Vegas Golden Knights players celebrate behind Colorado Avalanche goaltender Devan Dubnyk (40) after Vegas Golden Knights left wing Max Pacioretty’s goal in the third period of a game at T-Mobile Arena Wednesday, April 28, 2021.
Sunday, May 30, 2021 | 2 a.m.
Golden Knights coach Pete DeBoer was almost sarcastic in his response Friday when asked about the upcoming playoff series against the Colorado Avalanche.
They had just polished off the Wild in a hard-fought seven-game series, and there was little time to enjoy the moment with date against Colorado two days away.
“I think we know, and I’m sure I’m going to read from you guys, all about the hill we’ve got to climb here,” DeBoer said. “We know what we’re dealing with and we’ll enjoy this tonight and start looking at that tomorrow.”
He’s not wrong: The Avalanche are the toughest test the Golden Knights have ever had in the playoffs. It’s a second round series befitting of Godzilla vs. Kong, a clash between the two best teams in the West Division — and possibly even the league.
They tied for the best record in the NHL, and the Avalanche claimed the top seed and home ice via tiebreaker.
Fans have been salivating over this matchup for months and for good reason — the winner of this series will be one of the favorites for the Stanley Cup.
“The best team in the league,” forward Max Pacioretty said of the Avalanche. “They arguably have the best player in the league — a couple of them. We’ve got to make life hard on them.”
That’s the issue with the Avalanche. Nathan MacKinnon is a superstar in the Connor McDavid tier of best player in the world, but you could make a case for a few players as the next-best player on the roster.
Is it Mikko Rantanan, who led the team in goals? Cale Makar who won the Calder Trophy as Rookie of the Year last year and is a contender for the Norris Trophy as this year’s top defenseman?
What about Sam Girard or Devon Toews, who held anchor arguably the best blue line in the league? Goalie Philipp Grubauer had the best season of his career. We haven’t even mentioned their captain, Gabriel Landeskog.
The point is Colorado is stacked with as much firepower as anyone in the league, but Vegas held the stars in check as well as could be reasonably hoped.
The top line of MacKinnon, Landeskog and Rantanen combined for 1.18 points per game in the regular season as Colorado’s three leading scorers, but had just 12 points in 21 man-games against the Golden Knights this season.
Part of that was Vegas’ penalty kill and how it shut down the eighth-ranked power play (22.7%) in the regular season. The Avalanche scored just one power-play goal against Vegas in 21 tries, a 4.7% success rate.
The Golden Knights held the Avalanche in check, allowing just 17 goals in the season series, and five of those came in one game. The main issue was that Vegas struggled to score against Colorado, mustering 18 goals that was the fewest against any opponent this year.
“They have a lot of speed and skill and they’re good in all areas of the ice. Their lineup is very good all the way through it,” defenseman Zach Whitecloud said. “Executing our game plan, and a managing pucks and doing all the little things that make us a good team are going to be key. Looking forward to the next series.”
And where the Avalanche’s top forwards didn’t light up the score sheet, Vegas’ top scorer did. Max Pacioretty had six goals and eight points in seven games against the Avalanche, scoring a third of the Golden Knights’ season total against Colorado on his own. Mark Stone was strong with six points, matching the total MacKinnon had against the Golden Knights.
But the game won’t just come down to the forwards.
Both teams have elite puck-moving defensemen, who will have a thing or two to say about it. Makar, Toews and Girard form a murder’s row on Colorado’s back end, finishing first, third and 13th, respectively, in Evolving Hockey’s measure of Goals Above Replacement. Makar led the way with 16.4, and his 44 points in 44 games made him the only point-per-game defensemen in the league.
The Golden Knights’ trio doesn’t have he same advanced-stats love, but Shea Theodore, Alex Pietrangelo and Alec Martinez were pretty good in their own right. Martinez in particular had a revelatory season, posting per-game highs in goals and points after it looked like his career may have plateaued in Los Angeles. Pietrangelo hit a hot streak at the end of the year, and Theodore continued his usual excellence with 42 points that tied for seventh in the NHL among defensemen.
And finally the goaltending. Marc-Andre Fleury was spectacular in the regular season for the Golden Knights, teaming with Robin Lehner to win the Jennings Trophy for the fewest goals allowed and looking like a strong bet to be a Vezina Trophy finalist as goalie of the year. He carried that into the playoffs, starting all seven games against the Wild and allowing just 12 goals.
In the other net Grubauer turned in a career season, tying for the league lead with seven shutouts and pitching a .922 save percentage. He was certainly the beneficiary of strong team in front of him, as he finished 13th in the NHL with 4.3 goals saved above expected, according to Evolving Hockey (for comparison’s sake, Fleury was first at 19.2 GSAx). He allowed seven goals in the four-game sweep of the Blues in the first round.
The Golden Knights and Avalanche split the season series — 4-4 with each team going 2-2 at home. Vegas will enter the series as a betting underdog for only the second time ever and first since the 2018 Western Conference Final against Winnipeg.
That doesn’t bother the Golden Knights. They’re ready for the challenge. Strap in for a good series because when two heavyweights like this meet in the playoffs, they rarely disappoint.
“We knew that to get where we wanted to go, we’d have to get through them at least in the second round,” Pacioretty said. “We both had the same record and they got on us a tiebreak, but everyone I think believes they’re the measuring-stick team in the league. They’ve been sitting at home, probably resting up, but no matter what we’ve got to make life difficult, especially on their star players.”
