Miles Morrisseau
ICT
First Nations hockey player Zach Whitecloud and the Vegas Golden Knights are headed to the Stanley Cup finals after soundly defeating the Dallas Stars 6-0 on Monday, May 30, to win the National Hockey League’s Western Conference title.
Whitecloud, Sioux Valley Dakota Nation, will be facing Brandon Montour, Mohawk, and the underdog Florida Panthers, a role the Cats have enjoyed throughout their surprising playoff run.
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But no matter who wins, the Stanley Cup will be visiting a First Nation in Canada this summer. As is the annual tradition, each player on the winning team gets to take the cup home for a day.
The finals will pit the top-seeded team in the West against the lowest-seeded team in the East. The Panthers punched their ticket to the finals quickly, sweeping the favored Carolina Hurricanes in four games after first defeating the storied Boston Bruins. The Knights looked to sweep as well, but the Dallas Stars would not go quietly into the night and pushed the series to six games before losing 6-0 at home.
Whitecloud is one of the original Knights, joining the team in 2017 during its inaugural year. He has continued to grow in his role on a team that is built with strong, fast-moving defensemen that make teams pay in the corners and who get the puck out fast.
He is considered a third-line defenseman with high-level performers ahead of him in the pecking order, including previous Stanley Cup winners.
“As Golden Knights fans have witnessed, Whitecloud might be the front office’s best amateur acquisition,” wrote sports analyst Jason Pothier in March of this year. “Several draft picks have either flamed out or have been moved in deals for established NHLers. Meanwhile, Whitecloud has 177 games under his belt as one of VGK’s everyday defensemen.”
Whitecloud has contributed at a high level throughout this year’s playoff run for the Knights and his numbers put him closer to the top of the group. He is currently third in plus-minus among all players at plus-11, which means he was on the ice for more goals for than against.
Only forwards are ahead of him, with Vegas right-winger Jonathan Marchessault at the top with a plus-13. It is a significant statistic regarding how important a player is in both offense and defense. Whitecloud leads all defensemen in that category along with teammate Alec Martinez, who won two Stanley Cups with the Los Angeles Kings.
In the first game of the conference finals series, Whitecloud moved up from fifth in ice time to second for Vegas, and he had a hand in three Vegas goals, getting assists during regular time and moving the puck up for the overtime winner. Hefinished plus-three.
In the deciding game six of the series, Whitecloud had more than 20 minutes of ice time, finishing just behind star defenseman Alexander Pietrangelo, who won a cup with St. Louis in 2019. Whitecloud finished plus-one in the game; he has one goal and four assists in the playoffs.
The Knights will be favorites heading into the finals and they will maintain home ice advantage during the finals. That is exactly how the Panthers seem to like it in these 2023 playoffs. They have been underdogs all the way to the finals.
One thing is certain – the Stanley Cup will be going to First Nations lands this summer. The only question that remains is, which one? Will it be Six Nations of the Grand River in southern Ontario, or will it be Sioux Valley Dakota Nation in Manitoba?
The answer is coming soon. The Stanley Cup finals begin on Saturday, June 3.
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