The Best Damn Hockey Game You Will Ever See: Brad Marchand Scores in 2OT to Cap Off Wildly Entertaining Game 2 and Tie Series Up 1-1
Best hockey game ever. Maybe. That's what the word on the street is. My gut tells me that's a prisoner of the moment thing to say, but all things considered... a 2OT Stanley Cup Finals game with 9 total goals... a game that featured Connor McDavid, the best hockey player in the world chasing his first Stanley Cup in a rematch against the very team fell short to in 7 games just last season. A game in which the aforementioned Connor McDavid made this happen.
A game that was 4-3 with time winding down in the 3rd period when the Edmonton Oilers pulled their goalie, and Leon Draisaitl came mere inches away from putting home yet another perfect pass from Connor McDavid.
Only for 40-year old veteran Corey Perry, with 17 seconds left in the game, to finally put one past Bobrovsky and give Game 2 the OT it rightfully deserved.
It was a game with two overtimes that featured so many incredibly close calls. Like Stuart Skinner stuffing Brad Marchand with his outstretched toe and miraculously managed (with a little help from his teammate) to keep the rebound from trickling across the goal line.
Advertisement
Not to mention the wide open breakaway from Florida's Sam Reinhart (albeit was one of the least inspired breakaway I've seen in my hockey watching life).
In the end, the game came down to Sergei Bobrovsky stuffing Kasperi Kapanen off of a perfect pass from point blank range.
And literal seconds later, Brad Marchand (who had already scored a shorthanded breakaway goal in the 3rd period to put the Panthers up 4-3) scored on yet another breakaway to save Florida from a potentially insurmountable two-game deficit. Marchand was fantastic all game long, but even better in OT. Somehow at 37-years old, he looked like the most well-conditioned player on the ice in the 2nd OT of a Stanley Cup Final.
Advertisement
When you take it all into account, hockey games don't get much more perfect than that. There's not a whole lot more a hockey fan could ask for to make it better. Maybe if this were Game 7 instead of Game 2. Maybe if you swapped out the Florida Panthers out with a more historic, less Florida-based, more "desperate for a Stanley Cup" team like the Toronto Maple Leafs. Maybe if Evander Kane would have ended the game by doing what a guy like me would have done in this situation and pulled the puck between his legs to his inside foot, kicked it back to his forehand, and slid the puck five-hole for the OT winner.
Or maybe if the game winner was scored by Connor McDavid after splitting the defense with a triple axel like Team USA's Kenny Wu.
But fuck it. I'll be a prisoner of the moment too. That was the best hockey game of all-time. It's at least the best one I've ever watched from start to finish. I'm cheering for Connor McDavid and the Oilers this series, but I'm not sure how I could be mad about the Panthers tying the series up 1-1. Anything to assure that we get these two teams squaring off as many times as possible in the upcoming weeks. At this point, it would almost be a travesty if this series doesn't go 7 games. For a game that I have absolutely zero stakes in (didn't even place a bet), that's the most anxiety inducing sporting event I've watched in my life. It was an edge of your seat gut check from start to finish. Too many great moments for me to include in a single blog. The first period alone had more action than an entire 7 game series featuring the Carolina Hurricanes.
Advertisement
If you didn't see the game last night, I couldn't recommend any more highly that you take the 10 minutes to watch the extended highlight. There's nothing better than OT playoff hockey. If the rest of the games this series are even half this good, we're in for an all-time classic.