Stanley Cup Final: Vegas vs Florida
[ad_1]
The composition of the final of the current Stanley Cup was determined in the sixth match of its “western” semi-final. The Vegas Golden Knights finished the series spectacularly against the Dallas Stars, defeating an opponent on a foreign court with a score of 6: 0, and now they will fight for the most valuable prize with the Florida Panthers. None of these teams, which are quite different in structure and philosophy, have yet won it, and both in their history have played in the decisive series only once.
The final match of this semi-final turned out to be one of the strangest in the current play-off. In fact, they expected a fierce fight from him. And it seemed that Dallas could not possibly fail, given the presence of, shall we say, inspiring or even inspiring factors. After a terrible start, a series of three defeats in a row, he took the upper hand in two meetings in a row. The home audience was ready for warm support of the team crawling out of the abyss. And captain Jamie Benn returned to the Dallas application, disqualified after the third game for a gross foul for two meetings.
But something happened that did not fit into any notions of logic.
Benn for all the time allotted to him on the site only once hit the target of another’s goal. The rest of the leading Dallas forwards were no more efficient. And goalkeeper Edin Hill did not flirt at all, saying that, despite the “dry” match, already the second in the series, he does not consider himself a hero. And in fact, he had little really difficult work: of the 23 shots saved by Hill, the lion’s share did not pull at least a little dangerous.
At the same time, the Dallas defense was like a pliable jelly. Mistakes – collective, personal – she made so many that would be enough for three matches. As a result, Vegas destroyed the intrigue already in the first period, scoring three unanswered goals, and after them they simply finished off the hosts neatly.
Then the winning coach, Bruce Cassidy, talked about what he thought was the key to success in this match. As it turned out, this was a conversation on the evening before the game with the participation of all hockey players. Cassidy called it “frank” and “open” – in the sense that everyone remembered the previous losses in the playoffs and honestly tried to determine their reasons. According to the trainer, such group therapy helped.
In the final series, which starts on Saturday, Vegas will play Florida. And it’s a terribly curious combination.
Well, let’s say, because of the background. In any case, after this final, the squad of Stanley Cup winners will be replenished with a newcomer: neither Dallas nor Florida have yet mined it. The number of exits to the decisive play-off series is also the same for them. For Florida, the only one happened back in 1996, for Vegas – quite recently, in 2018, and already in the debut season for the club, which had just been accepted into the NHL. Plainly to resist opponents who were quoted much higher, neither of them succeeded: Florida lost to the Colorado Avalanche, Vegas lost to the Washington Capitals.
In this final, no matter how hard you try, you won’t be able to pick a favorite.
That is, of course, based on the results of the regular championship, it is tempting to call them “Vegas”. He finished at the top of the Western Conference table while the Florida Flames seeped into the playoffs with difficulty. But the course of the cup stage radically corrected the idea of its potential. It is somehow ridiculous to consider an outsider, an upstart club that knocked out the Boston Bruins, which played in the regular season even more powerfully than Vegas, in the first round, then dealt with the densely packed Toronto Maple Leafs, and in the semifinals went dry, in four matches, removed the strongest The Carolina Hurricanes, at the same time providing themselves with extra days of rest compared to Vegas. So-so, of course, a trump card, but such trifles can also affect.
And what gives pepper to the final is the fact that its participants are structured differently, or something. You can’t say, of course, that the majority of Florida hockey players are faceless and useless extras. But, whatever one may say, there are only two names in the center of all discussions about her today’s rise – forward Matthew Tkachak, who scored 21 points in the playoffs and constantly scores important goals (three more in the scorer’s race with Rope Hinz, but he, along with his ” Dallas” went on vacation), as well as the Russian goalkeeper Sergei Bobrovsky, sometimes turning on the regime of an impregnable fortress, which you can’t break through with anything. You can’t get away from the feeling that the well-being of Florida depends to a colossal extent on Tkachak and Bobrovsky.
Vegas is a different story. About how this team is arranged, such a figure tells well. After the series with Dallas, there are as many as 16 players in the Vegas squad who managed to score at least one puck in the playoffs. And the impressions after carefully watching his matches confirm that his peculiarity is, among other things, in variability, in the abundance of hockey players who are able to take on leadership functions and shoot loudly. Their list, by the way, includes the Russian striker Ivan Barbashev.
“Florida” is a team of the classic format, with division into leading links and links, the main task of which is not to spoil anything, and, if necessary, to accomplish a feat. For Vegas, this division is rather conditional. And, for example, no one was surprised by the fact that in the sixth match, Dallas, in essence, formally slammed the fourth link of the club, whose merit was two goals in the first period. Such is the specificity, which, however, is not a fact that is an advantage of the club. The Stanley Cup, as a rule, goes to those who bet on the “classics”.
[ad_2]
Source link