For the third time in their three-year history, the Vegas Golden Knights are a playoff team. After finishing the abridged NHL season with a record of 39-24-8, they also secured their second division championship. Somewhat surprisingly, they achieved all of this while undergoing a midseason coaching switch. Peter DeBoer came in and took a team that appeared to have plateaued and led them on a 15-5-2 run before the shutdown.
Heading into the seeding round of the playoffs, the Golden Knights are looking at three very tough games against the Stars, Blues and Avalanche. While all these teams have potent offences, the Vegas blueline looked to be getting more and more solid every game, led by rising star, Shea Theodore. The young Canadian will benefit from the trade deadline acquisition of a proven winner in Alec Martinez who earned two rings as a member of the L.A. Kings.
Not to be outdone by their team’s defence, the Golden Knights offence looks lethal now that they have found some proven depth scoring. Nobody can argue the strength of their top six as it has been proven year in and year out, but the emergence Nicolas Roy and Chandler Stephenson, who has seen his offensive game come alive in Sin City, offers the team a reliable third line. Alex Tuch, who has spent much of the season sidelined due to injury, will be back to round out the third line and bring in his proven offensive talent.
There might also be a new face in the mix when the puck drops against Dallas as Vegas has included their 2019 first-round pick, Peyton Krebs, to their training camp roster. This will be DeBoer’s first chance to see the youngster. The 19-year-old spent the past season with the Winnipeg Ice of the WHL where he racked up 60 points in 38 games as the team’s captain. An Okotoks native, Krebs will be looking to make his NHL debut in his home province, something that looks like a relative possibility as he could slot into a fourth line centre role.
Game by Game Preview
Game 1: Dallas Stars
This first matchup is a battle of teams who have undergone a midseason coaching change, but handled it in very different ways. The Stars enter the playoff picture as the fourth ranked team in the West with 82 points. The team from Texas were sliding, however, right before the season was put on pause
with a record of 0-4-2 in their last six games.
The two squads were set to face off three times over the course of the 2019-2020 season, but only two of those games were played. Both were close games with each team taking a win. Though Vegas was outscored over the two contests, the effect of their injury troubles cannot be understated.
This game could quite possibly become a goaltending battle, pitting Bishop against Fleury. While Bishop’s overall playoff numbers are a thing of beauty (49 GP and a .929 save percentage), Fleury plays some of his best hockey against the Stars (16 GP, 2.12 GAA, and a .926 save percentage).
Overall, a fully healthy Vegas squad with newfound depth should prove to be just too much for a Dallas team who haven’t appeared to have found their stride under their new coach. When added to Fleury’s history against the Stars, all signs point to a Vegas victory.
Game 2: St. Louis Blues
The road doesn’t get easier for the Golden Knights as they have to face the reigning champion Blues in their second game. Going into the break, St. Louis did not look like a team anyone could want to face as they won 11 of their last 13 games. Anyone, that is, except Vegas who took the season series 2-1. If those three games tell us anything about what’s in store, get ready to see a lot of goals as the series scoring is tied at 13 goals apiece. The Blues’ lone win against the Knights this season was the lowest scoring affair, finishing 4-2, while the others finished 5-4 and 6-5 for Vegas respectively.
In such a tight contest, it could come down to something as silly as a lucky break, or it could be a matter of which team’s stars shine the brightest. If that is to be the case, St. Louis could be relying on the newly returned Vladimir Tarasenko. The Russian superstar appeared in a mere 10 games before being sidelined with a shoulder injury, meaning he could be too rusty to have the impact one would expect.
This matchup offers another really interesting battle between the pipes. Hockey fans would be hard pressed to forget the Cinderella-story season had by Jordan Binnington in the Blues’ net last year. Although he hasn’t quite lived up to that form this season, he is still a quality backstop, posting a .912 save percentage. It will be experience against youth as the second year starter will be opposed by the storied Marc-André Fleury and be asked to stop a team composed of proven playoff performers.
After getting in the Blues’ heads by taking the season series in a battle of close games, Vegas will pull off the upset and secure their second win of the round robin. The lack of consistent playoff experience for Binnington will be exposed by the potent top-six from Sin City in another high scoring contest.
Game 3: Colorado Avalanche
In stark contrast to the St. Louis season series, Vegas’ two games against Colorado weren’t even close. The Golden Knights were outscored 13-4 over the two outings, and while they weren’t a full lineup for the second game (7-3), they were at near full strength when they got thrashed 6-1.
For as hard as Vegas was bit hard by the injury bug, Colorado suffered even harder. The lengthy break gave the Avalanche a chance to get their whole squad healthy. MacKinnon, Rantanen, Kadri, Burakovsky, Calvert, Wilson and Grubauer were all on the shelf when the pause rolled around. The threat of them all being back and healthy cannot be understated, but Vegas may catch a break if those guys haven’t managed to shake off all of the injury rust.
The most interesting goalie battle in this game isn’t fought in opposing creases, but in the Colorado net for the starting job. Philipp Grubauer had a stellar start to the season before a lower-body injury put him on the sidelines. In stepped Pavel Francouz for the last 30 games before the hiatus. To say that he picked up where Grubauer left off would be an understatement as he backstopped the team to 21 wins with a 2.41 GAA and a .923 save percentage. The Avalanche have said they’ll name a starter prior to the start of play, and Vegas should hope they stick with Francouz, as Grubauer appears to have their number.
Much like how the Golden Knights found themselves in the Blues’ heads, the Avalanche have spent the season rent-free in the minds of their final opponents of the round robin. Being the last game, the key players coming off of IR will most likely be back in game shapes, and regardless of who they choose to put in the crease, Colorado has found the recipe to keep Vegas out of their net.
Final Seeding
The Golden Knights will finish the round robin as the second seed, losing the regular season points percentage tiebreaker to the Blues. This would pit them against the winner of the Vancouver-Minnesota play-in series.
Recipe for Success
There are so many reasons to like the Golden Knights chances to go all the way in this year’s playoffs. The first of which is the fact that they are finally 100% healthy. Yes, all the teams will also be back to full strength. The importance of the players who had been sidelined for the Knights is quite astounding. The biggest of those names was Max Pacioretty, the team’s leading point scorer with 66. Mark Stone, second in points with 63, was also sidelined and is expected to be back in full effect. As previously mentioned, the return of Alex Tuch solidifies their third line as one of the league’s best.
Another health benefit of the break was the time provided to Fleury to heal with his family following the loss of his father. While many had written Fleury off as finally having reached his age limit, the fact of the matter is this is a man who lost his biggest supporter, someone who called him after every game and only took 12 days off. Having had four months to be with his family and properly process the passing of his dad, nobody should be surprised if Fleury returns to form and potentially even better.
Not only is the team fully healthy, but they actually have the opportunity to go through a full training camp with a new bench boss. DeBoer will not only have the opportunity to fine tune the system his players clearly bought into, but he finally has the chance to implement the nuances that have made his past squads Stanley Cup contenders. After seeing how they adjusted to a new system on the fly, opponents should be weary of what kind of powerhouse will come out of having that much time to practice.
Finally, the Knights have the luxury of having one of the best goalie tandems in the league in Fleury and Lehner, meaning DeBoer can sleep easily if Fleury appears to not have returned to full form. If Lehner does get the call, he has the added motivation of playing for contract security. He was picked up as a rental at the deadline and would be looking for a long-term deal that has eluded him since his time in Buffalo.
When all of the elements going on in Sin City come together, the picture that appears looks a lot like a team that could make a serious challenge for their first championship in only their third year of existence. And in a season marked by unpredictability, it would certainly be a fitting end to crown the most unexpected franchise as champions.