Stanley Cup Finals: (WC2) Florida Panthers vs (P1) Vegas Golden Knights | VGK Lead 3-1

[BB88]

Floridas defense is just really showing up in these finals.

Marc Staal in the top4 is just asking for trouble.

Also Florida is playing way too stupid.

 

[KPower]

Florida is who we thought they were.

 

[BLNY]

Will see if switching locales changes anything. First two games, Vegas stuffed 'em in a couple of holes in the desert "outside of town".

 

[Leafshater67]

I like Gudas. However, I think most people on HFBoards do not. Anyway, he is/was on the third pairing. Why is he so critical now?

Because Florida has a weak blueline with no depth and despite pairing, Gudas has been physically dominant and good all playoffs. That means they’ll have 3 non-NHL calibre D in their lineup for game 3 now as well instead of 2.

 

[John Price]

 

[ijuka]

Florida has to massively clean up their play in the D zone. Puck management, gap control, and coverage all must improve. They held it together for three rounds, and Bob bailed them out when needed. This is what it looks like when they lose their D structure and Bob returns to form.

No. It just is the goaltending. In this series negatively, and before this positively.

See, if you look at the stats, Florida actually had significantly better xGF% of 58.64%. But of course, when you're expected to allow 2.77 goals and end up allowing 7, you're going to be in trouble.

Oh, and they didn't hold it together for three rounds. They had sequences like 4 2-on-1 attacks within 3 minutes all the time. The difference is, Bobrovsky bailed them out in those games, so some people got the illusion that Florida somehow is a good defensive team. They never have been. The goalie just was saving 20 goals above expected.

 

[Razamanaz]

Killed by ...

... Las Vegas.

The worst of the Florida-lot:

1. Sergei Bobrovsky.
Bob - the multi million dollar man - was not worth even a bob in this Vegas game.
Played like an old rusty Russian tractor and got pulled.

2. Gustav Forsling.
Dazed and confused and that all night and game long. Not mobile at all. Stiff like an statue in the square of his hometown of Linköping. A first hand onlooker to a couple of Las Vegas goals.

3. Matthew Tkachuk.
Rip his A. Saldo in this Vegas game: one hit, one goal (2-6!) and 22 penalty minutes. And nuthin' else. Otherwise the invisible man. His dead-jail-or-rock'n'roll-hockey may work in the regular season - not so much in the Stanley Cup Finals.

4. Ryan Lomberg.
Took an early and totally unnecessary penalty early on in the game when Florida were on a roll. Then it was only uphill for the Panthers. When goalie Hill played his over-the-hills-and-far-away-hockey. After that longhaired Lomberg tried to compensate the mistake with rather pathetic rat-hockey and some headhuntin'.

5. Brandon Montour.
Mordor-hockey from Montour. 'nuff said.
And he knows it ...

Captain Barkov was the only one that seemed to even try to bite back in this Las Vegas-game. The only one with a +rating in the Panthers squad. The rest of the Florida-lot died ... rather easy.

Of course Las Vegas played up a almost perfect game.
No (Gary!) glitter and glamour hockey whatsoever. Cynical- and clinical from the word go.

 

[hangman005]

Not even remotely accurate, Florida would've wiped the floor with most of these Western playoff teams.

Well first three rounds Florida at least.

 

[Deleted member 339941]

 

[theslatcher]

Killed by ...

... Las Vegas.

The worst of the Florida-lot:

1. Sergei Bobrovsky.
Bob - the multi million dollar man - was not worth even a bob in this Vegas game.
Played like an old rusty Russian tractor and got pulled.

2. Gustav Forsling.
Dazed and confused and that all night and game long. Not mobile at all. Stiff like an statue in the square of his hometown of Linköping. A first hand onlooker to a couple of Las Vegas goals.

3. Matthew Tkachuk.
Rip his A. Saldo in this Vegas game: one hit, one goal (2-6!) and 22 penalty minutes. And nuthin' else. Otherwise the invisible man. His dead-jail-or-rock'n'roll-hockey may work in the regular season - not so much in the Stanley Cup Finals.

4. Ryan Lomberg.
Took an early and totally unnecessary penalty early on in the game when Florida were on a roll. Then it was only uphill for the Panthers. When goalie Hill played his over-the-hills-and-far-away-hockey. After that longhaired Lomberg tried to compensate the mistake with rather pathetic rat-hockey and some headhuntin'.

5. Brandon Montour.
Mordor-hockey from Montour. 'nuff said.
And he knows it ...

Captain Barkov was the only one that seemed to even try to bite back in this Las Vegas-game. The only one with a +rating in the Panthers squad. The rest of the Florida-lot died ... rather easy.

Of course Las Vegas played up a almost perfect game.
No (Gary!) glitter and glamour hockey whatsoever. Cynical- and clinical from the word go.

Ekblad at #0?

 

[Ratsreign]

The Panthers team over the last two games is looking like the team which Habs fans were drooling over for their impending draft pick in the lottery.

 

[Sheppy]

148 minutes in penalties combined.

0 fighting majors.

 

[Zerotonine]

Vegas is having it self a cake walk to the cup dye to opposing goaltending its embarrassing. Furor helleybuch, then Skinner who was gross, then otteninger and now Bob who before this series was all God like
All 4 goalies litterally fell apart and had below 900 save percentage vs vegas

 

[Bond]

Boston series shows it ain’t over but Florida needs a goalie to step up and Tkachuk to calm down

 

[behemolari]

Boston series shows it ain’t over but Florida needs a goalie to step up and Tkachuk to calm down

Its exactly like I said before series, Bobrovsky hotstreak will go off during 10 day break and Lyon will play last three games

 

[Necrobutcher]

Boston series shows it ain’t over but Florida needs a goalie to step up and Tkachuk to calm down

Yeah the games 3 & 4 against Boston were way worse than these two latest games. This series is far from being over.

 

[Rob Brown]

Guess without Bob playing out of his mind things are a bit more difficult.

 

[MessierII]

Vegas is having it self a cake walk to the cup dye to opposing goaltending its embarrassing. Furor helleybuch, then Skinner who was gross, then otteninger and now Bob who before this series was all God like
All 4 goalies litterally fell apart and had below 900 save percentage vs vegas

Or they’re just torching everything in sight

 

[SoupGuru]

Imagine, if you will, a scrum after a whistle in a lopsided game. Tkachuk skates into the pile and starts jostling, as he is known to do. The ref skates over to keep an eye on things as the linesmen try to break things up - "OK, OK. Break it up fellas"
<punch>
"I said break it up"
<poke>
"That's enough. Get out of here."
<push>
"Hey, that's enough. I'll start calling penalties if you don't break it up"
<poke>
"All right. Try me."
<taps stick out of player's hand>
"Fine" <TWEET> "10 minute misconduct"

And then we get to hear from fans wondering why the big mean refs are picking on poor ol' Tkachuk and kicking him out for just a simple tap of another player's stick.

 

[unicornpig]

Eastern conference is so bad

 

[FlaPanthers11]

I like Gudas. However, I think most people on HFBoards do not. Anyway, he is/was on the third pairing. Why is he so critical now?

The Panthers are in a major one-year cap crunch due to dead cap. The biggest issue all season is that they haven’t been able to handle any injuries. Obviously it’s part of the game and something every team goes through but some, like this year’s Panthers, are not set up to handle it well.

People will say the Panthers were very lucky in rounds 1-3 and that’s true and probably a requirement to win the cup. And while I think people associate that with bounces and saves, the luckiest that they’ve been is that it’s one of a few times they’ve been able to play with a full lineup

Someone gave some specifics above but Gudas, while on the third pairing, is the team’s 3rd most reliable defender on the blue line behind Ekblad and Forsling. Two goals that don’t happen this series if he’s in:

Game 1, goal 1. Gudas is in the locker room so Montour fills in for a rare PK shift where he completely abandons the front of the net allowing an easy centering pass and goal

Game 2, goal 3. Gudas’s replacement, who doesn’t belong on the ice a cup final game, has a complete individual defensive breakdown allowing his man to walk in from the corner un-contested and screening Bob in the process

They’re little things but you don’t have any margin for that in the playoffs

Beyond Gudas, the Luostarainen injury has really killed the 3rd line which was a very important two-way line for the Panthers in rounds 1-3 and takes the only decent player off the 4th line

Vegas’s 5th goal was also a direct result of the forward situation with FLA playing with only 10 and bundling a line change, sending only 4 out due to confusion and another easy goal

And these are just the most direct examples. There’s a lot of other more nuanced issues with how the Panthers played last night which was caused by line mismatches with only 10 forwards and 5 regular D men

 

[FlaPanthers11]

Guess without Bob playing out of his mind things are a bit more difficult.

There’s a credit to the Vegas offense that is missing here.

Toronto and Carolina made Bob look great by taking bad shots with poor pre-shot movement and limited traffic in front. Vegas’s chances have been the opposite

Charron: Has Sergei Bobrovksy really been historically great these playoffs?

If there was ever a time for Bobrovsky to turn it on and really look like Dominik Hasek, now’s his chance.

theathletic.com

 

[IceManCat]

It's now the next day. I still dont understand why a 10 minute was called. And no the game wasn't "out of hand". That hit would have stirred up momentum for the Panthers they could have gotten a goal or two to end the period. And then been down 2-3 heading into the third. It wasn't some kind of impossible feat. Still another 35-40 % of the game left to play. Horrible call by the refs., horrible officiating in game 1 and in game 2.

 

[ZJuice]

There’s a credit to the Vegas offense that is missing here.

Toronto and Carolina made Bob look great by taking bad shots with poor pre-shot movement and limited traffic in front. Vegas’s chances have been the opposite

Charron: Has Sergei Bobrovksy really been historically great these playoffs?

If there was ever a time for Bobrovsky to turn it on and really look like Dominik Hasek, now’s his chance.

theathletic.com

Odd. The leafs got a lot of goals past the Lightning by screening and creating traffic. I failed to notice they stopped that against the Panthers. Those silly bastards.

Knights were good at screening the Oilers tender and using our idiotic defensive system to draw defenders way out of position to open up the slot for tips and rebounds. I didn’t see Panthers leaving their positions but they got beat in front of their own net a lot. All of the little battles, the rebounds, they have Stone who can get his stick on anything.. marchessault who appears to be 100% successful on every rebound opportunity..

 

[Catscountry40]

Hits to the head are legal in the serious. How the hit Gudas it isn't a suspension is unreal. The serious is so fixed anyone can tell.

It's now the next day. I still dont understand why a 10 minute was called. And no the game wasn't "out of hand". That hit would have stirred up momentum for the Panthers they could have gotten a goal or two to end the period. And then been down 2-3 heading into the third. It wasn't some kind of impossible feat. Still another 35-40 % of the game left to play. Horrible call by the refs., horrible officiating in game 1 and in game 2.

The officials have decided they are going to call the game different for each team. If don't see that it is because you do not want to.