Global Courant
The Vegas Golden Knights captured the franchise’s first Stanley Cup in its sixth season on Tuesday, after closing out the Florida Panthers at home with a 9-3 win in Game 5 of the Finals.
Captain Mark Stone scored a hat-trick in the win, making the Golden Knights the fastest franchise to win the Stanley Cup in the post-expansion era (beginning in 1967), surpassing the 1974 Philadelphia Flyers, who claimed the title in the seventh of the franchise. season.
“Incredible,” Stone said. “The look in my teammates’ eyes when I won (the Stanley Cup), one of the craziest feelings I’ve ever had. I can’t even describe the feelings in my stomach right now. It’s everything you can imagine. The grind of an 82-game season, four playoff rounds. You grind and you grind and you grind.”
Stone got Vegas going midway through the first period after the penalty kill, waiting patiently for Panthers goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky before scoring his ninth goal of the playoffs, taking advantage of a miscommunication between Panthers forwards Sam Bennett and Carter Verhaeghe.
LOOK | VGK captain Stone leads by example, pots hat-trick in cup win:
Stone’s hat trick helps Golden Knights defeat Panthers and claim 1st Stanley Cup
The Vegas Golden Knights defeated the Florida Panthers 9-3 in Game 5 to capture the franchise’s first Stanley Cup in its sixth season. Captain Mark Stone scored a hat-trick to finish the playoffs with 11 goals and 24 points.
Nearly two minutes later, another of Vegas’ prized trade acquisitions, Jack Eichel, helped orchestrate the team’s next goal after a backhand at the net that deflected defender Nicolas Hague from close range.
Jonathan Marchessault scored his 25th point of the playoffs on Hague’s goal, temporarily passing star Panthers striker Matthew Tkachuk – who missed the game with an undisclosed injury – for sole possession of first place in the playoff score.
LOOK | Golden Knights win 1st Stanley Cup in franchise history:
Mark Stone of the Golden Knights presented the Stanley Cup by NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman
Vegas captain Mark Stone hoists the Stanley Cup in honor of his team’s first NHL championship.
Marchessault, formerly a member of the Panthers – who had him selected for selection in the 2017 expansion draft where Vegas acquired him – received the Conn Smythe Trophy, awarded annually to the most valuable player for his team during the Stanley Cup playoffs .
“I couldn’t be more proud of our team, our organization,” said Marchessault, whose 13 goals tied Edmonton Oilers center Leon Draisaitl for most of the 2023 playoffs. “Everyone left at different times and that’s why we’re winners.”
Jonathan Marchessault of the Vegas Golden Knights hoists the Con Smythe Trophy after recording 13 goals and 12 assists during his 2023 playoff run. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
The Panthers responded as defenseman Aaron Ekblad found the back of the net from the point just over two minutes into the second period.
Eichel later tied Marchessault at the top of the scoring standings after setting up striker’s trailing defender Alec Martinez, who fired a shot past Bobrovsky to regain Vegas’ two-goal lead. An assist in the third period later gave Eichel his 26th playoff point (6 goals, 20 assists), permanently surpassing Marchessault’s 25 (13 goals, 12 assists).
ALEC MARTINEZ IS JUST SICK IN THE PLAYOFFS pic.twitter.com/bwpp94hQLK
The excellent playoff run was particularly sweet to Eichel, who was less than two years away from neck surgery that sidelined him for a significant period of time.
“This is what everyone dreams of,” said Eichel, who played in the postseason for the first time of his career in his eighth NHL campaign. “You come to an organization like this and the expectation is to win this thing. It’s a special place to play. I can’t give everyone enough credit for putting us in this position.”
“They call them the misfits. That’s the guys. They built this. They built this culture. So proud to be a part of it.”
Jack Eichel of the Vegas Golden Knights hoists the Stanley Cup after leading all scorers in the playoffs with 26 points. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
The Golden Knights would score another goal in quick succession – the game’s eventual winner – when William Karlsson set up Reilly Smith with a between-the-legs feed after a shot from Shea Theodore was blocked in the slot, giving him a. secondary assist.
The three players all played on the first-season Golden Knights team that lost to the Washington Capitals in the 2018 Stanley Cup Final.
While Stone got his side going early in the game, his goal with just under three minutes remaining in the second period to level the game at 5-1 left little doubt that he would be the first who would receive the Stanley Cup from NHL commissioner Gary Bettman later that night.
And if there was any doubt, Michael Amadio’s goal with 1.2 seconds left in the second frame to make it 6-1 made that impression.
For the record, Stone would go on to complete his hat-trick in the final frame, converting a goal with an empty net at 14:06 in the period when the Panthers tried unsuccessfully to claw back into the game.
Stone’s hat-trick was the 40th in Stanley Cup Final history and the first since Peter Forsberg in Game 2 of the 1996 Final.
ADIN HILL ARE YOU JOKING?! pic.twitter.com/aR7RxrVHrI
Vegas goaltender Adin Hill capped off his stellar playoff run with another signature save in the third period.
The Comox, BC native – one of 19 Canadians on the Vegas roster – finished the playoffs with an 11-4 record, along with a .932 save percentage.
“You dream about it every day when you grow up as a kid.” Hill said. “Being here with this group of guys, in this city, in this building, is a dream come true.”
Redemption for Cassidy
The win caps a six-year streak in which the Golden Knights amassed the second-most playoff wins in the NHL behind the Tampa Bay Lightning by reaching the Stanley Cup Final in their first season, and two streaks short of the finals ended in 2020 and 2021 – both overseen by former head coach Peter DeBoer.
The team’s aggressive pursuit of success led to DeBoer’s firing in the 2022 off-season after failing to make the playoffs for the first time in franchise history, and the change behind the bench immediately paid off with the hiring of former Boston Bruins head coach. Bruce Cassidy this season.
“(Cassidy) came in and brought an intensity to our locker room that we may have needed,” said Stone. “He wanted to win as much as anyone else in that dressing room.”
Cassidy’s last chance as head coach to win the Cup on home ice came in 2019, when host Bruins fell 4-1 to the Blues in Game 7.
“It’s a great story — very, very grateful to be given another chance,” said Cassidy. “I’m just here to do my job and it worked out well.”
Vegas Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy lifts his first Stanley Cup. Cassidy fell one win short of the 2019 title with the Bruins when they lost to the Blues in Game 7. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)
The top seed in the Western Conference flowed through the Winnipeg Jets, Edmonton Oilers and DeBoer’s Dallas Stars before dispatching the No. 8 seeded Panthers – a team that had knocked out three of the top four teams in the league in the Bruins, Toronto Maple Leafs and Carolina Hurricanes before meeting their game in Vegas.
Bobrovsky was a key driver for the Panthers to climb to the top of the Eastern Conference, with a .942 save percentage over an 11-1 run from Game 5 of the first round against the Bruins to completing a sweep of the Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Finals.
That same magic wasn’t there in the Finals, with the 34-year-old finishing with an .844 save percentage over the five games, notably being drawn midway through Game 2 and surrendering eight of the Golden Knights’ Stanley Cup clinching record nine goals in Game 5.
“It was a privilege for me to play and fight with them,” said Bobrovsky. “It’s definitely hard to lose like that and finish the season like that. But we did a great job and I want to stick to that.”
Building a winner
The Golden Knights’ approach to building a championship-winning roster is not only unprecedented in modern NHL history, it’s nearly impossible to replicate for other squads in the league.
Six players remain from the 2017-18 roster that went all the way to the Stanley Cup Final less than a year after holding the NHL Expansion Draft to fill 30 roster spots from around the league, but only four of those players (defender Brayden McNabb, and forwards Marchessault, Karlsson, and William Carrier) were official Vegas selections.
The other two (Smith and Theodore) were obtained through smart trades with the Golden Knights, utilizing available leverage by teams seeking to protect assets from Vegas poaching.
“We waited a long time for that moment to come back,” said Marchessault. “We wanted to make sure we cash in on this time.”
The NHL draft draft has been less of an aid to the team’s current line-up, as Hague was the only Golden Knights draft pick (drafted 34th overall in 2017) fit for a game during Vegas’ 22-game run. Other top picks like Peyton Krebs, Nick Suzuki, and Erik Brannstrom were sent out to bring in top talent, including Stone and Eichel.
