Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Wild to challenge Golden Knights out of the gate, but Vegas will enjoy home-ice advantage

0303_sun_VGKWild2

Steve Marcus

Vegas Golden Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury (29) defends against Minnesota Wild defenseman Jared Spurgeon (46) in the first period of a game at T-Mobile Arena Wednesday, March 3, 2021.

Golden Knights Beat Wild, 3-2, in OT

Vegas Golden Knights right wing Reilly Smith (19) is congratulated by defenseman Alex Pietrangelo (7) and center William Karlsson (71) after scoring a goal against the Minnesota Wild during the third period of an NHL hockey game Wednesday, May 5, 2021, in St. Paul, Minn. The Golden Knights won 3-2 in overtime. Launch slideshow »

Golden Knights Beat Wild, 5-1

Vegas Golden Knights defenseman Alex Pietrangelo (7) punches Minnesota Wild left wing Kevin Fiala (22) duding a fight in the third period of a game at T-Mobile Arena Wednesday, March 3, 2021. Launch slideshow »

The Golden Knights are 16 wins away from winning the Stanley Cup. Same for the NHL’s other 16 playoff teams.

The Golden Knights’ journey to claim the most famous trophy in sports begins Sunday against the visiting Minnesota Wild at T-Mobile Arena in the initial game of a best-of-seven-game series. Puck drop is at noon.

Vegas has been a playoff qualifier in each of its four seasons of existence, reaching the Stanley Cup Final in its maiden season and last season falling short in the Western Conference Finals.

Here are five things to know about the first-round series with Minnesota.

Wild are a tough match

The Golden Knights have struggled more against the Wild than any other team in the league. Minnesota won the season series against Vegas with a 5-1-2 record. All-time, the Wild is 11-2-3 against the Golden Knights.

Entering the season, Vegas managed just eight goals in 15 games against the Wild. The Golden Knights scored 24 in eight games this year, but even a five-goal output wasn’t enough in a 6-5 defeat May 3. It was arguably the worst loss of the season for the Golden Knights, who led by two goals with less than 10 minutes remaining.

“The rosters or the way they play isn’t a mismatch, it’s just that a team is in another team’s head mentally — and for us you’ve got to fight through that,” Vegas coach Pete DeBoer said after the May 3 loss. “These games, the toughest part isn’t physically recovering, it’s mentally recovering when you lose that way.”

Vegas also will have to deal with Wild rookie forward sensation Kirill Kaprizov, who is the favorite to win this year’s Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year and had six goals and eight points in eight games against Vegas. In 55 games this year, he had 51 points on 27 goals and 24 assists.

Home ice will be key

The Golden Knights went 21-5-2 at home this season, tied for the fifth-best best mark in the NHL. The team they tied for fifth? The Wild, of course.

Vegas enjoys one of the best home-ice advantages in the league, and by virtue of the second-best record in the NHL, four of the seven games in this series are scheduled at T-Mobile Arena. As of Friday, capacity is expected near 50% because of pandemic restrictions, but it could be loosened for future games and playoff rounds.

A 4-3 Golden Knights victory May 7 against the Blues was the first game this season in which T-Mobile’s capacity was allowed to approach 40% of its seats, and the noise made a significant impact, players said. They joined together on the ice after the game to give fans a stick-salute.

“Obviously it’s awesome,” defender Alec Martinez said after the game. “That’s a big thing that we miss and I think especially at home, these fans, our fans, are the best in the league. They give us an advantage and we feed off their enthusiasm and their energy, and that was a big part of it tonight.”

If Vegas doesn’t handle its business at home, the Wild could be at an edge considering they hold a 6-2 all-time home record against the Golden Knights.

Who will start in net?

Officially, the decision of which netminder, Marc-André Fleury or Robin Lehner, will start Game 1 for the Golden Knights has not been made, team officials said. But it appears to be trending toward Fleury, the veteran and face of the franchise.

Fleury has been the Golden Knights’ rock this season, starting 36 of 56 games and turning in performances worthy of the Vezina Trophy as the league’s top goalie. He posted career bests in save percentage (.928) and goals-against average (1.98), surpassing those of Lehner (.913 and 2.29).

Fleury and Lehner combined to win the Jennings Trophy as the goalies for the team that allowed the fewest goals in the league. They’ve alternated games for the last month, and perhaps that rotation continues into the postseason. Such rotations are rare in playoff hockey, though.

Vegas brass is always tight-lipped on who starts in goal, meaning the official decision won’t be known until warmups Sunday. Yet, all signs point to Fleury.

Vegas’ best players are riding high

Fleury finished the season on a personal nine-game winning streak, and he isn’t the only big name for the Golden Knights entering the playoffs on a heater.

Defenseman Alex Pietrangelo is playing his best offensive hockey of the season with nine points in his last 10 games and goals in three of his last five. Forward Mark Stone, the team captain, polished off a career-best season with 61 points in 55 games. Forward Jonathan Marchessault never went more than two consecutive games without a point and Shea Theodore finished sixth in the NHL among defensemen with 34 assists.

Depth is important, but more important is, as DeBoer likes to say, the team’s best players being its best players.

The Conn Smythe Trophy as playoff MVP rarely goes to a role player, and the Golden Knights will need its stars to shine brightest in what is shaping up to be the team’s most difficult path it’s ever had to the Stanley Cup. A victory against Minnesota would likely bring a series with the Colorado Avalanche, who many feel is the league’s best team. Vegas split its regular season series against Colorado.

And considering last season’s struggles to score in the playoffs, when Vegas had five goals in the four games it lost during the Western Conference Finals against Dallas, finding someone to carry the offense is paramount.

Special teams likely to play a major role

No team in the NHL was better short-handed than the Golden Knights, whose 86.8% penalty-kill rate led the league. Unfortunately, pucks went in the net at a similar rate when the team was on the power play, with a 17.8% success rate that was 10th worst in the league.

Playoff games, particularly between teams with strong defenders like the Golden Knights and Wild, tend to be low-scoring affairs that come down to special teams. The eight regular season games between the two were that way as well, with a combined total of nine power-play goals.

The Wild’s power play had a dismal start to the year but finished just a few clicks behind Vegas’ mark. So while the numbers suggest the Wild won’t feast on the power play, it will be crucial for the Golden Knights to net a few at key times, like they did in the final minutes of an eventual win in the season finale between the two.