The night before the night when the Vegas Golden Knights have the chance to take home the Stanley Cup, a lot goes through the players’ minds. They are close to what they dreamed of even as small children. The night before a possibly decisive Stanley Cup Final is a mix of excitement and emotions that must be managed, and distractions that must be ignored and thought away.
– Everyone tries to see this as normal as possible, says Chandler Stephensonthe forward whose two goals in Game 4 laid the foundation for the 3-1 lead Vegas now holds over the Florida Panthers in the Finals series.
– Everyone knows what it’s about and everyone tries to treat it like any other match. We will do everything we can. Obviously there’s some pressure… but it’s really just another game. We had pressure on us in the last game as well, and before that. We have to take it as just one game among other games, says Stephenson.
Video: FLA-VGK, M4: Stephenson sets free mode
Vegas won the first two games of the finals series on home ice at the T-Mobile Center in Las Vegas 5-2 and 7-2. When the games moved to the FLA Live Arena in Sunrise, Florida won 3-2 after overtime before the Golden Knights won Game 4 3-2 after full time. Now the final series is back on Las Vegas Boulevard, and the Golden Knights can decide in front of the home crowd that so wholeheartedly supported the team during the regular season and in the playoffs. If Vegas wins the cup, it will become the team’s 30-year-old center William Karlsson from Märsta the 43rd Swede to lift the hockey world’s most prestigious trophy, Lord Stanley’s Cup – from Anders Kallur and Stefan Persson with the New York Islanders in 1980 to Gabriel Landeskog and Andre Burakovsky with Colorado last year.
With his eleven goals, and the match-deciding goal in match 4, William Karlsson has been a tone-setting player in the team during the playoffs.
– ‘Karly’ is outstanding… what he does for the team, how well he makes the team, it’s fantastic. He is a big reason why we are where we are now, says Chandler Stephenson. It is thanks to him that the team has been good for so many years now; he has been extremely important to us.
Karlsson and his teammates have the dent in their sights. If they can keep their nerves and thoughts under control. Like Karlsson is Jonathan Marchessault one of the team’s veterans; the 32-year-old right forward from Cap-Rouge in Quebec has, like Karlsson, played in the Golden Knights during the team’s entire six-year existence. A total of six players have been featured since Vegas joined the NHL for the 2017-18 season.
– We have some players who have been with us for a long time, who have won the cup before and who know what it is all about, says Marchessault. They’ve dealt with these special feelings before… it’s not just the ones who won the cup, but the ones who’ve been around for a while too.
– I feel great confidence in the group, we have been a good team for a long time. Now we face our toughest match and our best match as well, says Marchessault. Now we focus on getting healthy and getting into match shape: then we’ll be ready for tomorrow and that’s what it’s all about now.
The fifth final will be played in T-Mobile Arena on the night of Wednesday, starting at 02:00, Swedish time. Marchessault, Stephenson and Karlsson are of course some of the key players. Like the 26-year-old center Jack Eichel from North Chelmsford in Massachusetts and the 27-year-old goalkeeper Adin Hill from Comox in British Columbia, Canada.
Video: Stephenson bakom Knights seger I match 4
– It’s probably what everyone says; it’s about living in the present. I think we did a good job of taking the whole thing down … everybody knows what’s at stake, but we have to go into it and play our game, do what we’ve always done, said Jack Eichel, who won Vegas’ internal scoring in the regular season of 66 points (27+39) and who scored 23 points (6+17) in the 21 games in the playoffs.
Goalkeeper Adin Hill, just like his teammates, is well aware of what is at stake. The Stanley Cup is a childhood dream for him, as it is for the other players.
– It is not possible to ignore the fact that we are one victory away (from the Stanley Cup). That is hockey’s ultimate goal, says Adin Hill.
– It’s exciting and you can feel the atmosphere, but at the same time you have to stay on an even level, and be focused on what we have to do tomorrow (read: during the night towards Wednesday).
[De senaste nyheterna från Stanley Cup-finalien mellan Golden Knights-Panthers]
Hill entered the playoffs as a de facto rookie. But he has impressed greatly: an average of 2.11 goals conceded per game and a save percentage of 93.4.
– I have never played better, says Adin Hill. But the whole team is having fun, all the players are performing their best. And that’s what it takes if you’re going to win the Stanley Cup.
2023-06-12 21:04:24
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