Stars ready for tough test in Western Final against Golden Knights

DALLAS --When it comes to their Western Conference Final opponent, there's some familiarity there for the Dallas Stars.

"They're a good team, top to bottom," Dallas captain Jamie Benn said Wednesday of the Vegas Golden Knights, who the Stars played in the Stanley Cup Semifinals in the Edmonton bubble during the COVID-19 pandemic in September 2020.

Twenty-one players and five coaches who participated in that series will be in this one.

"They come at you and play a hard game, they've got great forwards, good (defense), a lot of experience over there and it's going to be a hard-fought series and starting in their building, a noisy place to play."

After having home-ice advantage through the first two rounds against the Minnesota Wild and Seattle Kraken, the Stars will start on the road against the Golden Knights, beginning with Game 1 at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas on Friday (8:30 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, CBC, TVAS, SN).

RELATED: [Complete Golden Knights vs. Stars series coverage]

The Golden Knights will bring a fairly balanced attack, with 13 players scoring at least one goal this postseason. The Stars have 15 different scorers.

Four Vegas players have at least 10 points in the Stanley Cup Playoffs: forwards Jack Eichel (14 points; six goals, eight assists), Mark Stone (12 points; five goals, seven assists), Chandler Stephenson (10 points; six goals, four assists) and Jonathan Marchessault (10 points; five goals, five assists).

"Every team's different, every team's a new, a bigger challenge but at the same time, I think there are a lot of similarities between the teams," Stars forward Wyatt Johnston said.

"Vegas has a lot of speed, a lot of great players who make plays with the puck. I think we've said it from the start, at the end of the day, the most important thing is to play our game and do the things that make us successful, and I think if we do that, we can beat anyone."

One similarity between the Golden Knights and Kraken, who the Stars defeated in seven games in the second round, is blocked shots. The Kraken lead all playoff teams with 261 and the Golden Knights are third with 215.

"I think there are always things you can learn and we're well aware of that," Dallas coach Peter DeBoer said Wednesday. "Every team you come across has different strengths and weaknesses and things you have to deal with. That's something definitely on their identity list that we'll have to deal with."

Of course, there's also the DeBoer angle. The Golden Knights fired DeBoer on May 16, 2022, after he led them to the third round of the playoffs in two of his three seasons there.

"It's a great story for you guys. Obviously, it's the playoffs, we all want to win, we all want to win for each other, and the coaching staff is included in that," Benn said.

"Probably without all the injuries [Vegas] had (last season), he could still be there. Fortunately for us, he's here now but Pete and his coaching staff, they did a great job with that team, won a lot of hockey games. Pretty cool, I guess, to go back there and now face them."

The Stars know what they'll be dealing with regarding the Golden Knights.

"Seattle was one of the highest scoring teams in the League (3.52, tied for fourth during regular season), and we bent but didn't break on a few of the nights that we had them, and a couple of the nights we broke. So I think we're going to have to be better than we were against Seattle for longer stretches," DeBoer said Tuesday.

"I think we were good for periods of that past series and got away with it, but we're going to have to be better for a longer stretch against these guys."