Florida hung on and scraped along in the first Stanley Cup final game, but it didn’t come close to winning.
Early Sunday morning, the Vegas Golden Knights took the first shot at the championship by defeating Florida 5-2 in the first Stanley Cup final game.
‘s hockey expert Ismo Lehkonen highlighted three themes from the match.
1. Personal mistakes
Florida started the game well and took the lead with an underpowered goal. However, gross individual mistakes cost the team the victory in the away match. At least three of the five hits made by Vegas had something to worry about. Some of the errors were related to puck losses, some to marking or game counting errors.
According to Lehkonen, Vegas’ important 1-1 equalizer was a gross defensive mistake.
– Vegas plays with superiority and a defender Brandon Montour goes to double behind the goal. Such mistakes are blatant and in such games you have to pay for them.
The best goalkeeper of the NHL spring Sergei Bobrovsky played an excellent match in Florida’s goal, but for the team, the only slippage of the evening came in a bad place. by Zach Whitecloud a loose shot from the blue line slipped in without a mask. On the other hand, the situation was preceded by a gross individual error already in the attacking area.
– Unfortunately, Bobrovski takes a shot like that a hundred times out of a hundred, but now it went in.
The last and spine-breaking gross mistake was Matthew Tkachuk a rough pass bias before the 4–2 goal.
– It was an arrogant and bad pass for someone who was in blackout by Mark Stone from the front. Even then, a team penalty for the failed challenge.
2. A dark night for key players
Lehkonen was also disappointed with the performance of Florida’s key players on Saturday. Alexander Barkov played a downright brilliant game in many places, but the Finnish captain’s night was also darkened by Vegas’ lead goal. Just before the winning goal, Barkov’s chain had good positions in the attacking zone, but the puck could not get in. After a while, a light went on in my head.
However, Florida did not fail Barkov, as it did not fail to Anton Lundell.
– There were now quite a lot of guys who didn’t play an A-level game. Matthew Tkachuk, Sam Bennett, Carter Verhaeghe, Nick Cousins and so on. When you think that the Stanley Cup is being played for here, the dudes didn’t make it to the top register. When the opponent is such a good team, the best thing to do is hit the table if you want to play away from the result, says Lehkonen.
Tkachuk topped off his night by splashing himself in the shower about five minutes before the end of the match, even though the difference was only two goals.
– It was a completely stupid overreach. However, that is Florida’s playing, which they will certainly continue to try to get under the skin of Vegas.
Lehkonen also missed someone who was on the sidelines due to injury Eetu from the Monastery.
– Barkov and Lundell would have needed support. Yes, Luostarinen’s absence was visible there. Now if we think about the continuation, the level has to rise a lot if Florida is going to get some kind of result from these two away games.
3. Vegas riser
The home team Vegas’ match was bullish. It started sluggishly, gave an underpowered goal and was otherwise on the racks. After getting the equalizer, it got on top of its game and dominated the second set strongly.
– At the beginning of the third period, Florida had four chances to score, but there was no goal. Then it came to Vegas 3-2 and the rest was quite a roller coaster for Florida. After the winning goal, we saw the best of Vegas. The reliability of performance on the puck was top-notch and they created a lot of chances from the steals.
Still, Lehkonen expects more from Vegas on Tuesday morning.
– This was not a good game from Vegas and still they won by three goals. This ending was quite a harsh statement from them. Florida needs to understand that this will continue to be the standard for the game.