Vegas Golden Knights Faceoff Against Los Angeles Kings In Round One

Fans across the globe are in for a treat watching a first-round matchup between the Los Angeles Kings and the Vegas Golden Knights.

With the Vegas Golden Knights regular season finally in the rearview, it’s time to shift our focus to the playoffs. As soon as the Golden Knights clinched the Pacific division, fans started raising the question “who will they play?” After weeks of waiting, late last night we found out that answer.

Due to the Los Angeles Kings loss to the Dallas Stars last night, they stay in the first wild-card spot and play Vegas in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. This series looks to be one of the most intense and compelling battles of all the matchups in the first round. Isn’t this what we all wanted?

Think about it; the Golden Knights-Kings rivalry can take the next step. These two teams already don’t like each other and both scored two wins off one another in the regular season. However, as we all know, the Stanley Cup Playoffs is on a different level from regular season hockey.

Los Angeles has a boatload of Stanley Cup playoff experience. The Kings have proven winners such as Jonathan Quick, Dustin Brown, Anze Kopitar and many more. More often than not, teams with the most playoff experience will prevail over younger, inexperienced clubs.

Even though the Golden Knights don’t have a lot of playoff activity as a team, they have a ton of past playoff games under their belt. In fact, the Golden Knights have 480 playoff games individually spread out over the course of their careers. That ranks sixth under the Western Conference playoff field.

Obviously Marc-Andre Fleury brings three Stanley Cup championships to the table. James Neal is no slouch in the playoffs either. But let’s be real here, the expansion franchise needs to have a few players go above and beyond.

The seventh player award winner William Karlsson knows what it’s all about to go above and beyond in the regular season. However, will the Marsta, Sweden native have enough in the tank in the playoffs after playing all 82 games in the regular campaign?

Shea Theodore is taking his game to another level at the right time. His recent performances are encouraging and should only add more confidence to his game. Will the 22-year old take the next step and become the franchise’s number one defenseman that we all know he can be?

David Perron has proven to be a leader in the locker room and on the stat sheet as well in 2017-18. His health is a concern at times, but what worries me the most is his game disappears around this time every playoff run. The Sherbrooke, Quebec native has just 14 points in 42 career postseason games. Can he finally raise his game when it’s playoff time?

Jonathan Marchessault is another unproven player in the playoffs with just seven career playoff games. His size isn’t built for the playoffs but its also fair to say he can be a player like Danny Briere who always scored clutch goals during April, May, and June. Can he replicate his regular season success on the leagues biggest stage?

A reason why George McPhee traded for a power forward such as Ryan Reaves is for a series like this one. This series will provide a ton of physicality and hate, and that’s precisely what Reaves is all about. Don’t be surprised if he chips in with a few big hits to shift the momentum.

The Golden Knights have more questions than answers especially matching up against the Kings. Although, I see this series going the distance. Neither team will take the other lightly, which should provide for some great entertaining hockey.

Here’s the schedule for the Golden Knights-Kings series:

Game 1: 4/11 – 7:00 PM

Game 2: 4/13 – 7:00 or 7:30 PM

Game 3: 4/15 – 7:30 PM

Game 4: 4/17 – 7:00 or 7:30 PM

Game 5: 4/19 – 7:00 or 7:30 PM

Game 6: 4/21 – TBD

Game 7: 4/23 – TBD

If Tampa Bay wins the Atlantic division, Game 2 will be at 7:00 PM, Game 4 at 7:30 and Game 5 at 7:00. If Boston wins the Atlantic division, Game 2 will be at 7:30 PM, Game 4 at 7:00 and Game 5 at 7:30.

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All in all, the Vegas Golden Knights and Los Angeles Kings will bring physicality, great goaltending and strong defense every night. All games will probably be decided by one goal which should only raise blood pressures throughout the south-west. But if the Golden Knights stick to their game plan and their system like they have all year long, their firepower should be enough to extinguish the Kings.