Vegas Golden Knights: Three key ingredients for postseason success

1. Luck

You need a lucky bounce every now and again in every walk of life, but especially in the sporting world.

That was never more apparent than in the Western Conference First Round matchup between the Vegas Golden Knights and the San Jose Sharks in 2018-19.

You know the story so we don’t need to delve into great detail but, holding a three-goal lead heading into the third-period of Game 7, the Golden Knights collapsed after Cody Eakin was given a five-minute major and a Game Misconduct for cross-checking Joe Pavelski.

It was a punishment that didn’t fit the crime and it swung the momentum firmly in the favor of the Sharks, who scored four straight power play goals to absolutely stun Vegas.

Now, granted, there was no excuse for the Golden Knights to give up four straight goals and then allow the Sharks to deliver the final knockout blow in overtime after Jonathan Marchessault had made it a tied game late in the third.

That was firmly on them.

However, it was a shocking call and one that absolutely had a huge image on the tide of the game and its eventual outcome.

It should have been a minor penalty at most but instead the Golden Knights lost a skater and they could never quite recover.

So, the Golden Knights will need to avoid another bad bounce of the puck if they want to embark on a deep postseason run in 2019-20.

Luck can play a key role and the Vegas Golden Knights will need it on their side in their quest to lift the greatest prize in all of sports this year.