The Florida Panthers and Vegas Golden Knights both have unique styles of play which have propelled them to the Stanley Cup Final series. Both teams play high intensity and pressure games, but Vegas has come out on top comfortably in the first two games of the Stanley Cup Final to lead the series 2-0.
Continue reading for a full film analysis of both teams, and how Florida needs to adjust their game plan moving forward.
Florida Panthers
The Florida Panthers live and die playing hockey the hard way under Paul Maurice, dumping the puck deep into opponents’ zones and pressuring the living hell out of the other team until they make a mistake.
The Panthers maintain a high forechecking pressure rate and force teams to play the puck up the boards to their forwards, or, take the more risky choice and play the puck out of the zone with long leading stretch passes.
The Florida Panthers feasted on teams that tried to do this all playoffs like the Toronto Maple Leafs, who consistently found that Florida’s pressure was just too much to handle and would cough up high-end scoring opportunities for the Panthers.
Vegas Golden Knights
The Golden Knights, however, play a style of hockey that features connecting on long lead passes down the center and sides of the ice to create odd man rush opportunities for their forwards.
This has created an interesting dynamic between the two teams, considering their playing styles clash but also correlate.
Vegas also likes to create chances off the rush from the neutral zone, as compared to dumping-and-chasing.
The Results, So Far
The Florida Panthers have found themselves caught too deep in the golden knights zone a few too many times, and the knights have taken advantage.
Bobrovsky has also found himself to be the victim of an incredible amount of screening by Vegas Golden Knight players. It makes stopping the puck extremely difficult when you can’t see it coming.
Adjustments
The Panthers need to adjust to this by getting in front of the net and commit to blocking the Golden Knights shots, rather than trying to win individual net-front battles, which only plays into the chaos in front of Bobrovsky.
Read more about the Florida Panthers.
