The Rat Trap Shift

The best part of Stanley Cup runs are the memories made along the way. Mark Stone lifting the Cup, William Karlsson’s parade speech, Michael Amadio’s double-OT game winner, Jonathan Marchessault’s natural hat trick, and that’s just to name a few. There’s one moment though, that may have gone underappreciated in the time since the Golden Knights won the Cup.

So, today, on the two year anniversary of the best moment in Vegas sports history, we celebrate the greatest shift the Golden Knights have ever had, the Rat Trap.

The Golden Knights had just scored their third goal of the game to take a 3-1 lead in the game, already holding a 3-1 lead in the series.

With the 4th line (Nic Roy, William Carrier, and Keegan Kolesar) along with the 3rd pair (Zach Whitecloud and Nic Hague) on the ice, the dominant sequence begins with a couple stick battle wins in the neutral zone to get the puck in deep. Kolesar’s forecheck is ferocious and Carrier helps win the puck back up to the point. Hague’s shot breaks the stick of Colin White which sets the scene for the next 90 seconds of incredible offensive hockey.

Nic Roy is the next VGK puckhandler and he goes into his patented back-and-forth puck protection mode to eventually work it back out to the point. Whitecloud, aware of the Panther without a stick, is able to survey and hands it off to Roy who has come up high in the zone. A shot heads towards Sergei Bobrovsky and the Golden Knights are easily first on the loose puck. This time it’s Kolesar who uses his big frame to protect the puck.

As this is happening, the Golden Knights begin making the first of a full line change during the shift. A nice weaving passing play sets up Whitecloud for another look from the high slot and yet again Kolesar is the first on the rebound. William Karlsson actually loses the puck behind the goal but a full speed Reilly Smith forces a poor exit and Michael Amadio makes a great play catching the puck at the line to keep it in the zone.

Stick battle win after stick battle win after stick battle win ensues and now the Golden Knights really have the Panthers on the ropes. VGK have made a full change while Florida have the same five guys on the ice, still missing one stick.

Karlsson finds some space under the goal line and finds a cutting Shea Theodore who nearly beats Bobrovsky. Florida’s clearing effort fails yet again and now Smith has it along the blue line with Brayden McNabb and Theodore flanking him. A little game of catch between the blue liners sets up the exact look the Golden Knights wanted, Theodore from the high slot with two gold jerseys screening the goalie.

The puck bounces around a bit until it falls to Karlsson who makes an unbelievable between the legs no-look pass to a wide-open Smith staring at a gaping cage. One-timer, goal. 4-1 VGK, game over, series over, the Stanley Cup belongs to Las Vegas.

It’s a 97 second shift in the offensive zone that encapsulated everything the 2023 Golden Knights were about. They smothered the Panthers in every way possible on a hockey rink and eventually wore them down to the tune of a yet another even-strength goal, VGK’s 3rd of that game and one of 71 they scored in the 22 game playoff run.

The goal officially became the series-clincher and the “Rat Trap” shift will live on forever in VGK lore.

Have fun watching the entire shift…