Finals.
Florida has rarely looked shaken in the postseason, but they looked very passive until the final minutes of the first period, when they tried to get something going on the power play. They haven't faced this much adversity since the first round series against the Bruins, and getting five shots on a power play wasn't enough to get them on the board.
They now are down 0-2 in the series, where teams taking a 2-0 series lead in the playoffs hold a 347-55, and have won the Stanley Cup 48 of 53 times in such a scenario in the Finals, and 38 of 41 did so when winning the first two at home.
Then again, anything is possible, as two teams in the salary cap era rallied to win four of the next five after dropping the first two at home: The 2009 Pittsburgh Penguins, who lost the first two in Detroit before beating the Red Wings in seven, and the 2011 Bruins, who dropped the first two in Vancouver before besting the Canucks in seven.
But if Florida were to join these two, they need to get out to a better start and not play from behind again.
Though these two wins by Vegas speak to their impressive depth, as they are getting goals from the likes of Martinez, Howden, Amadio and Zach Whitecloud.
The goals by Martinez this game and Shea Theodore had the Knights tying the Seattle Kraken for most individual goal scorers of the 2023 postseason, with 18.
Though the most impressive player for Vegas may be Ivan Barbashev.
He was the Knights' key acquisition at the trade deadline, not only impacting the game on offense, but also laying the body, and sometimes making two hits on the same shift. He's definitely going to get a pay raise from the two-year, $4.5 million deal he will be finishing this season.
The series shifts to Sunrise for Game 3 on June 8th at 8:00 PM ET/5:00 PM PT. John Ott and Cooper Hopkins will continue to have the coverage for you on Twitter Spaces, please give them a follow @JohnRyanOtt and @CooperHopkins!
Scoring
VGK, 7:05 1st: Jonathan Marchessault [11] (Chandler Stephenson [8] & Jack Eichel [15]), PP, wrist shot, 1-0 VGK
VGK, 17:59 1st: Alec Martinez [1] (Ivan Barbashev [11] & Jonathan Marchessault [9]), EV, snap shot, 2-0 VGK
VGK, 2:59 2nd: Nic Roy [2] (William Carrier [3] & Zach Whitecloud [5]), EV, wrist shot, 3-0 VGK
VGK, 7:10 2nd: Brett Howden [4] (Mark Stone [10] & Chandler Stephenson [9]), EV, backhand, 4-0 VGK
FLA, 0:14 3rd: Anton Lundell [2] (Anthony Duclair [7]), EV, wrist shot, 4-1 VGK
VGK, 2:10 3rd: Jonathan Marchessault [12] (Jack Eichel [16]), EV, wrist shot, 5-1 VGK
VGK, 10:33 3rd: Mike Amadio [4] (William Karlsson [5]), EV, snap shot, 6-1 VGK
FLA, 12:44 3rd: Matthew Tkachuk [10] (Sam Bennett [8] & Josh Mahura [3]), EV, wrist shot, 6-2 VGK
VGK, 17:52 3rd: Brett Howden [5] (Mike Amadio [5] & William Carrier [4]), PP, wrist shot, 7-2 VGK
Goaltending
VGK: Adin Hill—29/31, .935 save percentage
FLA:
Sergei Bobrovsky: 9/13, .692 save percentage
Alex Lyon: 12/15, .800 save percentage
Penalties
FLA, 6:39 1st: Ryan Lomberg 2-minute minor, cross-checking Jonathan Marchessault
FLA, 13:53 1st: Brandon Montour 2-minute minor, roughing Jonathan Marchessault
VGK, 15:38 1st: Nic Roy 2-minute minor, hooking Marc Staal
VGK, 7:59 2nd: Ivan Barbashev 2-minute minor, roughing Colin White
FLA, 7:59 2nd: Colin White 2-minute minor, slashing Adin Hill
VGK, 10:01 2nd: Alex Pietrangelo 2-minute minor, interference on Carter Verhaeghe
VGK, 12:35 2nd: William Carrier 2-minute minor, roughing Marc Staal
VGK, 17:56 2nd: Alex Pietrangelo 2-minute minor, roughing Gustav Forsling
FLA, 17:56 2nd: Gustav Forsling 2-minute minor, roughing Alex Pietrangelo
FLA, 17:56 2nd: Matthew Tkachuk 2-minute minor, roughing Ivan Barbashev
FLA, 17:56 2nd: Matthew Tkachuk 10-minute misconduct
VGK, 17:56 2nd: Ivan Barbashev 2-minute minor, roughing Matthew Tkachuk
VGK, 17:56 2nd: Ivan Barbashev 10-minute misconduct
FLA, 3:01 3rd: Carter Verhaeghe 2-minute minor, cross-checking Alex Pietrangelo
FLA, 14:01 3rd: Matthew Tkachuk 10-minute misconduct (ejected)
FLA, 16:14 3rd: Casey Fitzgerald 10-minute misconduct (ejected)
VGK, 16:14 3rd: Keegan Kolesar 10-minute misconduct (ejected)
FLA, 16:28 3rd: Anthony Duclair 2-minute minor, cross-checking Ivan Barbashev served by Carter Verhaeghe
FLA, 16:28 3rd: Anthony Duclair 10-minute misconduct (ejected)
FLA, 16:28 3rd: Eric Staal 10-minute misconduct, abuse of officials (ejected)
FLA, 18:41 3rd: Nick Cousins 10-minute misconduct (ejected)
VGK, 18:41 3rd: Zach Whitecloud 10-minute misconduct (ejected)
VGK, 19:52 3rd: Reilly Smith 2-minute minor, cross-checking Brandon Montour served by Jonathan Marchessault
VGK, 19:52 3rd: Reilly Smith 10-minute misconduct (ejected)
FLA, 19:52 3rd: Sam Reinhart 10-minute misconduct (ejected)
VGK, 19:52 3rd: Brett Howden 10-minute misconduct (ejected)
Team Stats
Shots: VGK 28, FLA 31
Faceoffs: VGK 34, FLA 32 (VGK 51.5% faceoff win percentage)
Power Play: VGK 2/4 (6 shots), FLA 0/4 (12 shots)
PIM: VGK 64, FLA 84
Hits: VGK 24, FLA 44
Blocks: VGK 20, FLA 11
Giveaways: VGK 12, FLA 6
Takeaways: VGK 22, FLA 11
Three Stars
Third Star: Brett Howden
Second Star: Ivan Barbashev
First Star: Jonathan Marchessault
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