(Photo Credit: @EdmontonOilers on X/Twitter)
Two years ago, when the Golden Knights and Oilers matched up in the Second Round of the playoff,s the prevailing story of the series was Vegas’ depth winning out over Edmonton’s. Leon Draisaitl scored six goals in the first two games, Connor McDavid had 10 points in the series, and their power play outscored the Golden Knights 9-2. Through two games in the series this year, it has completely flipped.
VGK have the advantage on the power play at 3-0. Mark Stone has two goals. Jack Eichel has four points. And yet, at even-strength it’s 9-3 in favor of Edmonton, and that’s why they hold the 2-0 series lead.
Credit to their depth, they found ways to score. We saw that in the LA series, I think Edmonton did a good job there too, that’s how you have runs. -Bruce Cassidy
As the series shifts to Edmonton, there’s no better time than now for this to change for the Golden Knights. In Game 2, they answered the question of whether or not they could slow down Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl with a more balanced lineup. But life gets even tougher on the road.
It’s 4-4 and I’m thinking, their top guys aren’t on the scoresheet, we need this one to go our way. But, it didn’t, they made the play at the end. If we can replicate the game plan against them. It’ll be a little tougher up there because there will be different matchups. Tonight we did a good job on them. Those guys you have to make it hard on them and make them earn every inch of ice and we did that tonight. They still got us at the end. -Cassidy
There’s no beating around the bush; from this point forward, Vegas’ bottom-nine (all forwards other than the top line) must outscore Edmonton’s. If they don’t, the season will end within the next 10 days.
Vegas finished the regular season with the most goals in franchise history and were just one off the most 5-on-5 goals behind the Cup-winning 2023 team. This team had the weapons to do it in the regular season, they need to come through right now in the postseason. Brett Howden, Tomas Hertl, Ivan Barbashev, Nic Roy, Tanner Pearson, and Victor Olofsson each had at least 9 even-strength goals this season, they’ve combined for zero in the opening two games of the series.
It becomes even more crucial with three of the final five games to be played (if we get there) to be played in Edmonton. The Oilers’ superstar duo will get better matchups and likely do even more damage than they have in Games 1 and 2. So effective offense at even strength will be needed from everyone. The Golden Knights have the edge in special teams, and there’s no reason that has to slow down as the series progresses, but 90+% of hockey games are played at 5-on-5.
All season long, VGK has touted their ability and willingness to roll four lines, to wear opponents down, and their seven players with at least 15 goals. No more getting outplayed by Vasily Podkolzin, Connor Brown, and Evander Kane. Time to step up, or else, it’ll probably have to be time to move on from a few familiar names down the lineup this summer.
