The Stanley Cup Finals are here. The Vegas Golden Knights battle the Carolina Hurricanes for the hardest trophy to win in sports. Both teams come in with different, unique storylines.
For Vegas, they made a coaching change late in the season. Now, they sit four wins away from their second cup in four years. For Carolina, they’re here for the first time since their head coach, Rob Brind’Amour, was the team’s captain in 2006.
With that in mind, it’s a good time to look at how both teams made it this far and who their X-factor is.
Vegas Golden Knights’ Stanley Cup Journey
As mentioned before, the Golden Knights made a change behind the bench with less than 10 games to go in the regular season. In steps John Tortorella, who found the team’s stride and hasn’t looked back. They come into the finals after a shocking sweep of the heavily favored President’s Trophy winners, the Colorado Avalanche, in the Western Conference Finals.
Vegas has the top-tier talent, depth, defense, and goaltending to overwhelm its opponents. Just when the opposition thinks they have them made, they push back. They are at the top of their game, and it couldn’t come at a better time.
Golden Knights’ X-Factor: Mitch Marner
For the first time in his career, Mitch Marner will play for the Stanley Cup. He’s come a long way since his days with the Toronto Maple Leafs. He signed with Vegas this past offseason because he wanted the best chance to win the cup.
It has paid off so far, and Marner himself is leading the offensive charge this postseason. In 16 games played, the 29-year-old right winger is third on the team in goals (7) and leads in points (21). It’s safe to say he’ll be a major factor for Vegas if they want to deliver another cup to Sin City this year.
Carolina Hurricanes’ Stanley Cup Journey
It’s been a long time coming, but the Carolina Hurricanes are back in the Finals. They’ve had many past failures in the Stanley Cup playoffs. Fast forward to this year, and they’ve exorcized several demons.
Many will question the difficulty, or lack thereof, of their path through the Eastern Conference. However, this team deserves to be here, given who they are. Carolina plays a defensive system that can frustrate any offense out there.
Carolina also has scoring up and down the lineup, where someone can step up in any game. They play home to one of the most difficult arenas for an opponent, with the raucous crowd at the Lenovo Center. General Manager Eric Tulsky has made many aggressive moves to put this team together, and now it’s paying off.
X-Factor: Frederik Andersen
Good goaltending in the postseason can win a Stanley Cup. So far, that is exactly how Freddy Andersen has been playing in these playoffs. The play between the pipes has been questioned a bunch over the years in Carolina.
However, this year, Andersen has silenced all the doubters. He’s posted an impressive 12-1-0 record, a 2.26 GAA, and a .931 SV%. Some will attribute that to the defense in front of him. While Carolina has that strong defensive play, Andersen has had to be called upon to make the big saves, and he has. He will have to keep that up if they want to stymie Vegas’ high-powered offense.
This should be an exciting finals matchup, one that should be the exclamation point on what has been a huge season for hockey.
May the best team win.
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