Articles in Vegas Golden Knights

via the NHL's YouTube page,

Hear from the Florida Panthers and Vegas Golden Knights at Media Day, as players join Stanley Cup Live prior to Game 1 of the 2023 Stanley Cup Final.

Just over six minutes to watch.

from Travis Yost of TSN,

The Jonathan Marchessault Revenge Tour has arrived at the doorstep of the Florida Panthers.

It’s a story six years in the making and may be one of the most intriguing storylines of the Stanley Cup Final.

The now-infamous expansion draft trade sending Marchessault and Reilly Smith to the Vegas Golden Knights in order to protect players like Mark Pysyk and Alex Petrovic dramatically shaped the future of the expansion club. It was a shockingly bad decision by the Panthers brass at the time, and it was one of the biggest tailwinds for the Golden Knights as the franchise built an instant contender.

Six seasons later, Marchessault remains a key cog in the Vegas machine. He’s scored 180 goals over his Vegas career and has arguably saved his best hockey for when it has mattered most. Marchessault has already amassed nine goals and 17 points this postseason, including a Game 6 natural hat trick against the Edmonton Oilers.

But those counting numbers understate how dominant he and his line have been in these playoffs. Allow me to put the spotlight on something that I find striking – so much so that it gives him an inside shot at winning the Conn Smythe Trophy.

continued

from Matt Levy of the New York Post,

Either Jonathan Marchessault’s Golden Knights or Matthew Tkachuk’s Panthers will emerge victorious and get to hoist the famed silver trophy above their heads for the first time.

And if you want to be there to witness hockey history, we’re happy to report that last-minute tickets are still available for all seven games.

Unfortunately, there aren’t any bargain prices available for the high-profile series.

The cheapest tickets available we could find at the time of publication were $349 before fees on Vivid Seats for a game at Las Vegas’ T-Mobile Arena.

Ticket prices start at $424 before fees at Sunrise, FL’s FLA Live Arena.

Want to go to a game?

Here’s everything you need to know and more about the 2023 Stanley Cup between the Golden Knights and Florida Panthers.

more

Both teams playing for their first Stanley Cup.

from Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet,

The Vegas Golden Knights are misfits no more. Actually, they’re perfectly suited to winning a Stanley Cup.

After cuffing aside the Dallas Stars 6-0 Monday to win the Western Conference title in six games, the big, brawny, deep Knights look more like Godzilla than the Cinderella team of expansion-draft “misfits” that somehow made it to the Stanley Cup Final in 2018 in the franchise’s first National Hockey League season.

Even using their fourth goalie in Adin Hill, who had a 23-save shutout in Game 6, and with their best player, Jack Eichel, goal-less in the conference final, the Golden Knights were just too much for the Stars and overwhelmed them with speed, power and scoring depth in the deciding game.

Only six original misfits remain from Vegas’ inaugural roster, but three of those players scored on Monday. William Karlsson had two goals and Jonathan Marchessault one, but the biggest catalyst was wrecking-ball winger William Carrier and his fourth-line mates.

continued

The Golden Knights will host the Florida Panthers for the first two games of the SCF. Games are on Saturday, June 3rd and Monday, June 5th. Puck drop will be around 8:10pm ET. Every game will be on TBS, CBC, Sportsnet and TVAs.

Vegas earned their way to the Final by defeating the Dallas Star 6-0 tonight to take the series 4-2.

Below watch the trophy presentation, handshakes plus the game highlights.

from Adam Hill of the Las Vegas Review-Journal,

There was a prevailing narrative when Adin Hill took over at goalie for the Golden Knights about how his role was to just not screw things up for a team with the structure in place to make a run at the Stanley Cup.

That the job of the journeyman backup suddenly thrust into starting duties for a championship favorite was to not be solely responsible for derailing those aspirations.

Hill has rejected that storyline with similar confidence and authority to the many shots he has turned away off the sticks of the Oilers and Stars in the past two weeks

The Knights are in position to advance to the Stanley Cup Final with a Game 6 victory Monday over the Stars at American Airlines Center largely because of his efforts, not despite them.

Now they might need even more from a player who has chosen a good time to play at such a high level, leading a postseason run in his first playoff appearance just as he’s about to hit free agency.

continued

from Taylor Baird at NHL.com,

from Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet,

It is easy to say – because it’s logical to project – that there’s no way the Dallas Stars are actually going to win four straight games to save their season against the Vegas Golden Knights.

This conclusion isn’t because the Stars aren’t an excellent team. They are. But so are the Knights.

It’s more math than emotion: only four teams in National Hockey League history have rallied from a 0-3 deficit to win a playoff series, and it has never happened in a conference final, where teams that win the first three games are 46-0 in advancing to the Stanley Cup Final.

The Golden Knights, a 51-win team that had 111 points in the regular season, aren’t going to lose four straight playoff games after losing only three times in the first month of the Stanley Cup tournament.

This Stars’ comeback almost certainly is not happening despite Dallas’ impressive 4-2 road win Saturday in Las Vegas.

But the fantastic thing about sports is that you actually have to play the games.

And ask yourself this: Can the Dallas Stars win two consecutive games? Because that’s all they have to do now after halting the Knights and stealing momentum by winning Games 4 and 5 in the Western Conference Final.

The Stars no longer have to climb Mt. Everest. They just have to get up the Eiger.

continued

Game highlights are below.

from Justin Bourne of Sportsnet,

Eichel's play and the opportunity Vegas has in front of it leaves the pivot with a chance to change his reputation in a way that I’m not sure has happened for a player not-named Phil Kessel before, who also got flak for his playing style before breaking through with the Pittsburgh Penguins. Both Kessel and Eichel have had people say “You can’t win with that guy,” and while Kessel proved you can win with him, he did it as the third- or fourth-most important guy on his Cup-winning teams. If Eichel were to win the Conn Smythe Trophy after his roller coaster from huge prospect to “guy you can’t win with” and back, it could fairly make us re-evaluate a lot of talented players who often just need to be put in the right situation to succeed.

It could – for the more reasonable types anyway – also make us realize there’s not some secret sauce that goes into four-round post-season success. We often treat every player who’s ever won a Cup as though they somehow discovered Michael Jordan’s water in Space Jam along the way. Having good players on a well-coached team (which has to be a dozen teams per year) who get some timely saves and breaks along the way is sometimes all it takes.

For truly talented players, I’m not sure there are many who are so deficient in defence or intangibles that you “can’t win with them,” despite plenty of players earning that label.

Eichel’s reputation had taken a beating out of Buffalo after showing himself to be a player who had a lot to learn, despite being heralded as a franchise cornerstone. He didn’t always defend well, had some maturity issues to overcome, and wasn’t quite as ready to solve Buffalo’s problems as fans had hoped. When he dug in on his own medical treatments, some considered it more whinging, rather than a player fairly advocating for the care they’d prefer.

This isn’t to weigh in on any of that, or to say that being five wins away from a Cup somehow absolves a player of all that’s come before.

more

from Ed Graney of the Las Vegas Review-Journal,

They knew how hard the push would be, how desperation has this way of lifting a team’s level of play. There would be no celebration for the Golden Knights on Thursday night, no Western Conference title just yet, no Clarence S. Campbell Bowl to take pictures around.

It’s still going, folks.

Dallas apparently has something left in its pursuit of what would be a historic comeback, the Stars having avoided being swept out of this best-of-seven series with a 3-2 overtime victory before a sellout gathering of 18,532 at American Airlines Center.

It was the best we have seen of Dallas in four games.

Certainly when it mattered most.

“Our effort level wasn’t good enough,” Knights forward Jonathan Marchessault said. “Just not good enough for our group. It’s still in overtime, so it was right there for us. They played well defensively. Their desperation was higher than ours, and at this time of year, it’s about who wants it more.”

It’s true, after all: The fourth one is always toughest to get.

read on

from Iain MacIntyre of Sportsnet,

When the Vegas Golden Knights scored their second overtime winner in as many games, it looked Sunday that they’d not only beaten the Dallas Stars again but might have broken them, too.

It wasn’t simply that the Knights went up 2-0 in the National Hockey League’s Western Conference Final when Chandler Stephenson scored uncontested on a rebound at 1:12 of overtime to give his team a 3-2 win on home ice.

And it wasn't even that the Stars, who were lucky to make it to OT in Friday’s 4-3 Vegas win, were significantly better in Game 2 and appeared to have Sunday’s tight-checking contest under control until Jonathan Marchessault snatched a tying goal for the Knights with 2:22 remaining in regulation time.

The seismic shift for Dallas is that the unflinching Stars beat themselves, displaying vulnerability on a team that looked largely invincible this season when leading into the third period and bouncing back from losses.

The Stars had been 31-0-2 this season — and 8-0 in the playoffs — when leading with 20 minutes to go and, even more incredibly, were 22-1-3 since October with starting goalie Jake Oettinger when coming off a loss.

The Knights shattered that invincibility on Sunday.

continued

Vegas will head to Dallas up 2-0 after a 3-2 overtime win today.

In my mind the Stars were the better team during the majority of the game but the Golden Knights were able to capitalize on their limited opportunities.

Team Stats

Below watch the game winning goal and the game highlights.

via the NHL PR department,

STARS IN FAMILIAR PLACE, LOOK TO EVEN SERIES SUNDAY AFTERNOON
Game 2 of the Western Conference Final is set for Sunday afternoon on ABC and ESPN+ in the U.S. as well as Sportsnet, CBC and TVA Sports in Canada. The Stars will look to rally from a 1-0 series deficit for the third consecutive round, while the Golden Knights aim to take a 2-0 lead for the third time in franchise history – they have gone on to win the series in the two times they have done so to date.

broadcast information is below

from Ben Gotz of the Las Vegas Review-Journal,

Bruce Cassidy pumped his fist on the bench as the announced crowd of 18,271 at T-Mobile Arena went wild and Brett Howden and Adin Hill were mobbed on separate areas of the ice.

The Golden Knights coach has described his group as “imperfect” at different times during the playoffs. They’re not without faults. What they are is deep, resilient and committed to winning hockey games by any mean.

That continued in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final against the Dallas Stars on Friday. The Knights allowed the first goal for the ninth time in 12 postseason games. They blew two third-period leads. They still emerged with a 4-3 victory after Howden’s goal 1:35 into overtime.

The Knights continued to stare adversity in the face and fire right back. Their six comeback wins in the playoffs lead the NHL, and they’re 2-0 in overtime.

“Sometimes you have those seasons where you don’t overcome things,” Cassidy said. “We have that group that will this year.”

continued

Watch the game highlights below.

from Jesse Granger and Saad Yousuf of The Athletic,

When the puck drops for Game 1 of the Western Conference finals between Vegas and Dallas on Friday night at T-Mobile Arena, Stars coach Pete DeBoer will find himself in an oddly familiar role as he takes his place on the visitors bench.

It wasn’t that long ago he stood behind the opposite bench in that arena, wearing a Golden Knights lapel. It also hasn’t been that long since he coached against Vegas in the playoffs.

DeBoer’s history with the Golden Knights is long and complicated.

It started as a rivalry in 2017, when the upstart Vegas franchise quickly emerged as an adversary for DeBoer’s Sharks atop the Pacific Division. San Jose was an aging but talented group looking for a title before its window closed. The Golden Knights came out of nowhere to win the series.

Playoff matchups in back-to-back seasons stoked that rivalry, culminating with a fiery seven-game series in 2019 in which DeBoer and then-Vegas coach Gerard Gallant traded verbal barbs that were nearly as fierce as the play on the ice. DeBoer came out on top in the most dramatic way possible, with San Jose erasing a three-goal deficit late in the third period to win in overtime.

Less than nine months later, DeBoer was coaching the Golden Knights.

continued ($)

from Amalie Benjamin of the NHL's website,

These are four teams that don't always get the headlines and the publicity, that don't come from traditional hockey markets, that have everything to gain from the spot in which they find themselves, here in the Eastern and Western Conference Finals. Combined, the Panthers, Carolina Hurricanes, Dallas Stars and Vegas Golden Knights have won the Stanley Cup twice, with the Hurricanes winning it in 2006 and the Stars in 1999.

They will begin the next step of trying to make some new history -- and some new fans -- when they start off the conference finals, with the Panthers and Hurricanes playing Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Final on Thursday at PNC Arena in Raleigh (8 p.m. ET; TNT, CBC, TVAS, SN) and the Stars and Golden Knights playing Game 1 of the Western Conference Final on Friday at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas (8:30 p.m. ET; ESPN, ESPN+, CBC, TVAS, SN).

"A deeper playoff run will draw attention to the unique players that we have that you can come and enjoy watching play," Panthers coach Paul Maurice said. "What happens in these runs, it's not just about getting excited because of the spectacle of playoff hockey. You want to get the connection to the home crowd too.

"There'll be a whole bunch of people who are going to buy (Panthers forward) Sam Bennett jerseys based on what they saw. And then I can say that about a bunch of different guys."

read on

The Golden Knights defeated the Edmonton Oilers 5-2 tonight to win their series 4-2.

VGK will face the winner of the Dallas/Seattle game 7 (8pm ET Monday). Vegas will host the first 2 games of the WCF.

Below watch Marchessault's natural hat trick, handshakes and highlights.

Game 6 in Edmonton tonight. Oilers need a win to play in game 7 against the Vegas Golden Knights on Tuesday.

Watch on ESPN, CBC, Sportsnet and TVAS. Puck drops at 10:07pm ET.

from Mark Spector of Sportsnet,

Play better. Play smarter.

It’s as simple as that.

On a night where the Oilers didn’t score a five-on-five goal, where Leon Draisaitl’s line got very little done, where Stuart Skinner was pulled — again, where the Oilers took seven minor penalties, the solutions aren’t hard to pinpoint with a must-win Game 6 set for Mother’s Day in Edmonton.

Even the opposition could sense that the Oilers weren’t going to be the better team in Game 5.

“They didn’t have the same jump they had in Game 4 … and I think our players sensed it,” Vegas head coach Bruce Cassidy said after the game. “They just didn't have the same drive and intensity they had up there. The physicality that they showed in Game 4 wasn't quite as evident.

“That's how our feeling was on the bench, that we can grab hold of this because they weren't dominating or pushing us out of the game.”

continued

Below are the game highlights.