One of the teams have booked their tickets to the Stanley Cup Final and it is the Vegas Golden Knights who will be watching to see who their opponents will be. In the Western Conference Finals, Vegas dismantled the league’s best Colorado Avalanche and after two consecutive six-game series, the Knights brought out the brooms to sweep out the Avalanche in this one. Colorado had 26 more points than Vegas in the regular season, but that did not look like it in this series as the Golden Knights were dominant, from the first second of Game 1 to the final buzzer of Game 4.
First off, this demolishing of the Avalanche is not a fluke result or an upset out of the blue moon, this result is a true testament to the machine that the Vegas Golden Knights are. They have been in the National Hockey League (NHL) a mere nine years, and in that time, they have made the playoffs eight of the nine years. Vegas has won the Cup, reached the finals another time, and now they find themselves playing for another one. This success stems off the front office and the characters that do the work behind the scenes. Vegas’ general manager, Kelly McCrimmon, has built this team in his seven year tenure to be ruthless, and a winner. This season, late in March with eight games remaining in the regular season, head coach Bruce Cassidy was fired, and was replaced by John Tortorella. Cassidy won the Cup in 2023 with the Golden Knights and at this point, Vegas was among the top two in the Western Conference. Still, this was not enough for McCrimmon as he decided to pursue Tortorella, who had not coached a playoff team since four years ago and who had not coached a Conference Final team since 2012. This move seemed highly questionable at the time but now, it looks like a genius hire. McCrimmon said he fired Cassidy because the team lacked energy and spirit, and Tortorella, with his hotheaded personality, was the fitting replacement. Not only has Tortorella helped Vegas regain their mojo, he ended the regular season with a 7-1 run, and now, a berth in the Stanley Cup Final, a first for him since the 2003-2004 season. He has flipped the switch on this Vegas team and has turned them into an unstoppable force. On the players side, McCrimmon signed goaltender Carter Hart in the offseason to a two year deal, a player who has been instrumental in their run so far. At the trade deadline, Vegas traded for Maple Leafs forward Mitch Marner, one of the biggest names in the league, who now leads the playoffs in points. Every move the Golden Knights make is planned out to pure perfection, and the final product on the ice is a pretty sight. Vegas runs on their own terms and does whatever it takes to win, and the squad they have is incredible.
In this series, I saw an Avalanche team that was baffled by what was unfolding in front of them. In the first round series against the Utah Mammoth, Carter Hart allowed 3.33 goals a game. In the second round series against the Anaheim Ducks, Hart allowed 2 goals a game. In this series against the Avalanche, he allowed 1.75 goals a game. In the regular season, Colorado averaged 3.63 goals a game, which led the league. Hart shut the door on the President Trophy winners and was immaculate against the Avs. The Avs had no answers for the Golden Knights strong defense and what stood out to me was the way Vegas played as a team. From Jack Eichel to Mitch Marner to Mark Stone, every forward would forecheck aggressively, backcheck when Colorado was on the move, and help out defensively. Every Golden Knights player plays a 200 feet game and they play as a unit. Four of the ten players with the most blocked shots in the playoffs belong to the Knights, and they closed off every lane from the Avs. Especially in Game 2 because I was able to watch that game fully, I noticed that Vegas did a beautiful job of taking away the interior of the ice. Colorado was not able to set up one-timers in dangerous areas, they were not able to set up tip plays, and a lot of their shots came from close to the blue line. Vegas protected the middle of the ice incredibly and forced Colorado to take shots from a farther distance out. The Golden Knights have the perfect group of players, from magicians like Eichel to goalscorers like Pavel Dorofeyev to leaders like Stone to defensive warriors like Shea Theodore, this team is ready to get their hands on the Cup. Vegas played a marvelous series against the Colorado Avalanche and they are three-quarters of the way to hoisting the Stanley Cup.
I made a prediction about this series a couple of weeks ago, and I could not have been more wrong. Not only did Colorado lose the series, they were wiped off by the Golden Knights in a dramatic fashion. The Golden Knights are playing their best hockey now and whether it is the Carolina Hurricanes or the Montreal Canadiens, Vegas will keep cruising. John Tortorella has not been with the Knights for a long time but his impact has been nothing short of herculean. Will the Golden Knights lift their second Stanley Cup in franchise history and bring back the iconic Stanley Cup to glitzy Las Vegas?