Throughout their run to the Stanley Cup Final, the Florida Panthers ran through a gauntlet of Eastern Conference powers by receiving world-class goaltending and overwhelming opponents with their consistent, blistering speed while Matthew Tkachuk turned into the NHL’s most clutch player.
But during a comprehensive 5-2 victory in Game 1 where the scoreline failed to indicate how close this game truly was, the Vegas Golden Knights flipped their opponents’ formula for success.
It didn’t always appear that way. Florida emerged with an early 1-0 lead after Eric Staal received a feed from Anton Lundell and scored a beautiful wraparound goal while shorthanded during his 100th career postseason game, 17 years removed from winning the Cup with the Carolina Hurricanes in 2006.