The Vegas Golden Knights will try to match their best start to a season in franchise history on Tuesday night when they host the Dallas Stars in Las Vegas in a rematch of last season’s Western Conference final.
The defending Stanley Cup champion Golden Knights have opened the season with a 3-0-0 start for the fourth time in the team’s seven-year history thanks to three straight 4-1 victories over Seattle, San Jose and Anaheim. Vegas also started 3-0-0 in 2017-18 before losing at home to Detroit, and last season before dropping a decision at Calgary. The team’s best start came in 2020-21 when they began 4-0-0.
“I think we’ve played well,” Golden Knights coach Bruce Cassidy said after Saturday night’s win over the Ducks. “I don’t think we’ve played our best game by far yet. We’ve found our game when we’ve needed to.”
“I think we find a way to win some hockey games,” said center Jonathan Marchessault, the reigning Conn Smythe (playoff MVP) Award winner. “Points are just as important at (this) time of the year as after Christmas. Definitely happy to get some wins.”
Vegas went 13-2-0 out of the gate last season en route to finishing with a Western Conference-best 111 points. The Stars, who finished one point behind first-place Colorado in the Central Division, had 108 points.
They collided in the Western final, which saw the Golden Knights win in six games. Vegas then defeated the Florida Panthers in five games to win its first Stanley Cup.
“They’re a really good team, right?” Marchessault said of the Stars. “There’s a reason they were there last year. This year I think they’re one of the better teams in the NHL so I think it’s going to be a really good test for us.”
Dallas, coached by former Vegas head coach Peter DeBoer, opened the season with a 2-1 shootout victory over St. Louis on Thursday and is looking forward to the rematch with the team that ended their Stanley Cup dreams last season.
“Exciting to see where you stack up with the Stanley Cup champion,” DeBoer said. “Exciting to play them again because obviously the last game you played them you don’t have a great taste in your mouth about how that ended. I think for all those reasons excited because they’re going to be one of those teams in the Western Conference that everyone is going to have to go through.”
Dallas fell behind 3-0 in that best-of-seven series, losing the first two contests in overtime in Las Vegas by 4-3 and 3-2 scores. After rebounding to close the series to 3-2 with a pair of wins, including a 4-2 victory at T-Mobile Arena, the Stars were blanked 6-0 at home in Game 6 as Adin Hill made 23 saves for the shutout.
“The margins were razor-thin,” DeBoer said. “Those first two overtime games, they won them both. Split those and maybe it’s a different series. Maybe the momentum shifts if we win that second overtime game, the first overtime game. Who knows? You have to give them credit. They were the best team in the league last year and they proved it.”
With a long layoff between its opener and Tuesday’s contest, DeBoer decided to take his team to Palm Springs, Calif., from Friday to Monday.
“I’m a big believer in team-building,” DeBoer said. “The schedule just happened to work out that way. … It’s close enough to Vegas where we can get out West a little early and get used to the time change and get a little team bonding.”
–Field Level Media
