Stanley Cup Final blog: Carter Verhaeghe

Florida Panthers forward Carter Verhaeghe will be keeping his own blog throughout the 2023 Stanley Cup Final against the Vegas Golden Knights. He will check in regularly with behind-the-scenes access. In his second entry, Verhaeghe discusses Game 1, a 5-2 loss to the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday.

Verhaeghe said the Panthers had a bit of trouble getting into gear after a nine-day layoff between games. He also discussed the physicality of Game 1 and the highlight-reel save by Vegas goalie Adin Hill on forward Nick Cousins that changed the complexion of the game.

He said Florida will be better in Game 2 of the best-of-7 series, which is here Monday (8 p.m. ET; TNT, TBS, truTV, CBC, SN, TVAS).

It was nice to finally play Game 1 and I thought we played OK, but it wasn't our best effort.

At times, I think we were a little flat, especially in the first two periods, but with that said we were tied 2-2 heading into the third period. Even our power play was choppy at times, and we struggled to get things going.

I didn't love our game all night, but we tried to find a way to win, but we didn't. We got some looks tonight, but we didn't convert.

We gave ourselves a chance to win the game in the third period with it tied 2-2. They were better than us in the third and we made a couple of mistakes.

That is not an excuse. There shouldn't be excuses; this is the Stanley Cup Final. We should have found a way to get some more juice, but we were a little flat. We are going to come out with more juice in Game 2.

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It was really loud in the building tonight and the atmosphere was electric, so it was a lot of fun to be playing hockey again. Obviously, we didn't get the result we wanted, but I think we can have a better effort next game.

Hill made a really nice save on Nick Cousins early in the second period. He was down and out, and he came back with the paddle. It was unbelievable, but it is just another save. We didn't really talk about it on the bench or anything like that. For us, it was just onto-the-next-play kind of mentality.

Vegas came out hard and played a really good game, and credit to them for that. I think they were the better team tonight for sure.

Going into Game 2, we have to find our legs, get back to our game and just play harder I think.

Now, we just want to get some rest. I mean, it was a tough game tonight. I think the biggest thing is recovery, getting some rest and being ready for Game 2.