The Vegas Golden Knights are one game away from winning the Stanley Cup, and what they've done against the Florida Panthers looks vaguely familiar to the Nashville Predators.
The Vegas Golden Knights are one game away from winning the Stanley Cup, and what they've done against the Florida Panthers looks vaguely familiar to the Nashville Predators.
While the Nashville Predators wrapped up their 2022-2023 season play in April, two teams are still battling it out in the Stanley Cup Finals. The Vegas Golden Knights are just one game away from hoisting the Stanley Cup leading the series 3-1 over the Florida Panthers.
The Nashville Predators faced the Golden Knights three times in the regular season and went 1-1-1 against the Western Conference champions. Nashville's win came in a late season OT win, the loss was a post All Star break blow out on February 7th, and the OT loss was a New Year's Eve disappointment.
What did the Predators see in their games against the Golden Knights this season?
Adin Hill was the best in net
Three games is too small a sample size to make a sweeping statement about the Vegas Golden Knights' wild goaltending storyline this season, but the Nashville Predators are probably not surprised to see Hill performing well in the Stanley Cup Finals. He took over the starting job in the postseason after Laurent Brossoit went down with an injury in the first period of the May 8th second round series game against the Edmonton Oilers with a lower body injury.
The Golden Knights have seen a carousel of goaltenders in net this season after it was announced late last summer that Robin Lehner would miss the entire 2022-2023 season with a hip injury. Five different goalies have spent time in the crease for Vegas, and Nashville saw three different Golden Knights goalies in their games. Without a doubt, Adin Hill was the best the Preds faced.
Logan Thompson earned a .892 save percentage in the December 31st Vegas overtime win, but he allowed four goals in the game - three by Filip Forsberg including a power play goal and last second score to take the game to overtime.
The Preds faced Jonathan Quick in April in Nashville's overtime win, a game in which Tommy Novak scored twice and Nashville recorded two power play goals including the game winner in extra time. Quick finished that game with an .889 save percentage that contributed to his 5-2-0-2 record at the end of the regular season.
Adin Hill's performance on February 7th was by far the best of the Golden Knights' net minders against the Preds. Nashville only scored one goal and Hill skated off with a .942 save percentage, although he only faced 17 total shots the entire game. Nashville certainly made Hill look good in that game with a lackluster performance, but Hill has proven with his postseason starts that he can handle more offensive minded teams that the Predators were that night.
Momentum means a lot
If there is one thing Nashville learned - and the Florida Panthers are seeing in the Finals - it's that if you open the door a crack for the Golden Knights they are likely to kick it wide open. Vegas can come from behind and create offensive momentum from one or two good plays.
In each of their three games, Nashville got the first goal against Vegas, but that didn't end up meaning much when it came to the final score. The Golden Knights had the ability to push back when down, and when they do they don't take their foot off the gas.
On New Year's Eve, the Golden Knights found themselves down 2-0 midway through the first period, but a late first period goal by Keegan Kolesar opened up the floodgates as the Golden Knights rattled off four unanswered goals before Filip Forsberg dragged the Preds back into the competition. Even the late game tying goal by Forsberg in regulation didn't shake Vegas's mojo as Nicolas Hague won the game in overtime for the Golden Knights.
The Predators gave up leads in the other two games against Vegas as well. In February, Matt Duchene got Nashville on the board early, but Vegas calmly answered back with slew of goals to win 5-1. Tommy Novak gave the Predators a two goal lead in their April 4th game, but Vegas didn't blink as Alex Pietrangelo score twice in the second period to force overtime.
In the Finals games in which Florida has scored first, the Golden Knights simply didn't get rattled. Even after a heartbreaking overtime loss in game three, Vegas came out in game four with confidence that has the team one win away from a second championship in franchise history.
Your best players have to play their best...or else
In the games that Nashville kept close against the Golden Knights, the Predators's best players played well. Filip Forsberg had a hatty in the New Year's Eve overtime loss and Tommy Novak scored two goals and recorded an assist in the April OT winner. (Yes, in April Novak was one of Nashville's best players.)
Of course, depth scoring wins games as well, but no team can come at Vegas and have their season's best scorers struggling offensively. The same is true on defense. In Nashville's tough 5-1 loss, Roman Josi committed two turnovers that resulted in two goals against and it was one of the few games in which Juuse Saros struggled.
For Florida, their regular season's top four goal scorers have combined in the first four games of the Finals for only seven points. While a couple of those goals have been clutch, it is going to take good players playing great to extend the series past game five.
Even after all Nashville saw from the Vegas Golden Knights in their three regular season outings, I'm not sure most Preds fans would have predicted Vegas winning the Western Conference title. A closer looks shows the signs were there even in the much smaller scale of three regular season games.
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