Kings at Golden Knights
Leave it to a Vegas-based franchise to defy all the odds and beat the NHL's version of the "house" in its inaugural season. After shattering a slew of league records for a first-year team en route to winning the Pacific Division title, the Golden Knights prepare for their first foray into the postseason when they host the Los Angeles Kings on Wednesday night in Game 1 of the best-of-seven series.
“We’ve got a veteran group that has played in a lot of big games so I don’t think the moment will be too big for us," Vegas coach Gerard Gallant said. “We stopped looking at ourselves as an expansion team a long time ago. We think when we’re playing the game the right way that we’re a pretty good hockey team." The Golden Knights dominated Pacific foes, posting a 20-6-3 mark in division play (including two meaningless losses to close the season), and split the four-game series with the Kings, although they dropped both ends of a home-and-home on Feb. 26-27. Los Angeles finished fourth in the Pacific and has not won a postseason series in a while, but it is accustomed to the bright lights -- hoisting the Stanley Cup in 2012 and 2014 -- and plays a bruising style that translates well into the playoffs and contrasts dramatically to the speed of Vegas. "They’ve obviously earned the right to get in the playoffs as a No. 1 seed, and I don’t think it’s any different than playing Anaheim or San Jose," Kings coach John Stevens said. "I think we’re well-versed on what their team is and what they’re capable of, and we’ve got a lot of respect for the year they’ve had, and we need to be ready for them."
TV: 10 p.m. ET, NBC Sports Network, CBC, TVAS
ABOUT THE KINGS (45-29-8, 4th in Pacific): Captain Anze Kopitar is among the front-runners for the Hart Trophy, rebounding from a dismal 52-point campaign in 2016-17 to amass a career-best 92 points -- 31 more than second-leading scorer Dustin Brown. Jonathan Quick had a career-high 28 losses, but the former Conn Smythe Trophy winner posted a .921 save percentage and five shutouts in backboning a defense that surrendered the fewest goals (203) in the league. A difference-maker for the Kings could be veteran forward Jeff Carter, who missed more than four months with a lacerated tendon but scored 13 goals in the final 20 games, including in each of the last two matchups versus Vegas.
ABOUT THE GOLDEN KNIGHTS (51-24-7, 1st in Pacific): Goaltending is the name of the game in the playoffs and Vegas has an elite one in Marc-Andre Fleury, who won three Stanley Cups with the Pittsburgh Penguins and piled up 29 wins this season despite missing two months due to a concussion. Forward Reilly Smith was sidelined for 15 games before returning for the regular-season finale and joins 43-goal scorer William Karlsson and 27-goal scorer Jonathan Marchessault on a top line that combined for 13 points in the four matchups against Los Angeles. Center David Perron, who sat out the final six games, practiced both Monday and Tuesday but his status remains unclear for the series opener.
OVERTIME
1. The Golden Knights were 0-for-13 on the power play against Los Angeles.
2. Kings D Jake Muzzin missed the final five games of the regular season.
3. Although Vegas dropped four in a row at home starting with the Feb. 27 loss to the Kings, it had 29 wins at raucous T-Mobile Arena.