- Tomas Hertl said a 30-minute call from Joe Pavelski during his slump helped pull him out of it
- The Vegas center went 29 games without a goal between the regular season and playoffs before scoring against Anaheim and then the Game 1 winner against Carolina
- Read below for the full Hertl quote and the post-game video from Raleigh
Tomas Hertl spent most of the spring chasing a goal that would not come. A 30-minute phone call from Joe Pavelski finally helped him stop pressing.
The Vegas center told Daily Faceoff after Tuesday’s 5-4 Game 1 win in Raleigh that his former Sharks teammate reached out during the worst slump of his career. That talk got the ball rolling on what is now a four-goal, eight-game run.
He walked through exactly what the call did for him:
“I had like 30 minutes to talk with him, and he actually helped me a lot, because we’ve been pretty close and he’s a great goal scorer, been through a lot, and he called me and talked to me about just what to do. And I think after I was talking with him, the next day was the Anaheim game, and I scored my first goal, so it was really nice from him. And he’s still texting me.”
Take a look at the full post-game session from Lenovo Center:
Pavelski knows what waiting feels like. He played 18 NHL seasons and 201 playoff games without ever lifting the Cup, the longest such stretch in league history. The retired center now spends his summers trading texts and tape with the guys still chasing one.
That drought ran 29 games combined, dating back to a March 4 goal in Detroit. Earlier in the playoffs he told reporters he was rewatching his own old highlights on YouTube to remember how it used to look. The first one finally came in Game 4 against Anaheim in mid-May.
Tuesday’s winner made four in eight games for Hertl, with two of those ending the night. The Game 1 goal came with 3:24 left on a give-and-go that ended with Colton Sissons feeding him a no-look backhand pass in the slot. Hertl beat Frederik Andersen blocker-side from between the hash marks.
Here’s the full Game 1 recap if you missed it:
Colton Sissons watched the slump from up close and said he never doubted his linemate:
“He’s such a big part of our offense, and I know it was hard on him for a while not chipping in, but he just worked through it, and he was getting the chances. They just weren’t going in for him.”
Game 2 is Thursday night back in Raleigh. Vegas is already a win up on the Hurricanes.
