Anthony Duclair: “Junk food, we’ll see a lot of it”

Las Vegas | Holding on after the whistle during injury time, the attackers vie for the goalkeeper: the first game of the final gave the impression that each team wanted to mark its territory.

In this little game, we can believe that the Cheetahs have the advantage. Within their group, there were a few individuals who were quick to nag the opponent. Matthew Tkachuk and Radko Judas are good at it.

Moreover, at the end of this first meeting, Jonathan Marquessault, in the colorful language we know, did not hesitate to denounce the intentions of his opponents.

“We’re going to play from whistle to whistle. We’re not going to be trashed with trash after whistles. It was ridiculous,” said the Golden Knights forward, noting that his teammates had to be careful not to get caught.

Pietrangelo Target

The warning is worth sharing and listening as Anthony Duclair reiterated his group’s intention to get into the heads of Golden Knights players.

“As Marchy said, junk, we’re going to see a lot of him,” said Duclair. In the final, there are a lot of emotions. We’ll see.”

This means that Alex Pietrangelo, often on the receiving side of these little blows during injury time, should expect to receive his share of hits.

“I don’t know why I was targeted,” said the 33-year-old veteran.

But the quarterback of the Golden Knights has seen others. He knows the truth about the last round, who got to it while invading the St. Louis Blues, in 2019.

“I can take it. I’ve been there before. Being tough and fighting back isn’t always the right reaction,” he said.

More legs, less sticks

Duclair may stipulate that he and his teammates will have to make sure not to cross the line and stay disciplined, not being unaware that Vegas’ massive offense has delivered a somewhat erratic return (19.5%) from the start of the spring cycle.

Under these circumstances, it is most unashamed to allow yourself a little generosity.

“We still have to keep calm. We saw that yesterday [samedi] With the aim of Marchesault. We’ll have to work more with our feet and less with a stick.

Aside from the danger of seeing a massive attack from the Knights know the shake, it wouldn’t do for Paul Morris’ troops to be denied important items for several minutes during a match.

A fact the Panthers had to deal with when Sam Bennett and Tkachuk received 10 minutes for misconduct when the score was 4-2.

“Seeking to wear our defenders down is part of their strategy. We were surprised to see that in action after every whistle,” said William Carrier. But we thought we had to maintain discipline and, as you can see, the best players have been taken out since the start of the playoffs.

This joke that happened in the last moments of the third period was quite likely to seal the outcome of this first meeting.