* The Stanley Cup will be in the building tonight as the Golden Knights look to close out the Final on home ice and clinch their first championship in franchise history.
* Mark Stone, the only player to don the “C” for Vegas in its six seasons, can extend his series-opening point streak and capture the first Cup of his NHL career.
* The Panthers will have to do two things they’ve never done before to keep their 2023 championship dreams alive: win a game in Las Vegas and stave off elimination in the Stanley Cup Final.
VEGAS CAN WIN CUP VIA FOURTH SERIES-CLINCHING VICTORY AT T-MOBILE ARENA
The Golden Knights can win the Stanley Cup at T-Mobile Arena, where they have earned three of their 10 all-time series-clinching victories (Game 5 of 2023 R1, Game 6 of 2021 R2 & Game 7 of 2021 R1). Vegas has closed out five playoff series on the road and two as the designated home team in the neutral-site bubble at Rogers Place during the 2020 postseason.
* Mark Stone (2-4—6 in 4 GP) has found the score sheet in every game during the Final so far, including multiple points in each of his last two contests. His six points in the series are the second most among all players behind Jonathan Marchessault (4-3—7 in 4 GP).
* Adin Hill enters Tuesday with an active shutout sequence of 67:58 in potential series-clinching contests, which includes backstopping the Golden Knights to a 6-0 win in Game 6 of the Conference Finals. He can become the fifth goaltender in NHL history with a series-clinching shutout in the round before the Final and during the Final within a single postseason, following Andrei Vasilevskiy (2021 TBL), Tim Thomas (2011 BOS), Jacques Plante (1960 MTL) and Clint Benedict (1926 MMR).
* Hill has gone 10-4 through the first 15 playoff appearances of his NHL career with a 2.11 goals-against average, .934 save percentage and two shutouts, including a 3-1 mark in the Final (2.21 GAA, .925 SV%).
WHICH FLORIDA PLAYERS CAN FOIL VEGAS’ PLANS OF CLINCHING THE CUP? Matthew Tkachuk (3-3—6 in 3 GP) and Carter Verhaeghe (1-5—6 in 3 GP) pace the Panthers with six points when facing elimination this postseason, while Tkachuk’s three goals are tied with Brandon Montour (3-1—4 in 3 GP) and Sam Reinhart (3-0—3 in 3 GP) for the team lead. Montour had two of his goals in Game 7 of the First Round, which included scoring the tying tally with 59.3 seconds remaining in regulation before Verhaeghe’s overtime clincher.
* Eight of the 10 clubs to win Game 5 on the road when facing a 3-1 series deficit in the Final did so by a one-goal margin of victory (including four decided in overtime).
CLUB CORNERSTONES SET TO CONTEST FIRST POTENTIAL CUP-CLINCHING GAME
Golden Knights mainstays William Carrier, William Karlsson, Jonathan Marchessault, Brayden McNabb, Reilly Smith and Shea Theodore are set to skate their first potential closeout game in the Stanley Cup Final, but several Vegas players have experience in these contests including defensemen Alec Martinez and Alex Pietrangelo who potted the championship-clinching goal in 2014 and 2019, respectively.
* The most points by an NHL player with a chance to clinch the Cup is five, achieved by Toe Blake (1-4—5) in Game 4 of the 1944 Final – he factored on all five of the Canadiens’ goals including scoring the overtime winner as Montreal overcame a 4-1 third-period deficit to defeat Chicago. The last player to tally at leastthree points in a potential closeout contest during the Final was Dustin Brown (Game 6 of 2012 SCF) – Martinez and Jonathan Quick’s former Kings teammate – while current Panthers forward Eric Staal (Game 5 of 2006 SCF) also achieved the feat.
Paul Kukla founded Kukla’s Korner in 2005 and the site has since become the must-read site on the ‘net for all the latest happenings around the NHL.
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