Vegas sits one win away from hoisting Stanley Cup in front of home fans.
Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy isn’t one to let his players stop themselves about talking about potentially winning a Stanley Cup. He openly talks about what winning it would mean to him. He lets the players discuss the potential with their families. He lets his team dream.
The dream is one win away from reality, and Vegas will have its first chance to do so in front of its home fans on Tuesday at T-Mobile Arena.
“They understand what's at stake,” he said. “They understand it’s an day off to clear your mind. If that means discussing certain things with family members about the Stanley Cup or whatever you want to talk about. I think that's OK. That's what we're planning for. I don't think there's any taboos with that.”
The only thing Cassidy wants his players to do when they come back to the rink on Monday is put any discussion of a Stanley Cup on hold and focus strictly on getting to work on facing a desperate Florida Panthers team.
He said the team will work on a few things that were missing from the first four games.
The Golden Knights have steady throughout the Finals, only losing one game in overtime in a game they controlled for the most part. If it weren’t for Matthew Tkachuk’s late game-tying goal, the team would have probably flown home with the Stanley Cup already.
Vegas will clean up some things up, but the pressure is definitely on Florida. The Panthers will have to replicate the magic they found in the first round against Boston if they want to stop the Golden Knights’ dream from coming true. Florida is banged up but will do everything in its power to avoid making Tuesday a coronation and send the series back to South Florida.
Vegas’s defense, however, has been so stingy in stretches that the Panthers rarely get a good offensive look. Combine that with Adin Hill playing the best hockey’s probably ever played in his life, the Golden Knights have a good reason to believe they can win this series on Tuesday.
Regardless of all the talk about winning the Stanley Cup, it won’t be discussed any further once the team hits the ice for practice on Monday.
The Golden Knights understand they have work to do if they want to make this dream a reality.
“Like I said, it's not done to get to 16,” Cassidy said. “I think that's what our group believes in, and I'm sure Florida's planning the same way to get to 16. So that's the task in front of us. That's what we'll focus on [Monday].”