5 Keys: Kings at Golden Knights, Game 1

KINGS at GOLDEN KNIGHTS
10 p.m. ET; NBCSN, CBC, TVAS, ATTSN-RM, FS-W

LAS VEGAS -- The Vegas Golden Knights will play their first Stanley Cup Playoff game when they host the Los Angeles Kings in Game 1 of the Western Conference First Round at T-Mobile Arena on Wednesday.
Vegas, in its inaugural season, won the Pacific Division with 109 points and has home-ice advantage for the first two rounds of the playoffs.
The Kings, who missed the playoffs last season, are making their seventh postseason appearance since 2009-10, a stretch that includes winning the Stanley Cup in 2012 and 2014.
Here are 5 keys for Game 1:

1. Quick vs. Fleury

Kings goalie Jonathan Quick and Golden Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury will face each other in the postseason for the first time. They have won the Stanley Cup a combined five times.
Quick's .921 save percentage was his highest since 2011-12 (.929). Fleury, who won the Cup three times with the Pittsburgh Penguins, set an NHL career low in goals-against average (2.24) and had a career-best save percentage (.927).
"I think you get to this point in a series by having great goalies, and both these guys -- I said it the other day -- are really good competitors, really talented guys and have had a ton of success that have both won Cups before and are considered really good teammates," Kings coach John Stevens told LAKingsInsider. "It's as good of a matchup as I think you can find."

2. Replacing Perron

Forward David Perron remains out of the Golden Knights lineup because of an undisclosed injury. Perron, who has not played since March 26, was third on the Golden Knights with 66 points (16 goals, 50 assists).

Rookie forward Alex Tuch, who has six points (two goals, four assists) in his past seven games, is expected to skate in Perron's place on the second line.

3. Kopitar's playoff dominance

Center Anze Kopitar emerged as a Hart Trophy contender this season, scoring a career-high 92 points (35 goals, 57 assists) in 82 games. He also knows how to score in the postseason; he is third on the Kings all-time playoff scoring list with 64 points (20 goals, 44 assists) in 75 games, behind Wayne Gretzky (94 in 60 games) and Luc Robitaille (89 in 94 games). His two-way play could be key for the Kings.

4. Fast start

Whichever team scores first in Game 1 could go a long way in determining the winner. The Kings were 25-3-4 when scoring first this season while Golden Knights were 34-5-2.

"The key is just, early on in the game, slow the game down, try and take the momentum out of the game a little bit," Kings forward Dustin Brown said. "As a player, it's fun playing in a loud building. When there's something really loud, and you can shut them up, it can go the other way, too."

5. Home-ice advantage

The Golden Knights went 29-10-2 at T-Mobile Arena, and set League records for a team in its inaugural season with an eight-game winning streak and 13-game point streak (12-0-1). Stevens is expecting Vegas' fan base to take it to another level in Game 1.
"I think you'll definitely see a loud Vegas crowd," Stevens said. "I think they've been like that from Day 1. I think this building is an exciting place to play. I think we always have some Kings fans that travel. The proximity's close, so we're well supported wherever we go, certainly in this environment, but this building has a lot of energy, just like our building does, and we're expecting a very energized crowd here tonight."

Kings projected lineup

Alex Iafallo -- Anze Kopitar -- Dustin Brown
Tobias Rieder -- Jeff Carter -- Tyler Toffoli
Tanner Pearson -- Adrian Kempe -- Trevor Lewis
Kyle Clifford -- Nate Thompson -- Torrey Mitchell
Oscar Fantenberg -- Drew Doughty
Alex Martinez -- Christian Folin
Dion Phaneuf -- Paul LaDue
Jonathan Quick
Jack Campbell
Scratched:Andy Andreoff, Sheldon Rempal, Daniel Brickley
Injured:Derek Forbort (lower body), Jake Muzzin (upper body)

Golden Knights projected lineup

Jonathan Marchessault -- William Karlsson -- Reilly Smith
Alex Tuch -- Erik Haula -- James Neal
Ryan Carpenter -- Cody Eakin -- Tomas Tatar
William Carrier -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Tomas Nosek
Brayden McNabb -- Nate Schmidt
Shea Theodore -- Deryk Engelland
Jon Merrill -- Colin Miller
Marc-Andre Fleury
Malcolm Subban
Scratched:Oscar Lindberg, Ryan Reaves, Brad Hunt
Injured:David Perron (undisclosed), Luca Sbisa (upper body)

Status report

Muzzin is questionable according to Stevens. … Perron and Sbisa are day to day.