Vegas has not played its best game yet. Depending on where one stands, this is both an area of apprehension and worry. Apprehension for the Golden Knights themselves and worry for the rest of the field in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.
Said apprehension isn’t a negative for the Golden Knights. In fact, it’s a motivator. Getting to that next level is the carrot the Golden Knights are chasing right now.
Bruce Springsteen’s "One Step Up and Two Steps Back" could have been the regular season theme song for this group.
After a season of fits and starts, the Golden Knights are beginning to take steps forward and not following them up with steps in reverse.
The Utah Mammoth gave the Golden Knights a punch in the lips with two straight wins in Games 2 and 3 in the opening round before Vegas pushed back and pushed back hard with three straight wins including a 5-1 cruise in a close-out Game 6.
The playoffs anthem, though still coming from Springsteen’s song book, more fittingly is the defiant "No Surrender". A lot remains to be accomplished and the work has just begun, but since the midpoint of Round 1, with every passing game, the Golden Knights have looked a fraction better than the last.
Chasing that elusive game in which they execute at the highest level on both sides of the puck and in the crease is the current challenge for this veteran group.
Jack Eichel leads the Golden Knights in scoring with one goal and nine points after the First Round and is just one point off the league lead. Eichel consistently finds a way to impact his team’s chances at winning a game. It’s like he surveys the situation and decides as to what his team needs most from him for that shift, period, or game and then goes and out and does it. Need a shutdown shift? Jack will provide. Need a goal from the power play which runs through him? Jack will provide. Need a penalty kill? Jack will provide. The 29-year-old has already won an Olympic gold medal and a Stanley Cup and is now one of the most complete players in the world.
Mitch Marner’s first playoff series in Vegas was a resounding success as he finished with two goals and five assists. Marner had his fingerprints all over the final three games of the series. He set up Brett Howden twice for shorthanded goals in Games 4 and 5, including Howden’s Game 5 double OT dagger. Then Marner went out and scored two goals for a three-point night, including the game and series clincher in Game 6.
Speaking of Howden, his four goals in Round 1 were critical and he continues to prove his versatility and value to the Golden Knights.
Sometime on Sunday, NHL fans will be able to utter, “And then there were eight.”
The Golden Knights, for the sixth time in the franchise’s nine-year existence will once again be among this season’s elite company.
The Golden Knights 4-2 series victory over Utah propelled Vegas into the second round where they will face the Anaheim Ducks.
Vegas has now won 66 playoff games and 13 playoff series since they joined the NHL in 2017-18 which ties them with the Tampa Bay Lightning for the most in both of those categories.
This doesn’t happen by accident. The Golden Knights, led by George McPhee and Kelly McCrimmon, have consistently made personnel moves on the ice and behind the bench which pushes the team forward.
“The thing I love about it is just the desire to win. It’s very well pronounced around the league how Vegas goes about it. They want to win. It’s fun to be around,” said head coach John Tortorella, who was brought in to coach the team with just eight regular season games left. “I’ve known George (McPhee) for a long time and have so much respect for him. I didn’t know Kelly (McCrimmon) until I got here. But from Bill Foley on down, I have seen how first class the organization is. It’s just straight ahead, ‘We’re here to win.’ I’m very fortunate to be a part of it.”
