Crazy. Go ahead. Use the word. It best describes what this Stanley Cup Final has been.
How it has played out. All that has occurred.
The swings back and forth. The ups and downs. The blown leads and comebacks. The overtimes.
And it has been just three games. Imagine what might be left in the proverbial tank between both teams.
As it is, the Vegas Golden Knights lead this best-of-seven series 2-1 with Game 4 slated for Tuesday at T-Mobile Arena.
Who knows what might happen next. The pre-series idea that ratings would suffer with two non-traditional hockey markets competing for the Cup was greatly exaggerated.
People are watching and for good reason. As the games progress and things become wackier and wackier, more and more folks are tuning in to witness the madness. Millions are experiencing one of the more entertaining Cup Finals in years.
One of the most entertaining ever?
Yeah. You can make that argument so far.
How the games have played out hasn’t been just drunk.
Try hammered.
Game changes
“It’s even during the regular season,” Knights coach John Tortorella said. “Games change so much. No lead is safe. There’s so many different types of mistakes made, so many great plays made. You just never know where things are going to go.
“Of all the experiences I’ve had in games and playoffs, I haven’t experienced one like (Game 3). We could do nothing wrong in the second period and did everything wrong in the third period. It just comes and goes so quickly. I don’t have an answer why. I don’t know what happens. It’s just where our game is right now.”
He speaks of Saturday evening, when the Knights raced to a seemingly dominant second-period lead of 4-0.
They were led by Mitch Marner’s hat trick, the fastest ever recorded in a Stanley Cup Final.
But something happened with the Knights between periods and on their way to a comfortable victory. The Hurricanes would answer with three goals in 39 seconds to pull within one and then tie things in the final minutes of regulation via a power-play score.
Sure. Crazy.
It then lasted into the second overtime before Knights defenseman Shea Theodore blasted a shot off the end boards that ended up in the back of the net.
It topped even Game 2 at Lenovo Center, when Carolina had a 2-0 lead, the Knights tied it, the Hurricanes went up 3-2, Mark Stone scored late for the Knights and the home team won in overtime. And you thought things couldn’t get more exciting.
“(Game 3) was chaotic, the ebbs and flows and changes,” Theodore said. “I think, at the end of the day, we’re a resilient group. We’ve had, I don’t know how many comebacks in the regular season. Just grinding to get to this point.
“We stay calm and collected. Obviously, the third period there we have to do a better job of holding (a lead), but I like the way we reset in overtime, especially the second overtime. I thought we played well.”
Think about it: Even when Carolina was staging its comeback and scoring those quick three third-period goals, Tortorella thought his team found its game immediately after. That his players just know how to handle themselves in the most difficult of positions.
Not a lot was said between periods, before overtime. The Knights just needed to take a breath. They knew what happened. They had blown a four-goal lead.
And when it was occurring, the last thing Tortorella was going to do was call a timeout.
No yelling
“Sometimes when you do, everything starts playing on the scoreboard and you end up basically yelling at them,” he said. “The last thing I’m going to do is start yelling, but that’s how it comes across when you can’t hear. We didn’t say much at all. Just get ready for our next shift and try to get better.”
They were better in the end, Theodore’s goal giving the Knights a lead in the series and really putting some serious pressure on Carolina to answer in kind Tuesday.
And if it continues as it has, you can expect more fireworks and lead changes and altogether craziness.
Because that’s what these three games have produced.
Hey, why stop the fun now?
Ed Graney, a Sigma Delta Chi Award winner for sports column writing, can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com. Follow @edgraney on X.
