Advertisement

Tkachuk’s rare gaffe, Panthers as agitators, PP woes and more Stanley Cup notes from Vegas

It was a bizarro ending to Game 1 of the 2023 Stanley Cup Final for the Florida Panthers on Saturday.

Matthew Tkachuk, so often the hero for the Panthers with his four game-winning goals, botched a clear and became the goat. Mark Stone batted Tkachuk’s clearing attempt out of the air, gathered the puck and fired another shot past Sergei Bobrovsky to put the Vegas Golden Knights ahead by two goals with 6:19 left.

By the time the final buzzer sounded on Florida’s series-opening 5-2 loss, Tkachuk was already back in the visitors’ locker room at T-Mobile Arena, watching his team’s last hope at a comeback slip away after he got ejected for punching a defenseless player with 4:24 remaining.

“That was a bad one,” coach Paul Maurice said of the turnover. “On the gradation of tough like root canal to lumpy oatmeal, it was closer to the root canal.”

‘Everybody just f—king breathe’: No panic from Panthers after close Game 1 loss in Final

Improbably, the superstar right wing’s first Stanley Cup Final game was one to forget.

Tkachuk, who leads all Panthers and Golden Knights with 21 points in the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs, had just two shots and a plus-minus of minus-1, and wasn’t on the ice for either of Florida’s goals.

The 25-year-old American also committed three penalties for 14 penalty minutes and committed one extremely costly giveaway.

Altogether, it was probably his worst game of the Stanley Cup playoffs — his first one without a point and a negative plus-minus, although his line still gave the Panthers the edge in shots and scoring chances during 5-on-5 play.

“You touch the puck as many [times] as the elite players touch the puck, there’s going to be a giveaway you don’t like,” Maurice said. “You won’t take any part of his game away if he gets an opportunity to make plays.”

Jun 3, 2023; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Florida Panthers and Vegas Golden Knights players engage in a scrum after the whistle during the second period in game one of the 2023 Stanley Cup Final at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Lucas Peltier-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 3, 2023; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Florida Panthers and Vegas Golden Knights players engage in a scrum after the whistle during the second period in game one of the 2023 Stanley Cup Final at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Lucas Peltier-USA TODAY Sports

Panthers don’t shy from physicality

Tkachuk’s punch added an extra ugly layer, leading to a double minor penalty and ejection in the final five minutes with Florida still down just 4-2.

It was in the middle of another post-whistle scrum — there was one after just about every whistle Saturday in Vegas — and Tkachuk took a swing at Nicholas Hague as the Golden Knights defenseman was being held by defenseman Marc Staal.

The Panthers piled up 46 penalty minutes and outhit Vegas, 36-29, in Game 1.

“It’s exactly what we expected,” Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore said Saturday. “That’s how they wanted to play. We were just trying not to play into it.”

Vegas only logged 18 penalty minutes and probably was lucky to.

In a different post-whistle scrum in the first period, Adin Hill threw a punch — or at least a shove, bordering on a punch — at Sam Bennett as the center was being held by a pair of Golden Knights, but only forward Nick Cousins was assessed a penalty for retaliating and punching back at the Vegas goaltender.

“If guys are going to come in my crease and try to push me around, I’m going to stand my own ground,” Hill said Saturday. “I’m not going to do anything too crazy or get too wild, but, yeah, I’ve got to stand up for myself.”

Florida took issue with any suggestions it was trying to instigate. This is the way the Panthers have played all throughout the Stanley Cup playoffs.

“There was more emotion early in the game, but that wouldn’t be true of Florida-Vegas. It’s Game 1 of the Final. There’s a lot of juice and energy,” Maurice said. “We finish our hits, we’re going to try to stay out of the penalty box, but we’re not going to pull off the physicality. We can’t. It’s what we do well.”

Added left wing Ryan Lomberg: “That’s kind of who we are at this point, so we’ll learn from it what we can, but, at the same time, that’s our identity. We’re a hard team, so we’ll stay hard.”

Jun 3, 2023; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Florida Panthers center Aleksander Barkov (16) controls the puck against the Vegas Golden Knights during the third period in game one of the 2023 Stanley Cup Final at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports
Jun 3, 2023; Las Vegas, Nevada, USA; Florida Panthers center Aleksander Barkov (16) controls the puck against the Vegas Golden Knights during the third period in game one of the 2023 Stanley Cup Final at T-Mobile Arena. Mandatory Credit: Stephen R. Sylvanie-USA TODAY Sports

Panthers power play must adjust

The Panthers’ biggest on-paper edge for the Cup Final was on special teams, but the Golden Knights won the battle in Game 1 to take a 1-0 series lead.

Vegas went 2 of 7 on the power play and Florida went 0 for 3, although the Panthers did score a short-handed goal in the first period.

Still, it’s not nearly enough for the Panthers, who were on a 12-of-34 run on the power play going in to the Final after starting the Cup playoffs 0 for 9. They even went 4 for 14 against the Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference finals after Carolina’s penalty kill sat at 90 percent through the first two rounds of the playoffs.

The Golden Knights have the third worst penalty kill in the postseason, even after going 3 for 3 on Saturday.

Florida has faith it can adjust. The Panthers went 0 for 3 on the penalty kill in Game 1 of the East finals — and even got outshot 6-0 on their first power play of the series — before eventually closing the ECF on a 4-of-9 run.

“There’s so much kind of anticipation and once you get in, you can kind of see yourselves there, you can learn from it,” forward Sam Reinhart said. “I really liked our adjustments after Game 1 in that Carolina series, so there’s definitely things we can learn from, where the space is, where we can kind of attack and find those opportunities. So there’s definitely an opportunity to get better and I fully expect us to.”

Luostarinen’s status still in question

Eetu Luostarinen was a last-minute exclusion from Florida’s lineup for Game 1 of the Final after he was unable to get all the way back from a lower-body injury he sustained in the final game of the conference finals last month, even with a 10-day break before the start of the championship series.

The forward, who typically plays left wing on the third line, took part in the Panthers’ final practice before the Final on Friday at T-Mobile, but his status was a “game-time decision” for Game 1, Maurice said, and Florida held him out.

The Panthers did not practice Sunday, so Luostarinen’s status remains in question for Game 2 on Monday in Las Vegas.

With Luostarinen out, forward Zac Dalpe returned to the lineup for the first time since Round 2, playing right wing on the fourth line and blocking one shot in 5:40. Lomberg bumped up from the fourth line to the third to take Luostarinen’s place, and had one shot in 7:34.