Stanley Cup Final blog: Zach Whitecloud

Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Zach Whitecloud will be keeping his own blog throughout the 2023 Stanley Cup Final against the Florida Panthers. He will check in regularly with behind-the-scenes access.

In his third entry, Whitecloud discusses the Golden Knights' trip to Florida and their preparation for Game 3 of the Cup Final on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; TBS, TNT, truTV, CBC, SN, TVAS).

The trip down to Florida was good, it was a good flight. We got off the plane and headed back to the hotel. Some guys got treatment, whatever they needed to get done and then a few of us just went for some dinner and then went back, relaxed and got some sleep.

If you ask any guy, they love going on the road just because you're together the whole time, you get to go for dinners and talk. You get to be with your buddies that you're with all the time, so it's fun and it's always a good time on the road obviously just because you're together the whole time.

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We were loose in practice today, but I think the biggest thing is don't take the looseness as us not getting prepared and getting ready. You have to enjoy the game at the same time, and I think as you've seen the reps, you know guys are competing, guys are executing, scoring goals, all those sorts of things, and that's what makes hockey fun is scoring goals. Obviously when you've got Jonathan Marchessault yelling at you every time you're going up against them (in practice) in 3-on-2 and he's scoring, it's pretty loud out there, and it puts a smile on our faces when guys are having fun and that's what you have to do with the game, and come tomorrow, we do our work and get ready.

As for being up 2-0 in the Cup Final, I try not to look ahead. It's like life, and I'm not trying to be some person that has been through all the stuff and like speaking on all this stuff, but you have to live in the moment and take it for what it is. You have your goal in mind as a team and with each game you're trying to work toward that. You know it's there, but at the same time, you've got to make sure you take care of business each and every day. And that starts with practice, coming in here and getting your work done, paying attention to what's going on detail-wise in our game, in our systems, all those sorts of things. And don't let the outside noise in. And that's the main thing that's part of the maturing process is learning those things and then realizing what's important. Obviously, the whole atmosphere of it is exciting and all those sorts of things. And yes, you've got to enjoy that, but at the same time, we've got much bigger goals.

We always have a team dinner every night and get the guys together and go for a good meal. I personally don't mind getting out and going for a walk -- you're in Florida so try to get a little bit of sun and maybe if a nap on the schedule. I don't really have plans on the road. I just do whatever -- if guys were like, "Let's go for dinner." So, no real plans. I just kind of like doing whatever kind of comes through today.