Last season, the Vegas Golden Knights entered the playoffs as the top seed in the Western Conference and, with a talented lineup bolstered by the postseason return of Mark Stone, went the distance to take home the franchise’s first Stanley Cup. Now, with the club set to hit the road and face the West-leading Dallas Stars in a Western Conference Final rematch in Round 1, it seems fair to say that things have changed.
The Golden Knights dropped a regular season-closing 4-1 decision to the lowly Anaheim Ducks, failing to take advantage of an opportunity to finish third in the Pacific Division and set up a first round encounter with the Edmonton Oilers. The loss brought a disappointing end to an unsatisfying 2023-24 season featuring the usual spate of injuries and lots of hot-and-cold play. Now, Vegas faces a daunting challenge in a 113-point Stars team without many evident weaknesses.
While the 15 points that separated the two teams in the standings is significant, the Golden Knights will hope that their veteran-laden, playoff-tested roster, strengthened by the likes of trade deadline pickups Tomas Hertl and Noah Hanifin, will elevate them back to Cup contender status.
Ahead of Game 1 on Monday, let’s take a look at some key storylines heading into what should be a marquee series.
Who Are the Golden Knights?
Vegas knows what they are up against when it comes to the Stars. Dallas earned the league’s second-highest point total by virtue of doing everything pretty well. They finished third league-wide in goals scored and eighth in fewest goals allowed while standing as one of the top puck-possession clubs. They didn’t boast any of the NHL’s top 25 scorers, but had six players pot at least 25 goals and another six that recorded 60 or more points.
Less known, however, is what the Golden Knights are at this point. Their bumpy title defense opened with a 12-game points streak and included five additional win streaks of three games or more, but also included five losing skids of three or more. Furthermore, second-line center Hertl has seen just six games of action with his new teammates and the health of Hanifin, Alex Pietrangelo, Chandler Stephenson and Anthony Mantha remains up in the air. Stone, meanwhile, has been practicing with the team in a non-contact capacity, but is still a ways off from contributing on the ice.
As defending champions, Vegas has earned the right to believe they can beat anyone. However, their 98 points this season represent a 13-point regression from a year ago. More significantly, it also forces them to kickstart their defense on the road against a very formidable opponent in Dallas (not to mention former head coach Pete DeBoer).
The Battle in Net
Goaltending is and always will be a major factor in any playoff series. When it comes to the battle between Vegas’ Adin Hill and Dallas’ Jake Oettinger, this rings particularly true. Despite enjoying some early success in their young careers, both men enter this series with questions to answer.
Hill stepped in for an injured Laurent Brossoit in the second round of last year’s postseason and never looked back, backstopping the Golden Knights to a Cup victory that also resulted in a new contract and control of the No. 1 job. This season brought the pressure of backstopping the Cup favorites and proving that last spring wasn’t simply a matter of catching lightning in a bottle. The 27-year-old went 19-12-2 this season with a 2.70 goals-against average and .909 save percentage, perfectly decent numbers but not ones that put to rest questions of whether he can step up again.
Oettinger, meanwhile, suffered the opposite fate of Hill last year. Following a sparkling regular season (37-11-11, 2.37 GAA, .919 SV%), the 25-year-old stumbled in the playoffs, sporting a 3.06 GAA and .895 SV% over 19 games. This was shocking to anyone who had watched him nearly steal a seven-game first round series against the Calgary Flames from the previous spring. After an equally middling regular season (2.72 GAA, .905 SV%), Oettinger faces the pressure of being the backbone of the No. 1 seed and putting his 2023 playoff performance in the rearview mirror.
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What Can Be Learned From Last May?
In between their tough, physical second round series with the Oilers and their Cup-clinching five-game Final against the Florida Panthers, Vegas ousted Dallas in six games in last year’s Western Conference Final. The series featured three overtime games (Brett Howden and Chandler Stephenson provided Games 1 and 2 heroics for the Golden Knights, while Joe Pavelski potted a series-saving OT winner in Game 4 for the Stars) and Hill recorded a pair of shutouts.
While the two series are almost a full year apart and involve a slightly different group of personnel, there remain takeaways to carry over from last year to this year for Vegas. It should be encouraging that both of Hill’s shutouts – emphatic 4-0 and 6-0 victories in Game 3 and Game 6, respectively – occurred at American Airlines Center. Without the luxury of home ice advantage this time around, being able to look back on taking two out of three games in Dallas last time around should provide some confidence.
Of course, there are less encouraging takeaways, too. The Golden Knights struggled to contain Jason Robertson, who recorded five goals and an assist in the series. They will also likely have to contend with a full series against Jamie Benn after catching a break last year when a Game 3 cross-check to the jaw of Stone as he lay on the ice earned the Stars captain a two-game suspension. Similarly, the club can’t allow themselves to get bogged down into a personal feud with Benn on the ice.
With a bit of a slip-up at the end of the season and a costly loss to Anaheim, the Golden Knights didn’t make things easy on themselves in setting up a series with Dallas – not that the Stars are probably thrilled, either. The start of the postseason brings an opportunity to see who this Vegas team is. Will we see their star-studded roster come together and once again realize last year’s dominant playoff form? Or will we see this year’s inconsistent group get exposed by the best of the West?
