Six seasons after their NHL debut, the Vegas Golden Knights are Stanley Cup champions. The Golden Knights blasted the Florida Panthers, 9-3, in Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final to win hockey's ultimate prize in front of their home crowd.
The Matthew Tkachuk-less Panthers came out with a strong push in the first period, but Vegas netminder Adin Hill made some key stops that allowed his team to seize the momentum. Mark Stone scored a shorthanded goal 11:52 into the game, and defenseman Nic Hague doubled the lead a few minutes later. The Golden Knights were off and running.
Panthers defenseman Aaron Ekblad scored early in the second period to make it a one-goal game, but any dreams of a Game 6 were short-lived. Following Ekblad's goal, the Golden Knights launched an onslaught against Florida goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky. Vegas spent the final 10 minutes of the second period in the Florida zone, and it hung four goals on the scoreboard to take a 6-1 lead.
After a long run of playoff brilliance from both players, Stone and Jack Eichel saved their best performances for last. Eichel was all over the ice, making plays on the backcheck and the forecheck. He was rewarded with three assists and finished the playoffs with 20, which led the league.
All Stone did was seal a Stanley Cup victory with three goals. His hat trick was the first in a Stanley Cup Final since Colorado Avalanche legend Petr Forsber pulled it off in Game 2 of the 1996 Stanley Cup Final, which was also against the Panthers.
As the hats hit the ice following Stone's empty-net goal, the party had officially started in Las Vegas. The Golden Knights are on top of the hockey world.
Vegas seizes golden opportunity
The Golden Knights did get a favorable setup in the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft, but simply getting an edge and taking advantage of that edge are two different things. Vegas did everything in its power to win in the franchise's early years, and it succeeded in that mission.
Vegas made the most of the new expansion draft rules and fielded a talented team that went to the Stanley Cup Final in its inaugural season, but the team was not satisfied with that. Following the 2017-18 season, the Golden Knights decided to make some bold moves, and they hit on most of them.
Only six players from that original team were on the roster when the Golden Knights hoisted the trophy on Tuesday night. Look at the rest of the lineup, and you'll see the aggressive approach that the franchise took in terms of roster construction. Jack Eichel, Mark Stone, and Alex Pietrangelo were all splashy moves, and they all worked out for Vegas.
Of course, the team had to make tough decisions along the way. 2021 Vezina Trophy winner Marc-Andre Fleury was traded away for peanuts in that offseason. This past summer, Vegas traded star winger Max Pacioretty to the Carolina Hurricanes for practically nothing. The Golden Knights took some flack for those trades, but it was about creating flexibility to build a Stanley Cup contender.
From there, it was on the players and first-year coach Bruce Cassidy to get the job done, and they did. Perhaps more franchises can learn from the Golden Knights' aggressive philosophy.
Eichel, Stone reward Golden Knights for big swings
Two of those big moves -- Jack Eichel and Mark Stone -- came with high acquisition costs and big financial commitments once they got to town. At the time, it was easy to get sticker shock from looking at the trade returns and their salary cap hits.
There is no stick shock now.
Both players came to Vegas with a lot of hype and lived up to it throughout this playoff run. Eichel dominated in all three zones and showed off his elite patience and vision in every series. As a result, he ended the playoffs as the league leader in assists (20) and points (26).
Stone barely returned from injury in time to participate in these playoffs, but that didn't affect him. Stone was a force on the defensive side, as is usually the case, but he also found the back of the net on a regular basis. Stone capped off his Stanley Cup run with a hat trick in Game 5.
There was a lot of pressure on Stone and Eichel to perform in Vegas, and they did. When it mattered most, they were the Golden Knights' two best players, and this might be the start of something special for that duo.
Panthers run out of steam without Tkachuk
After falling behind 3-1 in their first-round series against the Boston Bruins, the Florida Panthers didn't make many missteps. They won 11 of their next 12 games en route to the Stanley Cup Final, but they just ran out of gas against a deep Golden Knights team.
Coming into the series, it was clear that Vegas would have somewhat of an edge at five-on-five, but Florida could have made up for that on special teams. Instead, the Panthers struggled mightily on the power play. They had 14 opportunities on the man advantage in the Stanley Cup Final and wound up allowing more goals (1) than they scored (0) in those situations.
The Panthers also battled a laundry list of injuries, and the most impactful was Matthew Tkachuk's broken collarbone. He suffered that injury in Game 3 and somehow managed to battle through it in Game 4 before sitting out the series finale.
Without Tkachuk in the lineup and several injured players suiting up, the Panthers were several steps behind in Game 5. Once Vegas flipped a switch in the second period, the floodgates opened, and the Panthers didn't have enough energy left to close them.
Although it was a tough ending for the Panthers, they still went on an incredible postseason run that the fan base will remember for years to come. On top of that, they should be a factor in the playoffs next season, especially with Tkachuk as the cornerstone of the franchise.