The National Hockey League's most important time of the season has come — Stanley Cup Final. The decisive series of the tournament was reached by those who hardly anyone expected to see in the battle for the trophy a month or two ago. But the Florida Panthers and the Vegas Golden Knights proved during the playoffs that they made it to the finals quite rightly. Nevertheless, their confrontation has become one of the most obscure in recent years — not only because of the very fact that Florida and Vegas got into the Stanley Cup final, but also because of the inability to predict the main scenario of their battles.
On the one hand, on paper, the Golden Knights look like the favorites and have at their disposal a high-quality, balanced squad and a lot of resources to put high pressure on the opponent. On the other hand, the Panthers successfully held out against such teams and, being in the status of obvious underdogs, completely neutralized the danger of their past opponents. There was no reason to doubt that the main sensation of this playoffs could deal with Vegas in a similar way. Moreover, “Florida” had enough time to rest – much more than the “knights”.
According to such an ambiguous and unpredictable scenario, the first match of the final series took place. Many certainly expected powerful pressure from the Golden Knights, who played in front of their fans, but instead, the visitors from Sunrise started brightly. Only Brett Howden's head-to-head with Sergey Bobrovsky helped the Vegas defuse the atmosphere, at the same time providing a service to the Russian goaltender of Florida, who played in the Stanley Cup final for the first time in his NHL career.
Interestingly, in theory, Bobrovsky's debut in the decisive series of the NHL season could turn into a fight, but nothing happened. His counterpart Edin Hill did not approve of the behavior of the Florida striker, who behaved very aggressively at the gates of Vegas, and made it clear that he was ready to fight hand-to-hand. Bobrovsky was on the alert — in which case the Russian could connect, but this, fortunately, was not required.
Although Hill's ardor should have been tempered, because the Canadian goalkeeper of «Vegas» gave a truly fiery match. Yes, he missed twice in a match, but this is hardly his direct fault. Even Anthony Duclair's goal, the Florida forward's shot, came so quickly that it was very difficult to react to it.
But in another episode, Hill showed miracles of reaction and acrobatics. With the score at 1-1, the Golden Knights goalie made an incredible save from Nick Cousins, who seemed to have already seen the puck in the net. But the nimble Canadian from Vegas managed to deflect the puck with his stick in exactly the same way that Washington Capitals goaltender Braden Holtby did in Game 2 of the 2018 Stanley Cup Final against (symbolically) Vegas.
Sergey Bobrovsky kept up with his opponent and also made a number of spectacular and amazing saves. And for the entire playoffs, the Russian goalkeeper of “Florida” has already recorded a huge number of such assets. But today even this was not enough for the success of the Panthers. The attack, “Panthers” did not really set the implementation of the moments, and the team leader from the shores of Miami Matthew Tkachuk was more involved in trying to provoke opponents into a fight than his direct duties. As a result, one of the heroes of “Florida” ended the match ahead of schedule today due to a disciplinary fine. And the deletions from the “Panthers” was a lot. For them, and a number of situational errors in the defense, “Golden Knights” punished the guests without mercy. The last projectile flew into an empty frame, when the guests tried to compensate for the numerical minority by leaving a field player instead of Bobrovsky. The idea did not work.
But Ivan Barbashev fulfilled his game plan perfectly. The Vegas Russian striker once again showed how much he brings to his new team: Ivan did a good job in defense when it was necessary, he successfully proved himself in a power struggle, having carried out five hits (more than any of the Golden Knights players) and knocking out the Canadian Josh Mahura, and also scored. Barbashev had a great chance to score the winning goal, but Sergei Bobrovsky parried his shot. Barbie did not lose his head, instantly played on the rebound and addressed the puck to Zach Whitecloud. He threw irresistibly for Bobrovsky.
Three victories — just as many steps separate Ivan Barbashev from his second Stanley Cup. For Russian hockey, this success will be very significant and loud. Although Ivan himself will not be able to go to Russia with a trophy if he wins it, as he did only four years ago. I didn’t think about it,» Barbashev snapped on the eve of the final.
Yes, for now, you only have to think about hockey. The series has just begun.