Fifty acts as a symbolic number for Vegas Golden Knights on the way into game 1 in their Western Conference first round series Sunday evening versus the visiting Minnesota Wild.
Pacific Division Champions (50-22-10, 110 points) met the 50-victory for the third time in the organization’s eight-year history. The first two times-2017-18 and 2022-23-advanced Golden Knights to the Stanley Cup final. They raised the cup in 2023 after topping Florida Panthers in five matches.
Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy says his team must approach the best-seven series with The Wild (45-30-7, 97 points), the best Wild-Card team in the West, with the same desire to succeed as the 2023 champions had.
“At the end of the day, for me, it is the team that plays the best and is hungry,” Cassidy said. “Before you win a cup, you are pretty hungry to get there. We have to regain the feeling we had two years ago.”
Vegas is a heavy favorite to defeat nature – and for good reasons. Golden Knights has won nine of the last 11 meetings, which include all three season games with a combined 12-4 points.
Center Jack Eichel, who had a career high 94 points and 66 assists, got a hat trick during the last March 25 in Saint Paul, Minn., To spark the 5-1 victory by Golden Knights. Goaltender Adin Hill, an important cog in the title of 2023, had 23 savings.
In 2023, Hill came in for the injured Laurent Brossoit in game 3 in the second round against Edmonton Oilers and went 11-4 with a 2.17 goal-on average and two closures. This season as Golden Knights’ No. 1 he went 32-13-5 with four endings in 50 matches.
“It will be fun, especially to start the first game here at home,” Hill said. “I feel good about my game. There are some small areas, I obviously feel that I can improve a bit, but it goes out through the window now, and a new season begins on Sunday.”
Minnesota needed a dramatic 3-2 overtime victory over the visitors Anaheim Ducks in their regular season final to unlock their 11th playoffs in the last 12 seasons. The Wild, who needed a point to pass a playoffs, tied it with 20.9 seconds left in regulation on a goal by Joel Eriksson Ek.
Minnesota overcame the loss of star winger Kirill Kaprizov for 41 matches – and Eriksson Ek for six weeks along the route – to make the playoffs. Kaprizov, who has 10 goals and 15 points in 16 matches with regular season against Vegas, and Eriksson Ek played each in just one regular season game against Golden Knights. Both are considered healthy on their way into the playoffs.
Two players who got up in the distance for nature were forward Matt Boldy (team -leading 73 points and 27 goals) and the defender Brock Faber, who led the team in time at ICE with an average of 25 minutes, 31 seconds per match. He also played for the United States in the 4 Nations Face-off tournament.
“We have had several opportunities to test ourselves, and we have come through some of them, and some of them we do not have,” said Wild Head Coach John Hynes. “So I think for us going into the series, we have had to fight there, and it will not be any different in the series.”
Hynes believes it will be a physical, narrow control series with Vegas.
“No matter what, it will be a challenging series for the playoffs,” Hynes said. “It won’t be a beauty contest. There will be hard -fought games.”
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