Vegas Golden Knights: Dreaming About What If

We should be feasting on a mouthwatering buffet of Vegas Golden Knights Playoff Hockey right now.

However, due to the ongoing threat of COVID-19, the reality of seeing the Vegas Golden Knights entrenched deep in postseason battle seems remote to say the very least.

While of course the health of everyone coupled with the efforts to defeat this virus is first priority, the sports fans among us will feel pretty down right now.

Without COVID-19, we would have been tucking into a tantalizing menu of not just the NHL playoffs but also the NBA postseason, not to mention the start of the Major League Baseball season.

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Instead, we are all having to make do with re-watching classic games or playing out seasons on NHL 20.

So, as an Easter treat, we decided to delve into fantasy land by mapping out what we at Vegas Hockey Knight would have loved to have seen unfold if the NHL 2019-20 season was never paused…

Down The Stretch

On the day the NHL hit the pause button on the regular season, the Golden Knights were due to take on the Wild in Minnesota.

Starting to really hit their stride under Head Coach Peter DeBoer, the Knights would have taken care of business by beating the Wild before rounding off a long road trip with a narrow but tough loss to the Colorado Avalanche.

However, the Golden Knights would rebound perfectly by ripping off five straight wins, including successes against the Vancouver Canucks and the Arizona Coyotes to wrap up the regular season at T-Mobile Arena.

Then, with four remaining regular season games remaining on the road and with the Pacific Division already wrapped up, Vegas opted to rest certain players and ride Robin Lehner against the Winnipeg Jets, the Edmonton Oilers, Calgary Flames and the Vancouver Canucks.

The Golden Knights lost to the Jets, beat the Oilers and the Flames before losing to the Canucks in overtime with the Nashville Predators awaiting them in the First Round of the Playoffs.

The Playoffs

Having rested Marc-Andre Fleury down the stretch, the future Hall of Famer was fully recharged and ready to go against the Nashville Predators in the First Round of the Western Conference.

And it paid off as Fleury was sensational with the Golden Knights making light work of the Predators in five games.

Next up was the Edmonton Oilers and this was an absolutely doozy of a series, with the Knights having to go the distance.

Spearheaded by the dynamic duo of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl, the Oilers proved to be tricky customers and those two alone threatened to take the series away from Vegas at times.

However, the Golden Knights have stars of their own and it was Mark Stone who emerged as the hero after potting the Game 7 winner in overtime to cap off a thrilling series.

There were tougher tests ahead, though.

Because, waiting for them in the Western Conference Finals was the surging Colorado Avalanche who had all their main weapons back healthy.

Led by Nathan MacKinnon, who was on pace to enter the Conn Smythe Trophy race, the Avalanche were rolling and they also got huge contributions from 2019-20 Calder Trophy winner Cale Makar.

And it was Makar who fired the game-winner past Marc-Andre Fleury in overtime of Game 2 to give the Avalanche control of the series.

But, inspired by some William Karlsson magic in Game 3, the Golden Knights ripped off three straight wins to stun Colorado and stand on the precipice of making the Stanley Cup Final for the second time in three years.

However, their work wasn’t quite done as Nathan MacKinnon recorded a five point night, including a hat trick, in Game 6 to force a Game 7.

That set up a thrilling finale as both MacKinnon and Stone registered a hat trick in what was rapidly developing into a track meet, before Jonathan Marchessault made it a tied game after Makar had beaten Fleury on the power play.

Then, given a power play of their own, the Golden Knights delivered when it really mattered most as Max Pacioretty tipped in a Shea Theodore shot from the point with mere minutes of an exhilarating contest remaining.

The scenes as the Golden Knights bench poured onto the ice to celebrate making the Stanley Cup Final was a joy to behold, and they moved a step closer to winning the first championship in franchise history.

Now, it would be easy to just say that, given this is make-believe-land, the Golden Knights would go on to lift Lord Stanley.

However, in this scenario, Vegas came up against a loaded Tampa Bay Lightning team who finally vanquished their demons from the year before.

Riding a red hot goalie in Andrei Vasilevski, who would go on to win the Conn Smythe Trophy, the Lightning got contributions from up and down the lineup to win the Stanley Cup after beating the Golden Knights in six games.

It was another heartbreaker for Vegas but they proved that they had all the pieces needed to make another run at the Stanley Cup in 2020-21.

Shea Theodore had a postseason to remember after recording 16 points, although Mark Stone led the team in points and game-winners, underlining his importance to the franchise.