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Time now to welcome in Vegas insider Todd Ferman and CBS Sports NHL analyst Pierre Magcguire. And y'all, that was absolute cinema. We talked about defense, right? Two of the best defensive teams tonight. It was all about the offense. Pierre, I'll start with you. What impressed you the most about the execution from Vegas? Even after going down two nothing, they came back. They never flinched and they're able to hold on for the win. Chris, they were able to break down the unbelievable man-to-man coverage that Carolina usually presents for the opposition and Vegas made him look really pedestrian tonight. They worked them on the cycle.
They worked them up high in the high cycle. They worked them down low in the slot. They worked them with point shots for deflections. They got bodies to the front of the net. It was not a great night for Freddy Anderson. And eventually Carolina loses this game because their defensive zone coverage was not what it has been this entire playoff. They're going to need some soularching like a lot like what happened after game one with Montreal in the Eastern Conference final when Rod Brymore didn't have a practice before game two and they went on to eventually blow the Montreal Canadians out. But you got to give Vegas a lot of credit. their cycle game, their puck possession game, and their ability to dominate in one-on-one situations really frustrated
and beat the Carolina Hurricanes in game one. To your point, Pierre, it almost felt like Vegas beat Carolina at their own game today. They were the team forcing turnovers. They were the one getting on the cycle and be able to exploit some of that man-on-man coverage in front of the net. And the difference between this Vegas Golden Knights team and any of the other opponents the Carolina Hurricanes have faced to get to this point in the season. Vegas has guys up and down that roster that are capable of finishing. If you're not going to cover them in the slot and you're going to give them a moment to get that puck off on a quick release, you saw the end result. Credit the Vegas Golden Knights. They did not
wilt when they had an opportunity down two nothing early and the Lenovo center was bouncing. You look at John Tordella. I give him a world of credit. You see the veteran savvy on the bench with a properly timed timeout told the guys not to panic, just to be patient. They were going to get to their game and chances were going to present themselves. And prophetic as that may be, it's exactly what Vegas was able to do over the latter portion of the game. Let's call it two and a half periods or the second and third for sure. They beat Carolina at what they did best. And quite frankly, guys, it felt like the deeper this got into the third period when Shane Goss Bear ties that game up at
four a piece that Carolina needed this game a lot more than Vegas. They will be the more desperate team in game two, but we said that about Vegas when they were in Ball Arena against the Colorado Avalanche. This is a Vegas team who's not going to be content just winning one game on the road. They know the opportunity that sits in front of them. And to your point, Pierre, Freddy Anderson has to come up with at least one timely save. He wasn't able to do so. Carter Hart wasn't great, but when they needed him most, he was able to make that big glove save on Seth Jarvis. It gave the Knights the opportunity for that game-winning fifth goal, and the rest is history, gentlemen.
Yeah, to that point, Todd, when you think about Carter Hart, he didn't have his best game, but in the end, when the team needed him the most, he rose to the occasions for some great glove saves. What did you see differently that he wasn't showing you early on that he showed late when time things got tight? They threw Carter Hart's feet to the fire right off the get-go with Nikolai Eers beating him on that breakaway. You know, there wasn't anything that I found wrong in Carter Hart's game. When you look at his movement, he was still quiet in the crease. I thought his rebound control was just fine. He just didn't come up with that big save through the
first two and a half periods that we'd grown accustomed to over the first couple of rounds. But for Carter Hart, as we've seen in the modern day NHL, you don't have to win games two to one and go out there and turn aside 39 of 40 shots more often than not, it's being able to come up with that one stop at that timely juncture in the game when all the momentum may be swinging a different direction. And he was able to do that with the glove save. It wasn't the cleanest thing. It wasn't a Picasso by any stretch of the imagination. And Opier has seen some great goalending in his days. He had a little bit of bobble, but he was able to calm things for the Golden Knights. they were able to
execute on the other end. And I kept waiting for Freddy Anderson to be able to come up with the one big save the Carolina Hurricanes needed. He wasn't able to do so. And I'm not going to say it's a goalending dilemma just yet. But Freddy is going to face a much more tenacious team and capable from an offensive standpoint in Vegas than he did in the likes of the Ottawa Senators, the Philadelphia Flyers, and of course, most recently the Montreal Canadians. You know, Chris, the number one point that Todd just made, the truth of the matter is timely goalending matters the most in the Stanley Cup playoffs, especially in the Stanley Cup final.
Marty Brod was so good at it for so long. Patrick Wah was so good at it for so long. And tonight, Carter Hart came up with two big saves on Seth Jarvis. One with the goalie pulled a little bit of a deflection, the other one that great glove save that Todd's talking about. I know it was not a Picasso night for either goalie, but at the end of it all, the timely saves that were made by Carter Hart helped them win game one because Freddy Anderson did not deliver any of those timely saves. And moving on to game two, Carolina, their power play struggles continue just a 12.5% success rate. How do they change their
approach to power plays, Pierre, if they want to have a shot to tie the series up? because you know they do well even strength but when it comes to the power play when they have a man up for some reason I know part of it defensively right from these other teams but they're not able to capitalize Chris it's a really big conundrum for Rod Brymore and his coaching staff the truth of the matter is they're not manufacturing enough chances they get haphazard with the puck they're not shooting the puck when they have opportunities to shoot the puck they're passing the puck when they should be shooting the puck they're not doing a great job on retrievalss they're penalty
killing kind of about Carolina's elite. If their power play was half as good as their penalty killing, we would not even be having this discussion tonight, they would have won this game. But it wasn't. And that's a big thing they're going to have to figure out going into game two. And Todd, when you think about game two, who are you giving the edge to after you've seen these two teams play at a very high level offensively, uh, but defensively, a lot of things, uh, that need to be cleaned up? I'm going to give Vegas the nod, at least initially. want to go back and rewatch a couple of segments of this game. But I think what's different about what we saw tonight versus game one for the Carolina Hurricanes against Montreal, they knew that they had a
talent advantage. They knew that they could get to their game and when they were playing their best, Montreal wasn't going to be able to match them man for man. That's not a luxury they're going to be afforded in this series. And I think the one thing, Chris, that really stood out to me, they got next to no production consistently from their top two lines. And when Pierre and I broke down the game beforehand, we said that these top six for both of these rosters could match each other and kind of cancel one another out. That couldn't have been further from the truth. Vegas got a lot of production from their top two lines. They get the game-winning goal from their third line. And in my
opinion, the only guys that I would give a plus two tonight for Carolina from their forward group would be that third line. I mean, Nikolai Eelers was tremendous early on in the game, finishes the game a plus two. Jordan Stall was out there to win draws in a timely manner. But if Carolina is going to bounce back in this series and noted up at one a piece before they send it to T-Mobile for game three on Saturday night, Sebastian Aaho, Seth Jarvis and company have to be better. And the second line that's been a bit of a revelation needs to really raise their level of play. But they're quickly finding out the defensive assignments that they're drawing and the group that they have to go up against much more challenging than what they've
encountered through the first three rounds. And that's what happens, right? When you get to a higher level, you keep advancing the opponents, the competition is going to get greater and harder. Todd Ferman, Pierre McGuire, always appreciate the insight, gentlemen. Thank you. And how about this? Best winning percentage in NHL playoffs history. The Golden Knights with the best 61% 75 and 48 as they are three wins away from getting their second Lord Stanley trophy.
