In double overtime of Game 3 of the Stanley Cup Final, an exhausted Shea Theodore let a one-timer rip from the point. The puck clanked off the end boards, ricocheted off the goaltender’s skate, and into the net.It ended one of the most memorable games in recent NHL history, with the Vegas Golden Knights winning 5-4 after surrendering a four-goal lead in the third period. It was the moment every hockey player dreams of.“It’s exactly the way I planned,” he said jokingly after.The goal may have involved good fortune, but Theodore has been rehearsing that moment for nearly his entire life. The garage wall inside his parents’ home in Aldergrove, British Columbia, tattered with holes and rubber puck marks, stands as evidence.Theodore grew up in the small community in the township of Langley, southeast of Vancouver. He would fire pucks at a net in the garage for hours on end. Most hit that net. The ones that didn’t took a toll on the wall behind it.“You shooting pucks at your wall all the time?” his teammate Mitch Marner wisecracked at the podium following Saturday’s win.Theodore smiled, turned to Marner and quipped, “I’ll show you.”Theodore’s Stanley Cup Final moment was his sixth goal of the playoffs and his second overtime winner. His 16 points are tied for the most in the NHL by a defenseman, but he has been so much more than that for the Golden Knights during this run.The 30-year-old blue liner has always been a weapon with the puck, but this season, after the team lost defensive stalwart Alex Pietrangelo to major hip injuries last summer, Theodore took it upon himself to elevate his entire game. He has played more minutes, faced tougher matchups and been asked to contribute in more facets of the game. The result is the best version of Theodore we’ve ever seen.This is Theodore’s 10th playoff run, and he admits it feels a bit different.“I think in previous runs, like the year we won, Petro was a big factor defensively, playing the top minutes,” he explained. “Throughout this year, I’ve taken that step. Sometimes it’s physically, but also mentally wrapping your head around always getting the tough matchups.”Theodore has averaged more than 26 minutes of ice time per night in these playoffs, by far the most of his career. Not only that, they’ve been much tougher minutes. During Vegas’ championship run in 2023, he started 62.9 percent of his shifts in the offensive zone. This year, that number has dropped to 45.6 percent. Back in 2023, he started only 79 shifts in his own end. This year, he’s already done it 130 times and counting.“A lot of times you’re playing against the top lines, and hard minutes,” he said. “The onus and pressure on just keeping the puck out of your net is number one.”Despite facing that, Theodore and his defensive partner Brayden McNabb have been on the ice for the fewest expected goals per 60 of any players on the team. In his nearly 400 minutes of even-strength ice time, the opposition has scored only 1.67 goals per 60 minutes, which is the second-best of any player this postseason.“He’s been so good the entire playoffs,” Jack Eichel said of Theodore. “He plays in every situation. He plays huge minutes. He makes so many great plays defensively, offensively. I can’t say enough good things about him.”Theodore has also killed penalties for the first time in his career this season, and is one of the team’s go-to players while protecting a lead in the final minute of a game. It’s an added layer to what was already an impressive overall game.While the Golden Knights missed Pietrangelo’s presence in a big way this season, his departure opened the door for Theodore to prove he’s a true No. 1 defenseman.“He’s really taken off,” McNabb said. “When he gets his legs moving, he has some of the best feet in the league. It’s fun to watch. I’m very fortunate to be out there with him.”Those who know Theodore best aren’t surprised in the slightest.“Just the way he approaches every day, you can tell that he thinks that of himself,” said defenseman Dylan Coghlan, who is one of Theodore’s closest friends off the ice. “With Petro being out, that’s obviously a huge loss to any team, but he knew deep down that he had to step up and he definitely has.”The same skating and stick skills that have made Theodore dangerous with the puck for years have now helped him transform into a shutdown defender this season. His instant acceleration allows him to gap up effortlessly. His active stick makes it nearly impossible to drive around him.Coghlan spotted the talent the first time he ever saw Theodore on the ice, back in 2014. It was a preseason game in the Western Hockey League between Coghlan’s Tri-City Americans and Theodore’s Seattle Thunderbirds. Coghlan was 16, in his first season of major junior hockey. Theodore had just been drafted in the first round by the Anaheim Ducks and was captaining the Thunderbirds.“I didn’t know who he was, and I was like, ‘Holy… This guy is awesome,’” Coghlan recalled. “‘Defensemen aren’t supposed to skate like that.’ Playing against him, I couldn’t help but be in awe of the way he skated and handled the puck. It was different than everybody else did at that age.”Their paths crossed again in Las Vegas with the Golden Knights, and they’ve become close friends.“I’ve always thought highly of him as a player, and then I got to know him as a person and I’m like, ‘Ah, that makes total sense,’” Coghlan said. “He’s one of my best friends off the ice. Just kind of a guy you want to have on your side. He’s always there for you when you need it. He’s a great husband, a great father.”Their wives and children have become friends. They’re both from British Columbia and spend summers together at Okanagan Lake, near Kelowna.“We golf a lot, and in the summertime we’re on the boat together,” Coghlan said. “(Theodore) just got a nice boat, so we spend time on that in the summer. He’s got an awesome place on the lake.”The area is a hotbed for NHL players, active and retired, during the offseason. It’s a good place to relax and an equally good place to train. Summer skates include names such as Brayden and Luke Schenn, Tyler Myers, Tanner Jeannot, Zach Whitecloud and Kaedan Korczak. The biggest name at those skates is, of course, Theodore.“He’s a tremendous, tremendous player and has been huge for us in these playoffs,” Coghlan said.On top of his increased defensive responsibilities, Theodore has scored more goals in this postseason than he did in the previous four runs combined. Many of them have been at the most crucial of times.He scored the winner in Game 4 of the first-round series against the Utah Mammoth in the final minute of overtime. At the time, Utah held a 2-1 series lead over Vegas. If not for that goal, that series could’ve looked very different. He got the Golden Knights on the board in Game 3 of the second-round series against Anaheim with a laser of a wrist shot. That game ended up being the turning point of that series as well.“I feel good about my game,” he said. “As playoffs normally go on, I feel like that’s where my game builds and gets better. It just feels like it’s in a good spot.”Theodore already has two goals and three assists through only three games of the Stanley Cup Final.“Obviously, the extended minutes, especially in the playoffs, is something you want,” he said. “I just feel like I’m trying to keep things rolling and keep playing smart hockey.”Theodore hasn’t just embraced the role, he covets it. On Saturday night, despite having already played a career-high 39 minutes of ice time, in double overtime, he wanted the puck.“I think at that point you obviously want to be the guy that scores, but at the same time you just want to play well, carry the play and be smart defensively,” Theodore explained. “Get things to the net, sometimes good bounces happen.”Hockey players love using the phrase, “you create your own luck.”Theodore has been working for that luck most of his life, from way back when his parents could hear the unmistakable thud of a young Theodore ripping pucks off the garage wall.