Quick takeaways: Florida Panthers knocked out as Golden Knights lift Stanley Cup
The Florida Panthers' best wasn't enough in the 2023 Stanley Cup Final.
With a 9-3 Game 5 victory, the Vegas Golden Knights vanquished the exhausted Panthers for their first Stanley Cup in their six-year franchise history.
Aaron Ekblad scored 2:15 into the second period to try to get Florida back into the game after they fell into a 2-0 hole, but that was all they could muster up. Alec Martinez and Reilly Smith scored goals two minutes apart midway through the middle frame to put Vegas on top.
The Panthers, who came into the game without injured star Matthew Tkachuk, had nothing left to give as the Golden Knights coasted to victory.
Mark Stone got the fireworks started for Vegas 11:52 into the game, stripping Carter Verhaeghe of the puck and scoring on a shorthanded breakaway. Adin Hill made a big stop on Aleksander Barkov seconds earlier to set up Stone’s goal.
Nic Hague put the Golden Knights up by two less than two minutes later, poking in a loose puck through a sea of bodies in the crease. The whistle was blown before the puck went into the net, which would have taken the goal off the board, but the Panthers did not challenge the play.
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Ekblad brought Florida back within a goal with a wrist shot from the point which floated through a sea of Golden Knights defenders 2:15 into the second. But the Golden Knights squashed the Panthers’ hopes quickly after.
Alec Martinez, who won the Los Angeles Kings the Stanley Cup nine years ago to the date, put Vegas back up by two with a slick wrist shot off of a feed from Jack Eichel 10:28 into the second period. Reilly Smith, who the Panthers traded to the Golden Knights during the expansion draft, made it a three-goal lead with a snap shot off of a slick backhand feed from William Karlsson two minutes later.
Stone put his stamp on the game yet again, putting the game out of reach with his second goal of the game with 2:45 to go in the second period. Michael Amadio added salt to the wound with a net-front goal of his own with 1.2 seconds to go in the second.
Here are three takeaways from Game 5 of the Stanley Cup Final:
Panthers were too injured, not deep enough
The big headline for the Panthers heading into Thursday night’s game was that Matthew Tkachuk was going to be missing with a broken sternum. But their problems started well before Tkachuk labored his way through a Game 4 loss.
Eetu Luostarinen missed the entirety of the Stanley Cup Final with an injury sustained while blocking a shot in Florida’s Eastern Conference Final-clinching Game 4 victory.
Since his absence, it was apparent the Panthers did not have the guns to keep up with a Golden Knights team flush with depth. Their bottom two lines were outclassed almost every time they were on the ice and it led to a decisive five-game series loss.
Vegas’ defense swallowed Florida’s attack
Throughout Game 5, and the whole series, the Golden Knights halted the Panthers’ attack the only way they knew how: blocking a ton of shots and clogging up the passing lanes.
By the end of the second period of their Cup-clinching victory, Vegas had blocked 16 shots and only allowed the Panthers to register 14 shots on goal. Meanwhile, Florida had only blocked nine shots while allowing 25 shots and six goals to leak past them. That just about sums up the whole series.
The Panthers did not have much luck on the power play either. They went 0-for-14 with the man advantage, becoming the first team to not score a power-play goal in the Stanley Cup Final since the Detroit Red Wings did so in 1948.
Panthers’ unlikely run should not be defined by Stanley Cup Final loss
If anyone said that Florida would be in the Stanley Cup Final in January, they would have been laughed at.
The Panthers were the third-worst team in the Eastern Conference five months ago. They were dealing with massive issues — ranging from injuries, illnesses and depth issues caused by the cap crunch of the previous offseason — and it looked very likely that they would miss the playoffs.
Still, they rallied to make the playoffs with a six-game winning streak at the end of the season, upset the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Boston Bruins, and continued the run with decisive series victories over two very good teams in the Toronto Maple Leafs and Carolina Hurricanes.
Florida made it to the Stanley Cup Final ahead of schedule with a roster full of players in their mid-20s. They will be back, and now they will be equipped with the knowledge gained from one of the most unlikely runs in NHL history.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Quick takeaways: Florida Panthers knocked out as Golden Knights lift Stanley Cup
