What has gotten into Knights’ offense in Stanley Cup Final?

Sergei Bobrovsky probably will find it hard to shake the Golden Knights’ goal song — “Vegas Lights” by Panic! at the Disco — as the Stanley Cup Final shifts to Sunrise, Florida, for Games 3 and 4.

Connor Hellebuyck can relate. As can Stuart Skinner. And Jake Oettinger.

The Knights, who once stumbled searching for goals late in the postseason, are still reveling in their new roles as goalie tormentors in the season’s final series. Their 12 goals against the Florida Panthers through two games in the final are tied for the most in NHL history. It’s a feat no one has pulled off since the 1982 New York Islanders.

The output would seem outrageous if it wasn’t in line with what the Knights had done earlier in the playoffs. They’re scoring 3.9 goals per game, which ranks first in the NHL this postseason and would have ranked second in the regular season behind the Edmonton Oilers (3.96).

“We trust what we do up and down our lineup,” defenseman Alex Pietrangelo said. “We can score anywhere in our lineup, which is a big threat for us.”

The goals used to dry up for the Knights at this point.

They scored seven in the 2020 Western Conference Final against the Dallas Stars and lost in five games. They had 13 — including none on the power play — in six games in a semifinal series loss the following year to Montreal.

A few things make this season’s Knights team different. One wears No. 9.

The Knights acquired Jack Eichel from the Buffalo Sabres last season to help them soar instead of stumble at this stage. He has 22 points in 19 playoff games, tied for the second-most in the NHL and the most-ever by an American-born skater in his first playoff run.

“Eichel has obviously brought an element that we’ve probably been missing,” captain Mark Stone said. “A true No. 1 center. Big guy, who brings a lot of offensive punch.”

Eichel has done more than given the Knights another star.

He’s made them almost impossible to match up against because of how strong he makes the team down the middle. He, Chandler Stephenson, William Karlsson and Nicolas Roy give the Knights one of the best center quartets in the NHL. That doesn’t even count the options the team has in its back pocket, such as Brett Howden, Teddy Blueger and Michael Amadio.

The depth doesn’t end there. The Knights’ nine goal scorers through two games of the final is an NHL record.

Credit goes to coach Bruce Cassidy for the way he’s arranged his lines. He’s spread talent throughout his top-nine forwards using three “duos” rather than supercharging certain units.

Eichel ($10 million cap hit) and right wing Jonathan Marchessault ($5 million) are complemented by left wing Ivan Barbashev ($2.25 million), for example. Stone ($9.5 million) and Stephenson ($2.75 million) are flanked by Howden ($1.5 million). Karlsson ($5.9 million) and left wing Reilly Smith ($5 million) play with Amadio ($762,500).

The setup gives the two highly skilled players on each line a willing forechecker who can also drive the net. It’s given opponents fits since Stone returned from January back surgery in time for the playoffs.

The Knights were 14th in scoring (3.26 goals per game) in the regular season. Now, they’re unstoppable.

“You can’t focus on one particular area, right?” Cassidy said. “It’s that balance in our lineup that’s allowed us to do it every night.”

The Knights are also starting to get secondary scoring from an area they weren’t before: the power play.

They’ve gotten this far because of their exceptional five-on-five play. Their 56 goals there are 19 more than the next-closest playoff team in Dallas.

The Knights’ work on the man advantage has lagged behind. Not anymore. They’ve scored four power-play goals against Florida, tied for their most in a series this season. Dating to Game 6 against Dallas, the Knights have scored a power-play goal in three straight games for the first time since Dec. 21 to 27.

They picked a good time to get hot. If the Knights keep scoring there, there isn’t much Florida can do to slow them.

Bobrovsky, a two-time Vezina Trophy winner, can at least take solace knowing that he’s not the first goaltender who has failed to stop the playoffs’ biggest buzz saw. The Knights have made plenty of others look ordinary on their road to the final.

It has put them two more offensive explosions away from lifting the franchise’s first Stanley Cup.

“Nobody is really in a slump,” Roy said. “We just find ways to score.”

Contact Ben Gotz at bgotz@reviewjournal.com. Follow @BenSGotz on Twitter.