Jonathan Marchessault’s natural hat trick cements Vegas as Stanley Cup favorites

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Jonathan Marchessault, left, scores his second goal of the second quarter against the Edmonton Oilers in Game 6 of the second round of the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs.

Jonathan Marchessault, left, scores his second goal of the second quarter against the Edmonton Oilers in Game 6 of the second round of the 2023 Stanley Cup playoffs.
image: Getty Images

edmonton Oiler The possibility of turning back time officially stopped on Sunday night. Making the playoffs again is out of the question despite having two of the league’s top five players.Jonathan Marcheso scored three consecutive goals in the second period Golden Knights Series ends with victory over Oilers before sending Edmonton home Western Conference Finals. The final score was 5-2 for Canada, winning by 3 goals, with Marchessault scoring the full game to win the game, And the final non-empty net goal of the series.

What is a natural hat-trick?

There is no doubt that a natural hat-trick is a rare feat as only 8% of An NHL game features a player scoring three goals. With only a handful of them scoring without another player, neither team found the back of the net. That’s even rarer given how competitive the playoffs are, most recently before Sunday last season, when Evan de Cain scored a win against Calgary. Before that, it was Sidney Crosby against Philadelphia in 2018. The last game of any NHL game belongs to the Wild’s Kirill Kapritsov in March.

i made a prediction ten days ago The winner between Las Vegas and Edmonton will lift the Stanley Cup. Now that the series is over, I feel more confident in this pick. Florida didn’t win it. Carolina is likely to be the league’s runner-up. Whoever emerges from Game 7 between Dallas and Seattle hasn’t kept pace with the depth of the Golden Knights. Vegas has only been in the NHL since 2017 and has made the playoffs in five of the six seasons in franchise history. This is also the fourth time the Golden Knights have been one of the final four teams. start. Vegas took advantage of the NHL’s bizarre expansion rules and picked a solid player from another NHL team to bolster their initial campaign, the team’s only trip to the Stanley Cup Finals. That trip was in its first season, with the Golden Knights being blitzed by the Capitals in five games.

The Golden Knights’ Road to the Cup

Last year was the only season in Vegas that ended with 82 games. That disappointment gave way to a reshuffling of the roster and coaching staff. The Golden Knights can no longer rely on expansion draft momentum to win, and Kraken’s rule changes have made Seattle’s playoff run this year even more impressive in their sophomore campaign. The fresh blood was so evenly distributed that Edmonton and Winnipeg played a poaching game. They have too much arsenic in their Tim Hortons. Marchessault’s natural hat-trick was just the finishing touch. His first two goals came in back-to-back shifts. A 4-on-3 wrist shot from the left tackle circle defeated Oilers goaltender Stuart Skinner before the end of the second quarter.

Vegas still has the aura of an NHL rookie, but will face true rookies or teams that recently reached the Stanley Cup Finals instead of the Western Conference Finals.And I’m not looking past Kraken or Stars, but what do these two teams have show in playoffs Can this be compared to what the Golden Knights have done so far? The answer is simple: nothing. Vegas will return to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since its maiden voyage, and it will make a big difference.

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