Vegas Golden Knights: Blues or Canucks in Round 2
The Vegas Golden Knights can now start doing their homework ahead of Round 2.
After the Calgary Flames were eliminated by the Dallas Stars on Thursday, the Vegas Golden Knights will face either the St. Louis Blues or the Vancouver Canucks in the Second Round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
The Canucks currently lead their series against the reigning Stanley Cup Champions 3-2, with Game 6 scheduled for tonight.
If the Blues force a Game 7 then it will be a slightly longer wait for the Golden Knights, who became the first team to advance in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
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Vegas fans will no doubt be keeping an eye on tonight’s Game 6 and the vast majority, if not all, will be hoping that the Canucks wrap this series up.
The Golden Knights front office and coaching staff probably feel the same way given their battles against the St. Louis Blues this year.
While the Knights went 2-1-0 against the Blues in the regular season, averaging 4.33 Goals For Per Game, they also averaged 4.33 Goals Against and those games were real battles.
The Blues and the Colorado Avalanche are the real threats to the Golden Knights when it comes to getting out of the West, with St. Louis the reigning Stanley Cup Champions.
They also matchup extremely well against the Golden Knights and they are loaded up and down the lineup.
Granted, Jordan Binnington has struggled inside The Bubble with a 4.27 Goals Against Average and a .862 Save Percentage.
Alex Pietrangelo has also struggled but it takes just one game for players to get hot, as we’ve seen with Ryan O’Reilly who leads the Blues in points in the Playoffs with 10 (4 G, 6 A).
They’ve also got players up and down the lineup who can make a sizeable impact on any given night, while they can grind down any team with their bruising and hard-nosed style of hockey.
On the flip side of this, however, the Vancouver Canucks are a team on the up with a plethora of explosive young talent.
They will be brimming with confidence if they knock off the reigning Champions, and their speed and skill will cause the Golden Knights problems.
Phenom forward Elias Pettersson has been lights out for the Canucks so far, recording four goals and seven assists for 11 points, while J.T. Miller has continued his career year with 10 points (five goals, five assists) in the postseason so far.
It is true that the Golden Knights have dominated Vancouver in the regular season since their inaugural year in 2017-18, but these aren’t your fathers’ Canucks.
They have taken a major leap forward this year and with stud rookie Quinn Hughes on the backend, Jakob Markstrom in goal and the likes of Bo Horvat, Miller, Brock Boeser and Pettersson leading the offense, then this is a team to be feared.
The Vegas Golden Knights should be confident whoever they face given that they are 7-1-0 in the Stanley Cup Playoffs so far, coupled with the fact that they look almost unstoppable right now.
Golden Knights show their class to advance. dark. Next
But there is no doubt that the Second Round has just got that little bit tougher and a more gruelling test now awaits the Vegas Golden Knights.
The Golden Knights have never played the St. Louis Blues or the Vancouver Canucks in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.