Hertl’s goal was the difference in Vegas taking a 1-0 lead in the best-of-7 series. Game 2 will be played here on Thursday (8 p.m. ET; ABC, SN, TVAS, CBC).

“We overcomplicate it,” Pavelski said. “That is a big part of it. Some of the conversations are that things get overcomplicated. You don’t need to know how you’re going to score your next goal; you just need to know that it’s going to come and you need to work, that certain things can happen a little quicker when you get the puck.

“You’re just pretty pumped when you see it go in. It was nothing he didn’t already know because he’s a good player. Just some really simple things. I’m not going to get into it that much details-wise, because he just went out and executed and produced.”

Hertl publicly thanked Pavelski in his postgame press conference Tuesday, bringing up the 30-minute phone conversation they had May 9, saying it helped to hear from a now-retired player who scored 476 goals across his 1,332 regular-season games.

“We’ve been pretty close,” Hertl said. “He was a great goal-scorer. And you know, he’s been through a lot. And he kind of called me and talked to me about just what to do.”

Hertl and Pavelski have been communicating regularly since. Pavelski said he sent Hertl a text after the game on Tuesday.

“Hertl was one of those guys who was a fun teammate to be around with his ‘fun must be always’ quotes and stuff,” Pavelski said. “He’s a happy guy and a good teammate and he works hard, and he’s cheering for you. Obviously, guys go separate ways playing on different teams, but it’s super fun following people that mean something to you. We have that. There’s always guys checking in and seeing how it’s going. It’s easy to forget when it’s not going good to check in as well. Those are probably the more important times to do it.

“The one big message was more or less, ‘Hey, you’re going to play an important role on this team going pretty far. It might not feel like it, but if you can get going, you’re going to have your chances and they’re going to need you at some point.’ He’s had some big goals, well, right from that point.”