Long live Las Vegas! Barbashev won the Stanley Cup again and the Golden Knights tore Bobrovsky apart in the deciding game

Vegas owner: ‘We wanted to win the cup in six years’

It’s interesting now to look at article clippings from 2017, when the Vegas Golden Knights joined the NHL and just put together an expansion draft roster.

“They’re a terrible team that will finish last in the league.”

“Just a failure.”

“I’ll be optimistic when I say Vegas won’t be the last, but the penultimate.”

“No composition, but disappointment.”

In fact, the only name the Golden Knights had then was star goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury. The others are middle peasants who were not protected by their old clubs.

But in the first year, Vegas reached the Stanley Cup final, where it lost to Washington (1-4) in five games.

“Everything is fine,” Golden Knights owner Bill Foley said. “Our development plan was to reach the playoffs in three years and win the Stanley Cup in six years.”

It turns out that “Vegas” executed his boss’ plan perfectly. Of the teams that entered the NHL during the expansion wave, only Edmonton managed to manage it in five years.

“We’re all Golden Knights, we’re all winners,” the forward said. Vegas Jonathan Marcheso , who received the Conn Smythe Trophy as the Stanley Cup Playoffs Most Valuable Player. “It’s definitely the best feeling in the world.”

By the way, the same Marchesso played in Florida, where he made a name for himself. He had a good season, even though he made his way to the NHL through farm clubs, and he didn’t even make the draft. But the Panthers didn’t evaluate this player, didn’t protect him in the expansion draft. But Vegas took it in 2017 — and now Marchesso has shown what happens to organizations where they believe in good guys.

Tkachuk played with a broken sternum

In Game 5 of the Finals, Florida was, if not doomed, at least on the verge of it. The Panthers’ leading scorer had not participated in the training session the day before. Matthew Tkachuk , injured in the last game. In the end, he never made it to the game. Radko Gudas and Brandon Montour did not practice. They participated in the match, but were obviously not in good health. They even had to throw in Russian forward Grigory Denisenko, who hadn’t played in the NHL since February and was generally extremely distant from the main team.

After the final, it will become clear that Tkachuk has a broken sternum, plus three Florida hockey players have played with broken bones, and three more will need shoulder surgery. Also, Tkachuk broke his sternum in the third game of the finals, but went to the fourth on injections. It wasn’t enough for the fifth.

And it all boils down to one word: despair. Especially when Vegas plays at home and leads 3-1 in the final, and the champion champagne is already freezing in the locker room.

Midway through the first period, the Golden Knights made a serious bid for success as they took a 2-0 lead, with captain Mark Stone scoring shorthand for another brilliant interception.

The plot was rekindled early in the second period, when Florida defenseman Aaron Ekblad scored. But the 1:2 score quickly turned to 1:7, and Vegas scored so often that I wanted to describe this process with Gaidai’s timeless phrase: “Please slow down, j ‘checked in !”

Interestingly, Panthers head coach Paul Maurice didn’t change his goaltender, and Sergei Bobrovsky scored eight goals in his own net. Well, what to lose in the last game of the season? Maurice even pulled the keeper out in the final minutes, allowing Stone to score a hat-trick – unheard of in the Stanley Cup Final since 1996, when Peter Forsberg scored that way. Incidentally, Florida was also torn at the time.

Scored one of the pucks Ivan Barbaschev emphasizing the symbolism of the moment – he integrated very well into this team from the first days and brought it great benefit.

Jack Eichel: “A dream come true”

The big asset of “Vegas” is the depth of the composition. Immediately 15 players – ten attackers and five defenders – scored at least one point in this game. Yes, this cruiser hit the target with all guns.

“We’ve had depth in the lineup all year,” Vegas guard Alex Pietrangelo said. “We just used our depth to stun people.”

And although both Florida Sams – Sam Rinehart and Sam Bennett – still scored the puck, the scoreboard froze a disastrous 3-9 for Panthers fans. On the other hand, this team could very well not qualify for the playoffs, and reaching the final is already a great adventure for this Florida team.

“I would like to congratulate Vegas, they deserve it,” said Maurice. – They were great. We haven’t had a response to that.

Tkachuk’s injury? He himself could not dress for the fourth match in which he took part. Someone helped him put on his gear. Someone has tied their skates. Someone gave him a sweater. But the next day when he came to training, he was in a lot of pain. Therefore, the question of whether he can play or not no longer arises. The idea was that if we gave him pain relief, then maybe he could get into Game 7.

But that didn’t happen – Vegas finished in five.

A million touches and thus weaves “Vegas” into the championship. For example, the Golden Knights were not afraid to make a hit trade when they received Jack Eichel from Buffalo, who was treated and brought to his senses for a long time, while simultaneously crushing the star under the ceiling salary.

Eichel is now Vegas’ leading scorer in this qualifier. And he passed Connor McDavid, in whose shadow he’s been since 2015. Then Jack was selected second in the draft and McDavid went first. They were constantly compared. It looked like Connor’s career was on the rise, but Eichel only disappointed. He had never even played in the NHL playoffs until this spring! I just didn’t go there. And here’s how things changed.

“It’s the best feeling in the world to be able to fight for the Stanley Cup and win it,” Eichel said. “A lifelong dream has come true.”

Long live Las Vegas! It was cool.