Golden Knights shifting focus to West 2nd Round against Ducks

LAS VEGAS -- The Vegas Golden Knights should be well prepared to play the Anaheim Ducks in the Western Conference Second Round after defeating the Utah Mammoth in the first round.

They should be even stronger if William Karlsson returns from a lower-body injury too.

Like the Mammoth, the Ducks have a lot of speed and skill. Karlsson is an excellent two-way center who helped the Golden Knights win the Stanley Cup in 2023.

He hasn’t played since Nov. 8 and it remains to be seen when he will return, let alone if it will be in Game 1 at T-Mobile Arena on Monday (9:30 p.m. ET; ESPN, SN360, SN, TVAS).

But he joined the Golden Knights for practice on the road Thursday and rotated in with the third line at practice here Sunday. He even skated with the first power play unit when center Jack Eichel missed part of practice after taking a puck in the mouth.

“He continues to progress,” general manager Kelly McCrimmon said. “That’s as far as I’ll go with respect to his availability.”

If Karlsson comes back -- emphasis on “if” -- what impact could he make?

“He hasn’t played in a while,” captain Mark Stone said. “I’ve been through that. It’s not the easiest thing in the world to come back right into the playoffs. But he’s a tremendous skater. He’s in tremendous shape.

“I’m sure when he comes back, his timing will be a little bit off. But when you can skate like that, it’s a lot easier to come back in. He adds an element all over the ice in every situation. Ever since I’ve been with him, he’s played power play, penalty kill, 6-on-5, 5-on-6. Anything you need from him, he can do, and he adds a good bit of speed for us.”

That could be key.

The Ducks lead the Stanley Cup Playoffs in goals per game (4.33) after defeating the Edmonton Oilers in six games in the first round. They have a mix of veterans and up-and-coming young players like the Mammoth did.

“I thought Utah’s transition, speed, pace, was really elite, and I think Anaheim played high-event hockey (against Edmonton),” McCrimmon said. “They’ve got a lot of talent, young talent, and I think there will be some similarities. The things that were important for us against Utah will be that way against Anaheim as well, I believe.”

Slowing the Mammoth in the neutral zone was an emphasis for the Golden Knights in the first round, as they feel they improved as the series progressed. Vegas eliminated Utah with a 5-1 win in Game 6 and ended up allowing 3.00 goals per game in the series.

“We made some good adjustments that worked well,” defenseman Brayden McNabb said. “Utah was a team that, they always kind of wanted to make the extra play. It’s going to have challenges. But we did a pretty good job being positionally sound and being good in the neutral zone and kind of limiting their speed coming into the zone.”

Eichel echoed that.

“I think as the series went on, we started to make it harder on them to create and generate from the rush, and credit to the guys on Utah, I thought they created a lot and they gave us a handful in terms of our back pressure and coming back and knowing who had who,” he said. “They have a lot of moving parts. They pull up a lot.

“If you look at that Anaheim team, they make a lot of plays off the rush as well. So, you know, they’re a fast team. They’re always trying to make plays through you and around you. I think having played Utah, I think (having) improved throughout the series in terms of maybe some of our deep defensive responsibilities in that sense, we should be able to take from that a bit.”

Stone cautioned that every team and series is different, and the Golden Knights can’t take for granted that their success against the Mammoth will repeat against the Ducks. Anaheim went 3-0-0 against Vegas in the regular season. Each game was 4-3. Two went to overtime.

“Yeah, they have some skill, some speed, some similarities to Utah, but I think they’re a little bit bigger, so that’s maybe a little different challenge for us,” he said. “They’ve got some big skill up front that might pose a bit of a challenge, but they’re very good off the rush with that speed and skill, so that’s maybe a little similarity to Utah.

“We won Games 3 and 4 5-4 in overtime, so you still want to do a better job of limiting goals against. But I thought the last game was a lot better. We didn’t give up a ton off the rush, didn’t give up a ton in zone. I think their goal went off one of our (defensemen’s) stick and slithered through. It was an unlucky bounce for us.

“Yeah, I think we’ve been stressing that going in, but it’s a new series. We’ve got to prep that way too.”