Vegas Golden Knights-Dallas Stars Series Preview
We all love when the Western Conference Final is in the first round, right?
The Vegas Golden Knights, reigning Stanley Cup champions, begin their defence of the illustrious trophy against the Dallas Stars who are looking for their first Stanley Cup since 1999.
The Golden Knights have suffered a myriad of injuries on both ends of their lineup most notably with Mark Stone up front and Alex Pietrangelo on the back end.
While it looks clear that Alex Pietrangelo is set to return, all eyes are on Mark Stone after spending a chunk of the second half of the season on LTIR due to a ruptured spleen injury.
Per Emily Kaplan of ESPN, sources tell her that Mark Stone will be available to play in Game 1 of the series.
Mark Stone finished his regular season with 53 points in 56 games and finished last year’s Stanley Cup run with 24 points in 22 games. Clearly, he provides an offensive spark that – had Vegas been without him – would have faced a difficult task going up against the Stars.
The Dallas Stars finished the season clinching the Central division – their first since 2015-16 – and finishing first in the Western Conference for the fifth time in their history.
Trade Deadline pickups
The Vegas Golden Knights were one of the busiest teams at the trade deadline bolstering their forward core with the pickups of San Jose Sharks F Tomas Hertl and Washington Capitals F Anthony Mantha and picking up the highly targeted offensive-defenceman Noah Hanifin.
Hertl, Mantha and Hanifin come to the Golden Knights with 100 playoff games combined between the three players.
This provides the Golden Knights with insane depth down the wings and assures them that they are one of the scariest teams come the playoffs. It’s no wonder why many people chose them to win the Stanley Cup.
For the Dallas Stars, they only made one major move which involved pulling the trigger for Chris Tanev who is a great defensive-defenceman and is a pain in the rear end to play against.
He comes to the Stars with 41 playoff games of experience.
Even though the Stars were quiet on the trade market, that turned out just fine as they called up top prospect Logan Stankoven due to Tyler Seguin having an injury.
Stankoven has fit in like a glove with the Stars ever since they put him on a line with Wyatt Johnston and Jamie Benn.
He finished the regular season with 14 points in 24 games and has great offensive instincts. He also possess an unreal shot.
Who Has the Edge?
The Dallas Stars come into this series having the edge. The Stars have eight players on their roster who scored 20 or more goals this season and have chemistry within their lines. They have players whose roles are identified. A team that is committed to scoring by committee.
The Stars also possess the sixth best powerplay at 24.2% and the eighth best penalty kill at 82.0%. Their special teams are some of the most dangerous when you compare it to the other 16 teams in the field.
Whereas with the Golden Knights, they only have four players with 20 or more goals this season – and that number could be more had Stone and Hertl played close to a full season. With the additions of Hertl and Mantha up front, they might not have chemistry built in yet.
The powerplay for the Golden Knights finished 20th at 20.2% and their penalty kill finished 16th at 79.3%.
Jake Oettinger is likely going up against Logan Thompson.
Projected Lines
Here are the projected lines for the Dallas Stars
Here are the projected lines for the Vegas Golden Knights
