And when they needed to most in yet another wild and crazy game of this Stanley Cup Final, the Vegas Golden Knights followed the lead of their toughest player.
Resilience is just part of them. It sure is for Brayden McNabb.
Have you taken a breath yet?
The Knights on Saturday night won in the most dramatic of manners, beating Carolina 5-4 in double overtime in Game 3 of this best-of-seven series before a crazed T-Mobile Arena.
Vegas now leads 2-1 with Game 4 set for Las Vegas on Tuesday.
It finally ended when a Shea Theodore blast with 14:22 remaining in the second overtime took the kind of bounce off the end boards that Vegas needed — one that found the back of the net — for the game winner.
One tough man
First things first: McNabb deserves a standing ovation. Deserves the loudest of stick taps.
Deserves all the praise Knights fans can muster.
Just two days after taking an 87 miles-per-hour slap shot to the face, the defenseman was back on the ice and even started.
Full cage and all, McNabb resembled a Major League catcher with some noticeable damage to his grill.
“Little rough, but I was able to make it,” said McNabb, who got 20-30 stitches to his nose. “Guys did a great job to get me prepared. I felt OK at first and it got better as the game went on. (Taking a puck to the face) isn’t ideal for sure, but it’s part of hockey. That’s the way it goes sometimes.”
John Tortorella has seen decades of the sport. Decades of guys playing hurt. Of the toughest of men grinding it out for the betterment of their teams. And the Vegas coach said Saturday that what McNabb did — playing 35:47 after such an injury — was a first even for him.
“When you get this far in the playoffs, sometimes it’s not so much the end result,” Tortorella said. “It’s just the attrition and all that goes into it with these athletes to play as many games as we’ve played so far. Those are the things you remember. I hear the players yelling ‘warrior.’ (McNabb) is more than that. I’m just blown away.”
McNabb’s team proved just as determined for two periods, after which it held a 4-0 lead.
Then a Hurricane — and we’re not talking about the one played in a pregame video — descended upon Las Vegas.
Carolina would score three goals in 39 seconds to pull within one and then tie things at 4-4 via a power play with 1:42 remaining in regulation.
Another overtime in the series.
And then another.
All the while, McNabb kept going out for shifts, playing the same hard game he is known for.
Cage and all.
“It has to be near the top,” Theodore said of McNabb playing hurt over the years. “The stuff he went through from last game and everything, it’s incredible for him to bounce back like that. To come in and get ready to play … I thought he played unbelievable given the circumstances.
“It’s never easy wearing a cage like he did. It changes the vision and all that, but he’s so impressive out there.”
So was Mitch Marner.
Throw those hats
It’s an understatement to say the second period was wacky. The Knights scored four times, had two more goals taken off the board on successful Carolina challenges and Marner tallied the quickest hat trick in Stanley Cup Final history.
Yeah. That’s all.
There is a reason Marner is the favorite to win the Conn Smythe Trophy, given to the best player throughout the playoffs.
There is a reason he now holds the franchise scoring record for a postseason.
He is as good as advertised when the Knights dealt for him from Toronto last July.
You’ve seen it throughout this playoff run.
But it wasn’t just that. You might have gotten caught up in all the scoring, all the craziness and back-and-forth swings, but the Knights were also the more physical side Saturday night for 40 minutes.
They blocked 16 shots through the first two periods and had 22 over three.
Sure, McNabb is one tough dude. But if you have watched these playoffs and seen all the blocks from him and his teammates, you know how often the Knights have put their bodies on the line to keep the puck from reaching goalie Carter Hart.
And when it mattered most, Theodore roared back his stick and whacked what proved to be the game-winning goal.
I can’t imagine this series being more entertaining than it has been. More exciting. I’m not sure how well it has been played over the course of three games, but for dramatics, it has been off the charts.
Brayden McNabb proved how tough he was Saturday. How resilient. He even assisted on Theodore’s winner.
His team followed his lead for two periods, totally fell apart and then came through in the end.
What a finish.
Have you taken a breath yet?
Ed Graney, a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing, can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com. Follow @edgraney on X.
