Golden Knights open postseason with round-robin game against Stars

By Justin Emerson

Monday, Aug. 3, 2020 | 12:30 p.m.

The exhibition is out of the way and the Golden Knights are ready to play a hockey game that matters for the first time in almost five months. Sort of.

As 16 teams across the league battle in do-or-die, five-game elimination series, the Golden Knights get a soft open to their playoff run, competing in the Western Conference round-robin for seeding at Rogers Place in Edmonton. Regardless, there are actual stakes to this afternoon's game against the Dallas Stars, which is scheduled to begin at 3:30 p.m. on AT&T SportsNet, and the Golden Knights are ready to get going.

"You fight during the regular season for the top seed so you can play the bottom seeds and hope that it's a little bit easier series on you," Vegas forward Ryan Reaves said. "I know a lot of people have been talking about how, you know, it's going to be like a feeling-out, just kind of tune-up games. I don't think we're treating it like that at all. I think we want to win all three of these games so we can get the top seed."

It's far from a bad thing Vegas is playing in a round-robin. It earned the right to avoid the play-in series by virtue of its Pacific Division title in the regular season. When the NHL expanded its postseason format to 24 teams this year, it rewarded the top four seeds in each conference with a bye into the Round of 16. To keep things competitive, the round-robin put seeding on the line.

This is the Golden Knights first of three round-robin games, which function like pool play in an international tournament. The Golden Knights, Stars, Colorado Avalanche and St. Louis Blues will play each other once, and the team with the most points at the end earns the top seed.

All round-robin games are played under regular season rules, with overtime consisting of five minutes of 3-on-3 and a shootout. Regular season points will also be used for standings, with two points for a win and one point for an overtime or shootout loss.

That the top seed is up for grabs is good for the Golden Knights. While they won the Pacific Division, they were eight points behind the Blues for the Western Conference's top seed when the season paused, and with just 11 games left, it would have been tough to make up that ground. Now they have a chance to do so with three games before their first elimination series begins next week.

In the Stars this afternoon, the Golden Knights face a team it has fared well against historically, with a 6-2 mark all-time, including a split in two games this year. For more on what Vegas needs to do for a win, check out our keys to victory.

While "stay out of the box" is a solid strategy for any game, if we learned anything through the first two days of postseason action, it's that doing so may be difficult. Coach Peter DeBoer said last week he was going to be watching the referees and linesmen closely at the start of the tournament to see how quick they are to call penalties. Typically in the playoffs, officials are more hesitant to call penalties, but that's not the case this year.

Through two days of action and 10 games, there were 90 minor penalties called, or nine per game. During the regular season, games averaged just over three. DeBoer said he anticipates a game with plenty of penalties this afternoon, and the Golden Knights have emphasized special teams in preparation, especially after a postseason game where they had six power plays and four penalty kills.

"I'm not surprised. There was always a feeling-out period where the players are getting used to the standard that's going to be called again," DeBoer said. "I'm sure there's going to be an adjustment as we go through here but, in the meantime, you have to be prepared for it and be prepared to win those special-teams battles every night."

The game will feature the postseason debut of Robin Lehner in a Golden Knights uniform. He was acquired at the trade deadline and did not appear in the exhibition game on Thursday. It sounds like Lehner and Marc-Andre Fleury will alternate starts in goal for the remaining three games before a decision on a starter is made. Lehner started eight playoff games last season with the Islanders and had a .936 save percentage and 2.00 goals-against average.

Other than Lehner, Vegas is expected to run out the same lineup from the exhibition. Star winger Max Pacioretty is still not with the team and is nursing an injury. But his arrival is "on the horizon," DeBoer said. Pacioretty was second on the team with 11 points in seven playoff games last year, behind only Mark Stone's 12.

TV: AT&T SportsNet (DirecTV 684, Cox 1313, CenturyLink 1760)

Radio: Fox Sports 1340 AM and 98.9 FM

Betting line: Golden Knights minus-140, Stars plus-120; over/under: 5.5 (plus-120, minus-140)

Western Conference Round-Robin standings:

Colorado Avalanche: 2 points, 1 game played

Vegas Golden Knights: 0 points, 0 games played

Dallas Stars: 0 points, 0 games played

St. Louis Blues: 0 points, 1 game played

Golden Knights (0-0-0, 0 points), t-second place, Western Conference Round-Robin

Coach: Peter DeBoer (first season)

Points leader (regular season): Max Pacioretty (66)

Goals leader (regular season): Max Pacioretty (32)

Assists leader (regular season): Mark Stone (42)

Expected goalie (regular season stats): Robin Lehner (2.89 GAA, .920 save percentage)

Stars (0-0-0, 0 points), t-second place, Western Conference Round Robin

Coach: Rick Bowness (first season)

Points leader (regular season): Tyler Seguin (50)

Goals leader (regular season): Denis Gurianov (20)

Assists leader (regular season): Tyler Seguin (33)

Expected goalie (regular season stats): Ben Bishop (2.50 GAA, .920 save percentage)

Golden Knights projected lineup

Forwards

Chandler Stephenson—William Karlsson—Mark Stone

Jonathan Marchessault—Paul Stastny—Reilly Smith

Nick Cousins—Nicolas Roy—Alex Tuch

William Carrier—Tomas Nosek—Ryan Reaves

Defensemen

Brayden McNabb—Nate Schmidt

Alec Martinez—Shea Theodore

Nick Holden—Zach Whitecloud

Goalies

Robin Lehner, Marc-Andre Fleury