One thing is for sure, the Edmonton Oilers and the Florida Panthers are giving us a thrilling Stanley Cup Finals series for the second year in a row! As if game 1 was not enough of a nail-biter, with Florida’s Tomas Nosek giving the Oilers a penalty in overtime where Draisaitl was able to score with 31 seconds left of overtime, game 2 was even more insane, with newest acquisition Brad Marchand taking center stage!
In what looked like it would be another home team win at Rogers Place, Brad Marchand was able to bring it like nobody’s business and steal the title for the road team by scoring the winning goal in double overtime. Marchand picked up one of Mattias Eckholm’s misses perfectly, skating forward to steal the puck and shooting it past Stuart Skinner to score his fifth overtime goal in the Stanley Cup playoffs and second in the postseason.
When the Oilers coach Kris Knoblauch was asked about the moment, this is what he had to say, “Those counterattacks often happen. We’re on attack. We get a great look… He comes in there, takes slap shots, you know?” It’s true the Oilers were on attack, with Draisaitl even trying to backcheck Marchand, but the star kept control of the puck. “[It] hits the net, we’re celebrating,” Knoblauch continued, hinting at the fact that Corey Perry had, about twenty minutes prior, scored the game-tying goal that led to overtime.
“And then, fortunately it comes around, and you know, um it’s a difficult read and everyone’s going one direction and now it’s coming back the other way. It’s just unfortunate that it worked out that way.” True, it could have gone either way, twenty minutes into overtime too, but Brad Marchand took it all away in a second, now tying the two teams in the series.
How Brad Marchand has transformed the Florida Panthers in the playoffs
Brad Marchand, who Florida acquired from the Boston Bruins just a month before the playoffs began, has proved to be a pivotal part of the team when it counted. The former Bruins captain has no time for flashy play but has turned up for important moments and made a memorable game-finishing goal in the Panthers 6-1 finish with the Toronto Maple Leafs in game 7 of the round 2 series. Of this moment, Florida Panthers GM Bill Zito noted, “Brad’s a big moment guy.”
Now, in game 2 of the finals series, which was starting to look a little iffy on account of Edmonton winning game 1, Marchand has helped his new team steady themselves on the winning path, with teammate Sam Bennett saying of the OT goal, “It’s just a huge play at a huge time. He’s been incredible for us this whole playoffs, scoring massive goals at massive times. That one was definitely the biggest.”
Marchand himself has only had good things to say about the Panthers, and despite his departure from Boston being a tough one for him personally, the teamwork and commitment to sportsmanship in Florida seem to have really inspired a new fire within Marchand, who said after the game that it was “pure excitement, adrenaline, for our whole group.”
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