Lawless: The Mission

The mission is set. Twelve games in 24 days with the division and conference titles on the line. The Vegas Golden Knights have plenty to play for down the stretch of their regular season.

The Golden Knights, by virtue of a 14-3-2 record since the All-Star Break, will wake up in Vancouver on Tuesday sitting in first spot in both the Pacific Division and Western conference with a two-point edge over the LA Kings.

The Kings have been just as hot of late with a 12-2-3 mark since Feb. 11 and the Edmonton Oilers are surging. Over in the Central Division the Dallas Stars, Minnesota Wild and Colorado Avalanche are waging standings war.

Sewing up the division and or the conference will be no easy feat for any of the six teams involved right now. And the Seattle Kraken could squeeze into the picture with a hot streak of their own.

The next three weeks have playoff implications for all the above teams. The Winnipeg Jets, Calgary Flames and Nashville Predators are fussing over the final wild card spot as well. The West is wild right now and every game has significance.

Crazy Canucks: Head coach Rick Tocchet has now been behind the Vancouver Canucks bench for 23 games establishing a 13-8-2 mark so far. The Canucks are 8-2 in their last 10 and buying into the system Tocchet is attempting to install.

There's no question there is talent in Vancouver, but the big-league roster still lacks depth.

Pipeline: Opinions have a way of becoming narratives accepted as fact. Both the informed and misinformed. One consistent narrative surrounding the Golden Knights is they have no young talent and the prospect pipeline is barren.

In Sunday's 7-2 win over the Columbus Blue Jackets, Vegas was led by a pair of rookies only recently recalled from the AHL's Henderson Silver Knights. Goalie Jiri Patera (24) picked up his second win in his second NHL start while winger Pavel Dorofeyev (21) had a goal and an assist. Jack Eichel (26) had a hat trick, Zach Whitecloud (26) scored a goal, Paul Cotter (23) scored a goal and Brett Howden (24) had an assist. Vegas has also used three young defensemen - Daniil Miromanov (25), Brayden Pachal (23) and Kaedan Korczak (22) - this season. Not to mention 26-year-old Logan Thompson who has already made an NHL All-Star appearance in net.

Vegas is a first-place team and depending on the day has also poked its head into the league's top four standings leaders. Most elite teams have dominant players in their 30s. But Vegas has lots of young players not yet in their prime making significant contributions. Any suggestion otherwise is false. Facts are stubborn things.

Patera's points: Patera popped in at an important time for the Golden Knights and despite being the fifth goalie the team has used this season he was able to win two games and provide four standings points to the club. If Vegas wins the division and/or conference by a close shave, Patera's points will be viewed as critical.

Back in 17-18, when Vegas won the Pacific and eventually reached the Stanley Cup, Max Lagace went 6-7-1 and as the fourth goalie the Golden Knights used in the regular season. Eventually the team also used Dylan Ferguson for nine minutes of relief in a loss to the Edmonton Oilers, but it was five goalies mostly in name that season. Lagace was really the last line of defense and the points the team collected with him in net were large in the final standings.

Patera's two wins came in a push for the playoffs and beyond.

Schedule: All 12 of the Golden Knights remaining games are against Western Conference opponents.

Pacific: 3/21 @ VAN; 3/23 @ CGY; 3/25 @ EDM; 3/28 vs. EDM; 3/30 @ SJS; 4/6 vs. LA; 4/11 vs. SEA; 4/13 @ SEA

Central: 4/1 vs. MIN; 4/3 @ MIN; 4/4 @ NSH; 4/8 @ DAL