That is not by accident. Dallas spent the first three days of its Return to Play training camp in July focusing on its defensemen getting involved in the offense.
"Whenever there's an opportunity to jump up and try to get a shot, we want to do that," Hanley said after his 54th NHL game. "You see it around the League, defensemen jumping up and trying to get shots for offense. I think that's something we've done a good job of so far."
The 29-year-old gave Dallas a 1-0 lead 5:40 into the first period. Forward Roope Hintz passed from behind the net to Hanley in the high slot, and his shot from between the circles beat goalie Andrei Vasilevskiy high to the blocker side.
He became the fifth defenseman since 1927 to score his first NHL goal in the Stanley Cup Final, the first since Jim Paek of the Pittsburgh Penguins in Game 6 of the 1991 Cup Final against the Minnesota North Stars.
"I saw Roope go behind the net and then I saw kind of an opening in the middle," Hanley said. "When Roope passed it, I don't know if I lifted my head up or not. I don't know what it looked like on camera, but I just tried to pick a corner and shoot it as hard as I could and it was lucky enough to go in."
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Hanley played eight games this season, his fifth, and was playing his eighth postseason game.
"Joel Hanley, just couldn't be happier for him," Bowness said. "This kid has given us a lot of good quality minutes, so I couldn't be happier for him [that] he gets a goal."
Oleksiak made it 2-1 with 7:30 remaining in the second period. Like Hanley, he jumped into the play to take a pass from forward Alexander Radulov and shot from the high slot. Vasilevskiy knocked it down with his blocker, and Oleksiak got to the rebound and lifted it over the goalie.
His five postseason goals equal the most he scored in any of his seven NHL regular seasons (five with Dallas in 2016-17, five with Dallas and the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2017-18). He has 18 goals in 313 regular-season games.
"Honestly, I haven't been thinking too deeply on it," the 27-year-old said. "This playoffs, we're getting the [defensemen] involved a little bit more, and the opportunities have come my way and I've been able to put a couple in. So I think it's just a product of playing kind of our system and what that affords a D-man to do. It's definitely nice to contribute in that way."
