Mandatory Image Credit: Corinne Votaw-Imagn Images

For the first time in league history these two teams will face off in the playoffs. The Golden Knights came into existence right around the time the Ducks began to enter their rebuild, so their windows of contention have yet to overlap, until now.

I picked both of these teams to lose their first round series, so I will reluctantly hype them up in this article. Picking against Vegas was more of a gut feeling, and Utah gave them a series and even led 2 games to 1. Anaheim flat out surprised me, as they were not playing their best hockey to end the season, and matched up with the two time reigning Western Conference Champion Edmonton Oilers.

I won’t make the mistake of underestimating Anaheim again, this team is capable of a deep playoff run, not just a round one win.

If their first round series told us anything, it is that we can expect lots of goals from this matchup. The Ducks and Golden Knights were the two highest scoring teams of the opening round, with 4.33 goals per game, and 3.83 goals per game respectively.

Anaheim found a ton of success on the powerplay, after being a bottom ten unit during the regular season, they were an insane 50% on the man advantage against Edmonton. Now while I don’t expect that number to be maintained, I expect it to be a weapon in this series. Cutter Gauthier led the team with three of his four goals coming on the powerplay.

Vegas will hope to counter with their penalty kill, which operated at a 93.8% kill rate against Utah, only allowing a single goal all series.

Six players on the Ducks had a point per game in round one, led by Jackson LaCombe with nine points, followed by Troy Terry and Leo Carlsson with eight, Gauthier with seven, and veterans Alex Killorn and Mikael Granlund with six points each. Every line is a threat to score, even their bottom six were contributing, Ryan Poehling had four goals (including an overtime winner), and fourth liner Jeffrey Viel found the back of the net twice. 

Team defense was a weakness in the regular season, but they seemed to contain the Oilers fairly well, and it doesn’t get much more difficult than facing Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl.

While they do not have McDavid and Draisaitl, Vegas has plenty of firepower of their own. Jack Eichel and Mitch Marner led the way with nine and seven points respectively. They also had nine players score two or more goals against the Mammoth, with Brett Howden and Pavel Dorofeyev tied for the team lead with four.

Going back to Marner, he is trying to make the Conference Finals for the first time in his career, hoping to put his playoff failures in the past. His performance in the series clinching Game 6 win (two goals and one assist), were a good sign that he is a changed man.

While neither goalie has a ton of experience (Hart with 20 playoff games played, Dostal with six.), this coaching battle is as experienced as we’ll see in these playoffs. Each with at least one cup to their name, and over 350 combined playoff games coached (mainly Coach Q with 231), both of these bench bosses have been through this before. Although this is the first time the two will have matched up with one another.

Vegas has proven playoff performers, guys you already know you want on your team in a seven game series, such as captain Mark Stone, Tomas Hertl, and Eichel. Whereas Anaheim is powered by their youth, proving themselves in the playoffs for the first time, such as Gauthier, Carlsson, and Beckett Senecke. With a healthy mixture of veterans too, as Chris Kreider and John Carlson were both key in their round one win.

Three years removed from their Stanley Cup Championship, it’s been a few years since we’ve seen a deep Vegas playoff run, and we can’t forget how successful they’ve historically been in the playoffs. Anaheim is new to the playoffs, and might have a disadvantage when they get down to the nitty gritty, next mistake loses, next goal wins kind of games. However, they might just score enough goals to never find themselves in those kinds of games.

Prediction: Ducks in 6