LAS VEGAS -- Physical, fast-paced, hard-fought, intense and emotional. Those are a list of words Vegas Golden Knights' players had when looking back to their 2023 Stanley Cup semi final meeting between the Edmonton Oilers .
At 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, the Knights will welcome their divisional foe into a raucous T-Mobile Arena for game one of the second round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Being well acquainted by now, these two highly respected organizations split the 2024-25 regular season series at two games a piece.
Vegas finished their opening round matchup in six games against the Minnesota Wild. Edmonton also handled the Los Angeles Kings in six games, making it the fourth consecutive year that they’ve end their division rival's season in the postseason.
Before the Kings were reserved swept, the Oilers dropped the first two games while on the road, including falling short in game one, 6-5, after being down 5-2 during the third period.
For obvious reasons why they overpowered Los Angeles was because of the elite pair of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl. Oilers head coach Chris Knoblauch chose to go with a first line consisting of McDavid, Draisaitl and former Stanley Cup champion Corey Perry.
The duo was a massive headache to defend, putting the Kings’ defensemen in a blender whenever they rushed into the offensive zone. For both to be fast, world-class players, they played a tremendous 200 ft game, leaving the Kings’ skaters to constantly track anytime they were together on the ice.
Unlike their 2023 roster where they lacked depth, the Oilers were able to roll out four consistent lines, which gave the Kings no breaks to capitalize when Edmonton's first line wasn't out skating.
Four year defenseman Evan Bouchard led the team with four goals against Los Angeles, and the team featured 11 different players to record a goal during their series, not including McDavid and Draisaitl. For points, 18 different Oilers were able to find a way to put their names on the scoresheet.
While looking for answers to get back in the series, the Oilers made a chance at goalie during game two. Replacing Stuart Skinner in net was Golden Knights' first ever pick from the 2017 NHL Expansion Draft Calvin Pickard.
Pickard won all four starts while in net and posted a 4.00 GAA with a .866 SV%.
Coming out of a series where the defensive vocal points were heavily set on Kirill Kaprizov and Matt Boldy, it will be key for the Golden Knights to continue their stingy style of defense in order to not only limit the Oliers' dangerous pair from making an impact in the series, but to also further progress their hopes to bring home a second Stanley Cup in three seasons.
The Golden Knights also need to keep an eye out on which defensemen unit they want to have out on the ice while the Oilers deploy their first line. Their last playoff meeting, where they didn’t have Noah Hanifin, Golden Knights head coach Bruce Cassidy had Alex Pietranglo out on the ice for the most minutes by a Vegas defenseman throughout the series.
With Hanifin added into the fold and nagging injuries surrounding Pietranglo, it will be interesting to see the approach Cassidy will have for game one and throughout the series when figuring out how to slow down the speedy, aggressive Oilers team.
Similar to the decision Knoblauch made, Cassidy decided to adjust his lineups going into game four, which resulted in a massive change of direction in their series.
Cassidy came up with a new first line that included team captain Mark Stone and original Golden Misfit William Karlsson at the wings and superstar Jack Eichel playing center.
Being held pointless for the first trio of games, Eichel (1 G, 4 A) and Stone (2 G, 2 A) were finally able to influence and impose their elite style of play, tallying nine points in the final three games to close out the Wild.
After having a couple rough games to start their last series, defenseman Shea Theodore also was able to get back to his game by scoring the first goal in games four and six while on the power play and finished the first round with 4 four points (2 G, 2 A).
After some shaky performances in games two and three, including getting pulled at the start of the third period in game three, netminder Adin Hill was able to rattle off three straight wins between the pipes, recording 2.83 GAA and a .880 SV%.
In expectation of no Pavel Dorofeyev (day-to-day) on the wing, but Ivan Barbashev returning from a maintenance day, these could be the starting lineups and netminders for game one based on Monday’s practice.
VEGAS:
Karlsson - Eichel - Stone
Saad - Hertl - Kolesar
Barbashev - Roy - Smith
Pearson - Howden - Olofsson
Hague - Pietrangelo
McNabb - Theodore
Hanifin - Whitecloud
Hill
Schmid
EDMONTON:
Draisaitl - McDavid - Perry
Kane - Nuggent Hopkins - Hyman
Frederic - Henrique - Brown
Podkolzin - Janmark - Arvidsson
Nurse - Bouchard
Walman - Klingberg
Kulak - Emberson
Pickard
Skinner