AP
Vegas Golden Knights celebrate a goal during the third period of an NHL hockey playoff game against the Dallas Stars Monday, Aug. 3, 2020 in Edmonton, Alberta. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP)
Tuesday, Aug. 11, 2020 | 2 a.m.
The Golden Knights open the first round of the playoffs at 7:30 p.m. tonight with a best-of-seven game series against the Chicago Blackhawks on AT&T SportsNet.
The Golden Knights are 8-1 all-time against Chicago, which reached the postseason as a No. 12 seed in the NHL’s qualifying series in the reboot after the COVID-19 pandemic ended the regular season.
Here are three keys to a Golden Knights victory, sponsored by Credit One Bank.
Play like a favorite
The Golden Knights at minus-340 are the heaviest betting favorite in all of the first-round series. They’ll need to play like it by scoring early and often to prevent Chicago’s players from gaining momentum and confidence that they can pull off an upset. There’s plenty of offensive firepower on the opposing bench, and trading high-danger chances is how Chicago in November picked up its only win against the Golden Knights. Vegas needs to play well defensively and not get into a track meet with a run-and-gun team.
Stay out of the box
Limiting penalties — OK, an old hockey cliche — is especially important against the Blackhawks because it might be the only way for them to win. Chicago’s power play was good against Edmonton in the qualifying series, scoring at a 22% clip. And although the Vegas penalty kill surrendered just two goals on 10 penalty kills in three round-robin games, giving the Blackhawks short-handed chances is a formula for an upset. That’s especially true considering Vegas had the league’s fifth-worst penalty kill during the regular season. If Vegas has a parade to the box in the series, it will open up chances for the Blackhawks that they probably won’t have at 5-on-5.
Limit the MVP
The last time Vegas took on an offensive superstar in the playoffs, it struggled to contain Alex Ovechkin in the 2018 Stanley Cup Final. Ovechkin had three goals and two assists in the series, which Washington won in five games. The Capitals in 2018 were better than this year’s Blackhawks, but Patrick Kane can be a game-breaker. He has won a Hart Trophy as the regular-season MVP, a Conn Smythe Trophy as a playoff MVP, and continues to be one of the best scoring talents in the sport. Vegas will counter with the defensive pair of Nate Schmidt and Brayden McNabb, and if those two can stymie Kane and Chicago’s top line, it could be a short series.
Justin Emerson can be reached at 702-259-8814 or [email protected]. Follow Justin on Twitter at twitter.com/@j15emerson.
