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Didn’t Think We’d See the Duality of Shayne Gostisbehere on Display in 2026, Let Alone in the Stanley Cup Final
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Incredible Game 1 between the Golden Knights and Hurricanes on Tuesday. Holy cow. Vegas took it 5-4 with a late goal from Tomas Hertl.
For Flyers fans, it was presumably quirky as hell to see Shayne Gostisbehere score the 4-4 equalizer against Carter Hart, then be the guy defending Hertl on the game winner:
Ghost said this after the game, from Canes writer Cory Lavalette:
“He tried to shoot it, and I took a breather for a second and it went right to their guy, and that’s how quick it could happen. That one’s definitely on me. Just took a breather for a second.”
Go figure that Ghost scores a big goal and then gives up a bigger goal on the other end. It’s a great play by Vegas, no doubt, but they were explaining on the broadcast how Carolina plays man-to-man on the defensive end and so Ghost is responsible for Hertl on the return pass into the slot.
It immediately triggered my Flyers PTSD, reaching deep into the cerebellum to retrieve memories of pandemic-era chatter. I heard the faint whispers of dissonance, explaining that Ghost was a fantastic offensive defenseman, but not the best defensive defenseman, which always feels weird to say out loud, or put in a sentence. Power play? Great. Transition? Great. Puck movement/assists/etc? Great, great, great. Then there would be a bad pinch or giveaway, and/or he’d lose a physical battle and the other team scores. And you’re sort of scratching your head thinking about the duality of the player, how he could look so good in one moment, and then look so bad in the next.
That being said, the guy deserves credit for continuing his career at age 32 after the Flyers traded him for absolutely nothing. They gave Arizona two picks to get off his cap hit, which was $4.5 million over a couple of seasons. Then Ghost went from Zona to Carolina, to Detroit, back to Carolina, and here he is now with a chance to win a Cup.
So, not cheering against the guy. Definitely not. Wouldn’t mind seeing the Canes win it all, so we can say the Flyers (once again) lost to the best team in the league. But I wasn’t expecting another trip on the Ghost Bear rollercoaster, not in 2026.
Kevin has been writing about Philadelphia sports since 2009. He spent seven years in the CBS 3 sports department and started with the Union during the team's 2010 inaugural season. He went to the academic powerhouses of Boyertown High School and West Virginia University. email - k.kinkead@sportradar.com