How can the Florida Panthers slow down Vegas’ attack in the Stanley Cup final?

The Florida Panthers are set to take on the Vegas Golden Knights in the Stanley Cup Final. Cape Breton Eagles head coach Jon Goyens joined Daily Faceoff Live to chat about what the Panthers can do to slow down the Golden Knights in this series.

Tyler Yaremchuk: I want to start with Vegas; they create on the rush, its speed and numbers in a 200-foot play. How can Florida slow down the waves of attacks that the Golden Knights can throw at them?

Jon Goyens: Well, I think it starts with what we talked about last week, their forecheck and their willingness to reload, and when I say reload, I mean their ability to retreat and cut down odd-man rushes, and it will help them and will be as important as it gets to sustain Vegas’ rush offense. If not, it’s what we saw earlier in the playoffs against Dallas and how Vegas scores off the rush, including from 200 feet away. This is what coaches thrive on; you get an early breakout, you get a slash, and you see a forgotten man on the weak side. They beat the pinch along the wall, and Marchessault takes a look over his shoulder, and he’s beating his man up the ice, and they create these odd-man rushes. They aren’t just playing fast with the puck; they play fast without the puck. They scored a goal against Dallas from all the way in the d-zone. They create off of d-zone exits quite a bit from good solid positioning and structure.

Jon Goyens: Now we will take a look at Florida earlier on in the playoffs, they get caught up on the ice, and they also get caught trying to make big hits. But, if you get those angled type shots as they had in the series against Carolina, you might get that big rebound that will help you. You need to create odd-man rushes; this is going to be the type of stuff that, if Florida can continue to reduce the odd-man rushes against, they will give themselves the best chance. If not, they have a Pastrnak hanging out behind them; if they go hunting, they are in deep trouble. If they are reloading and retreating and keeping everything in front of them, it will allow them to cut odd-man rushes in half from the beginning of the playoffs till now.

You can watch the full episode here…