5-4 in a double overtime marathon<\/a> to take a 2-1 series lead over the Carolina Hurricanes.<\/p>\nLess than 48 hours removed from eating an 87-mile-per-hour slap shot that sent him to a hospital room three time zones away, McNabb registered a career-high 35 minutes and 47 seconds of ice time and assisted on two goals to help lead his team to victory.<\/p>\n
\u201cI heard the players yelling \u2018warrior,\u2019 but he\u2019s more than that,\u201d Vegas coach John Tortorella said. \u201cI\u2019m just blown away by how he\u2019s gone about his business.\u201d<\/p>\n
McNabb was hit in the face by a blistering shot by Carolina\u2019s Nikolaj Ehlers in the first period of Game 2. He dropped to the ice, then quickly popped up and rushed to the dressing room, holding his face as blood dripped through his gloves.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was not ideal for sure, but it\u2019s part of hockey,\u201d McNabb said nonchalantly. \u201cThat\u2019s the way it goes sometimes. It\u2019s unfortunate, but I was able to get through it.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Not ideal\u2019 isn\u2019t how most would describe it, but McNabb\u2019s businesslike approach never wavers. He received between 20 and 30 stitches. It wasn\u2019t clear whether he would play in the game as late as Saturday morning.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I was at the hospital, there was some doubt for sure,\u201d he explained. \u201cWaking up, I felt OK, and I knew I would have a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
He strolled into T-Mobile Arena hours before puck drop, dressed in a dapper suit with a cup of coffee in hand. It was far too casual for a man who just had his nose sewn back together, but that\u2019s McNabb to a tee.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think you can say enough good things about him,\u201d Vegas forward Jack Eichel said. \u201cHis courage, heart. They don\u2019t make a lot of people like him anymore. He\u2019s just such a selfless human being. So much guts. I could sit here and talk about him forever.\u201d<\/p>\n
McNabb skated out for pregame warm-ups, wearing a cage over his face for the first time in nearly 20 years, when he was playing triple-A midget hockey for the Notre Dame Hounds. The moment he was shown on the video board, Vegas fans erupted in cheers.<\/p>\n
When McNabb was announced in the starting lineup, it was met with a thunderous roar louder than that of the pregame flyover by two F-15E Strike Eagle fighter jets.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was pretty cool,\u201d McNabb said. \u201cOur fans are awesome. They got our backs, so it was a very cool moment.\u201d<\/p>\n
McNabb played 49 shifts in the game and was one of Vegas\u2019 most impactful players. In the second period, with the Golden Knights already leading 2-0, he jumped into the play to intercept a clearing attempt by Carolina, then skated through the high slot and dished a perfect pass over to Mitch Marner, who scored to extend the lead.<\/p>\n
He said breathing wasn\u2019t always the easiest, especially early in the game.<\/p>\n
\u201cA little rough,\u201d he said. \u201cA little rough, but I was able to make it happen. The guys did a great job getting me prepared. I felt OK to start, and kind of just got better as the game went on.\u201d<\/p>\n
McNabb felt good enough to lay one of his patented hip checks in the third period, pinning Carolina forward Taylor Hall against the boards with a booming hit. When his team watched a four-goal lead melt away in minutes, he was one of the stabilizing forces on the bench.<\/p>\n
\u201cA 4-0 lead you obviously want to take that home and finish it in the third period, but we\u2019ll learn from it,\u201d he said. \u201cSome things happen and it\u2019s a good learning lesson, and we\u2019ll do that. We stuck with it, the guys played a great game and we were able to get the win.\u201d<\/p>\n
McNabb played more than 10 minutes in the two overtime periods alone. Early in the second overtime, he caught a pass near the offensive blue line from Brett Howden and immediately flipped it over to his longtime defensive partner, Shea Theodore.<\/p>\n
Theodore one-timed the puck off the end boards. It bounced off Hurricanes\u2019 goalie Brandon Bussi and into the net to win it.<\/p>\n
\u201cI didn\u2019t have much energy to celebrate,\u201d McNabb said with a laugh. \u201cI was just happy it was over. I think he probably felt the same way.\u201d<\/p>\n
Theodore and McNabb have played together for nearly a decade. They\u2019ve shared the ice for more than 100 playoff games, and Theodore has seen McNabb play through plenty, including broken ribs and who knows what else. Even for him, Saturday night\u2019s performance stands alone.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s got to be near the top,\u201d he said. \u201cThe stuff he went through from the last game, and everything. It\u2019s incredible for him to bounce back like that, and be able to come in today, get ready to play, and I thought he played unbelievably given all of the circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n
Setting a new career high for shifts and ice time in a Stanley Cup Final game with 108 combined hits, and McNabb didn\u2019t just survive it \u2014 he starred in it.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you\u2019re in it, you\u2019re in it,\u201d he said. \u201cMentally, you\u2019re just trying to battle and do what you can to help the team. The guys played great. The third period wasn\u2019t how we wanted it to be, but it happened. We had more adversity, but we came through.\u201d<\/p>\n
McNabb is Vegas\u2019 franchise leader in games played. He\u2019s never been the most offensively leaning player, so his contributions can sometimes be overlooked. But his strength in front of the net, presence in the room and self-effacing demeanor have made him a locker room favorite.<\/p>\n
Tortorella recalled talking with his players recently about the moments you remember most about a deep playoff run like this one.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen you get this far in the playoffs, it\u2019s not so much the end results, it\u2019s just the attrition and all that goes into what these athletes have to do to play as many games as we\u2019ve played so far,\u201d he explained. \u201cThose are the things you remember.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tortorella has coached 1,766 games over 24 seasons in the NHL, the seventh-most all-time. He thought he\u2019d seen it all. Then he watched McNabb on Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been fortunate to be in a few playoffs along the way and see some of this,\u201d he said, \u201cbut I haven\u2019t seen something like this.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"LAS VEGAS \u2014 On Thursday night, Golden Knights defenseman Brayden McNabb sat in a hospital room in Raleigh,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":593546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5129],"tags":[149,5317,5,4,74,39,5316],"class_list":["post-593545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-vegas-golden-knights","tag-golden-knights","tag-goldenknights","tag-hockey","tag-nhl","tag-vegas","tag-vegas-golden-knights","tag-vegasgoldenknights"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nhl\/116710185614334588","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=593545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/593545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/593546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=593545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=593545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nhl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=593545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}