McNabb, Theodore sparking Golden Knights in Stanley Cup Final

RALEIGH, N.C. – Brayden McNabb was surprised to hear the stat.

The Vegas Golden Knights defenseman was fresh off a three-assist performance in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final on Tuesday, the first of his NHL career which has spanned 885 regular-season and 120 Stanley Cup Playoff games.

“I didn’t know that. Awesome,” McNabb said to laughs after the Golden Knights’ 5-4 win against the Carolina Hurricanes at Lenovo Center on Tuesday. “I don’t know, my partner (defenseman Shea Theodore) did most of the work on all of them, really, I guess. But yeah, the guys made great plays and it’s nice to chip in offensively when I can.”

Indeed, Theodore was there with a three-point night of his own (one goal, two assists), and he’s more known for putting up points, finishing with 29 or more in each of the past nine seasons. McNabb’s career high was 26 in 2023-24.

Regardless, there was Vegas’ top defense pair bringing the offense together to help the Golden Knights come back from an early 2-0 deficit.

Vegas, which has a 1-0 lead in the best-of-7 series, will happily take all the contributions they get again in Game 2, which is here on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, SN, TVAS, CBC).

The duo became the first defensemen teammates to get three points each in Game 1 of a Cup Final. It was just the third time a defenseman duo has teamed up for that mark in any Final game. New York Rangers defensemen Brian Leetch (one goal, three assists) and Sergei Zubov (one goal, two assists) did it in Game 4 of the 1994 Final and Charlie Huddy and Paul Coffey (each with one goal, two assists) did it for the Edmonton Oilers in Game 4 of the 1985 Final.

“I thought we were just moving the puck well,” Theodore said. “I think their man-to-man coverage can be tight, but I felt like we were swinging around, getting guys in the right spots to support. Just been able to get a lot of pucks through to the net.”

Contributions like that from Theodore and McNabb are a big reason why Vegas is on a seven-game Stanley Cup Playoff winning streak, the longest in its nine-season history in the NHL.

“I think they’re calm,” Golden Knights coach John Tortorella said of Theodore and McNabb, as well as forward William Karlsson, who had a goal in Game 1.

The three have been with Vegas since the team’s start in 2017-18 and helped win the Stanley Cup in 2023.

“They’ve won before. They’ve been in this situation,” Tortorella said. “The foundation of our team, the guts of our team have been through this before and if we’re down 2-0, there wasn’t panic on the bench. Those guys kind of lead the way by not panicking. They don’t say much, they just play and I think other people fall behind. I think that’s so important this time of year.”

Theodore has 14 points (five goals, nine assists) in 17 postseason games while McNabb has seven points (one goal, six assists) in 16 playoff games. Theodore has six points (two goals, four assists) in three career Game 1s, the most among active skaters in the opening game of a Final. 

“The thing I liked about Shea last night is he gets spanked on the first goal (Hurricanes forward Nikolaj Ehlers’ breakaway goal 25 seconds into the game), but then it doesn’t bother him and he probably plays one of the better games in the playoff series,” Tortorella said. “Just so good with the puck. I thought he did some really good things as far as stick on puck. In our ‘D’ zone I thought he was strong. I thought him and ‘Nabber’ were a really good pair. 

“I think it’s a good lesson for all of our guys, young or old. It was a bad mistake early on. It cost us right away, but he just played. I think it’s a really good lesson for all of us to see.”

McNabb and Theodore have been here since the beginning. They know what it takes at this point and they know how they need to contribute. They helped the Golden Knights through the ups and downs of Game 1 and want to pick it up from there on Thursday.

“I thought after it was 2-0, we got adjusted to their speed and kind of knowing what they’re all about. The first 10 (minutes) they got a couple, but it didn’t really faze us. It was a huge first goal with ‘Theo’ to get us back in it and had a great start to the second,” McNabb said.

“So, yeah, now we know that they come hard. We weren’t fully prepared for it tonight. We handled it well in the second and third but now we know and it’s great to get Game 1 and we’ll enjoy it and reset and get ready for Game 2.”