What I Loved From Game 2 Of The Stanley Cup Final
Takeaways as Vegas move a step closer to clinching ultimate glory...
Two more wins are all the Vegas Golden Knights need to become crowned Stanley Cup Champions.
That’s it. Just two more hard-fought victories and they will have proven owner Bill Foley right by winning a championship within their first six years of existence.
While there’s still a long way to go in this series, especially as the Florida Panthers won’t die without a fight, Vegas proved in Games 1 and 2 that this is a legit juggernaut of a team.
As impressive as Game 1 was, Game 2 took it to another level with the Golden Knights beating up on the Panthers and flexing every inch of their powerhouse reputation. This team is for real and they are on the cusp of winning it all.
Here’s a few things I liked from Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Final…
Mid-Season Trades Matter
The reason the NHL Trade Deadline matters so much is it gives contending teams a golden opportunity to load up on weapons for the stretch run and then the postseason.
Trawl through Stanley Cup Playoffs history and there a slew of mid-season trade acquisitions who have made a huge impact for their new team during the postseason.
This year it is the turn of Ivan Barbashev for the Vegas Golden Knights.
Acquired on February 27, 2023, from the St. Louis Blues, with prospect Zach Dean making up the return package, Barbashev has proved to be one of the key missing pieces for this Vegas team.
Part of the Blues roster that won a Stanley Cup in 2019 - Barbashev brings championship pedigree, experience, skill, toughness and grit to the Golden Knights and he has added a different dimension to the top-six forward group.
Playoff hockey is all about the fine margins. The games become tighter, more intense and a degree of sandpaper finish is required. You need players who can produce offensively and who are skilled, but you also need guys who are willing to finish their checks, get to the dirty areas, kill penalties, play a gritty game and get to the inside.
Barbashev ticks all of those boxes and he proved in Game 2 that he can be a real tone-setter. With either team yet to score at 13:25 in the first period, Barbashev laid out Florida’s human wrecking ball defenseman Radko Gudas with an absolute punishing reverse hit. It sent a jolt of energy throughout T-Mobile Arena, and it served as a real statement of intent. It is no accident that Vegas would go on to score four unanswered goals after that.
By wiping out Gudas - who is normally the one that does the taking out - Barbashev not only shortened Florida’s bench and gave the home crowd something to get excited about, but he set the tone and that provided the foundation for the domination that followed.
Barbashev also finished with a primary assist in the game, and he now has 17 points (6 G, 11 A) in these Playoffs. The 27-year-old has proved to be a difference maker for this Vegas team, and he’s a prime example of why mid-season trades matter so much.
Old School Hockey
Barbashev’s crushing hit on Gudas wasn’t the only monster check we saw in Game 2.
With just over two minutes to play in the second period, Matthew Tkachuk made his presence felt (again) by absolutely clattering into Jack Eichel and sending the forward and his helmet flying.
It was an absolute textbook, clean and good old-fashioned hockey hit, and we don’t see enough of them in today’s game.
Tkachuk did everything right and he was given another Game Misconduct - his second in two games - because of the stuff that followed. Not for the hit itself.
Thankfully, Eichel was okay after initially going to the locker room, and he even came back and claimed a primary assist on Jonathan Marchessault’s goal, before finishing the rest of the game. Both Eichel and Vegas Head Coach Bruce Cassidy acknowledged that it was a hard but clean hit.
Look, I’m firmly in the camp that hockey is meant to be physical and, as long as the hits are clean, follow the rules and aren’t a clear headshot, then what’s the problem? Hitting and fighting is ingrained in the game of hockey and it is part of what makes this sport we all love so great.
And that’s just the end of it.
I love the fact too that Tkachuk - along with his brother Brady - is a player very much out of a 1970s/80s time warp. He has all of the skill of a top-line forward, meshed perfectly with all the grit and toughness of a fourth-line grinder. Those kind of guys are rare and that’s exactly why Tkachuk is one of the best and most entertaining players in the game right now. He can impact a game in a multitude of different ways using a wide-ranging arsenal of skills.
I’m a huge fan of old-school hockey - I was randomly watching a Rangers - Islanders game from 1995 last night actually - and this series, Game 2 in particular, has given us some of those elements we don’t get to see that often in the modern game. And for that we should be thankful.
On A Tear
Jonathan Marchessault is riding a hot streak to end all other hot streaks right now.
The veteran forward has been operating at an elite level in the most clutch time possible for the Vegas Golden Knights, and he’s now the betting favorite for the Conn Smythe Trophy.
That wouldn’t have been thought possible just a few weeks ago when Marchessault had just two assists and no goals through his first seven games of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. However, since potting two goals in Game 3 of the Second Round against the Edmonton Oilers, he has been near on unstoppable.
Marchessault has 12 goals and 19 points in his last 12 games since then, and he’s now riding a three-game goal streak (his second of this postseason) and a seven-game point streak heading into Game 3 on Thursday.
The wing added two more goals to his total in Game 2, and he created a little slice of history in the process. By scoring the opening goal of the contest for the second consecutive game, Marchessault became just one of five players in the past 35 years to score his team’s first goal in Games 1 and 2 of the Stanley Cup Final.
Both of Marchessault’s goals in Game 2 were absolute beauts too.
So, not only is Marchessault on an absolute all-time epic tear right now, but he’s scoring huge goals in critical moments and he’s a massive reason why the Golden Knights are now two wins away from the Stanley Cup.
Stepping Up
I touched on Vegas’ insane abundance of depth in a takeaways piece I did after Game 1, but it was on full display yet again in Game 2.
While established stars such as Jonathan Marchessault, Jack Eichel and Mark Stone certainly had their fingerprints all over the boxscore, a slew of role players stepped up to really make the difference on Monday for the Knights.
Veteran defenseman Alec Martinez - who has won a pair of Stanley Cups with the LA Kings - tallied his first goal of the postseason in the first period to make it a 2-0 game.
Nicolas Roy - who has really helped to drive play and been part of a dominant fourth-line - piled on early in the second period. Michael Amadio, who has been a really nice depth piece for Vegas all year, also lit the lamp. Then there was Brett Howden. The 25-year-old has really resurrected his NHL career in Sin City after failing to make his mark with the New York Rangers, and he’s now playing top-six minutes on a line with Mark Stone. He was one of the stars of the show in Game 2, recording two goals and his first, which came on an odd-man rush - was a real beaut and a prime example of good things happen when you crash the net.
Howden now has nine points (5 G, 4 A) in the postseason and, if the Golden Knights do go on to win the Stanley Cup, then their stacked depth will be a significant contributing factor. Playoff hockey is a different game altogether and you need contributions from up and down your lineup on a nightly basis in order to survive the gruelling war of attrition and go the distance. The Knights have been getting exactly that all postseason and that’s why they are now two wins away from ultimate glory.
