There are two things that I know for certain about the Vegas Golden Knights: they are inevitable, and they make things pretty entertaining along the way. Sometimes, to make things even more entertaining, they play dead for a stretch of time– usually early in the first period– to give their opponent a head start. And it doesn’t even matter how much of a head start their opponent gets, because they’ll still find a way.

They always find a way.

We are past the point of saying things like ‘doubt them at your own peril.’ They’ve done this so many times— seven times this postseason, to be exact— that if you’re still doubting the inevitability of their comebacks, there’s no hope for you.

The Golden Knights simply find a way. It doesn’t matter if they’re down 2-0 halfway through the first period against the Carolina Hurricanes, and it certainly doesn’t matter if they’re down 3-0 in the first period against the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche.

The Golden Knights always find a way.

No one loves to score goals more than Tomáš Hertl. Since snapping a 29-game scoring drought, the 32-year-old forward has four goals in his last eight games. Following the 5-4 win, Hertl revealed that an old friend from his days with the San Jose Sharks called him during the scoring drought and provided words of encouragement.

“My old teammate called me– Joe Pavelski– and I had a 30-minute talk with him,” Hertl said. “He actually helped me a lot. We’re pretty close…. He got me through a lot.”

With 3:24 remaining in the third period, Hertl scored a beauty from the slot to break a 4-4 tie. It’s his second goal in the last three games; both were game-winners to break a tie in the third period.

Also… He’s tired of answering questions about the scoring drought.

“This playoff, you guys have been asking me this all the time,” Hertl joked following the 5-4 win. “I thought, now that I’ve scored a couple of goals, it can be over.”

Going into this Stanley Cup matchup, the national narrative was that this would be a “boring series,” because two defensively sound teams couldn’t possibly make things entertaining.

HA.

In terms of momentum swings, you’d be hard-pressed to find a more entertaining hockey game than Game 1 of the 2026 Stanley Cup Final. The Carolina Hurricanes jumped out to an early 2-0 lead, only to see the Golden Knights wrestle control of the game and take a 3-2 lead of their own in the second. From that point on, the teams traded goals until Tomáš Hertl’s tally late in the third period proved too much for the Hurricanes to overcome.

“It’s probably going to be that way through the whole series here, back and forth,” said head coach John Tortorella following the Game 1 win. “I have all the confidence in the world, no matter where the flows go. We’re not gonna get into a panic mode by any means. We may not come back, we may lose a game, but we’re going to do it without losing ourselves completely, because you can get really sloppy when you start panicking. I don’t think there's gonna be any panic in the team, no matter what happens in this series.”

These teams are both extremely good, and even after Game 1, it’s tough to predict how this series will play out. But if tonight’s showing was anything to go off of… Giddy up.

The Golden Knights have a unique skill: they’re really, really good at falling behind in games and finding a way to win. During the regular season, it seemed like the ‘comeback king’ mantra would be their demise– because, really, how many ugly wins do the Golden Knights have in them? 

As it turns out, the Golden Knights had quite a few ugly wins in them. 

This Game 1 victory wasn’t pretty by any means– they gave up a 2-on-1 just 25 seconds into the game, and the Hurricanes made them pay. But it’s possible that an ugly win was the best thing that could have happened to the team.

All year, this team has played with the belief that, if they fell behind in games, they could simply come back and get right back into the fight. To win Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final following that formula, by way of another miraculous comeback, can only make that confidence grow.

“We were in this situation quite a number of times in the regular season, so I feel like we’re kind of comfortable,” said defenseman Shea Theodore following the win. “Obviously, it’s never ideal. But I think when guys keep their heads down, keep pushing, keep trying to play the right way, then things end up kind of turning for us.”