Vegas Golden Knights 2020-2021 playoff prediction

After yet another very successful season, The Vegas Golden Knights finished with a record of 40-14-2, earning them second in the west this season. It should have been first, instead of Colorado. We were the only team to get 40 wins this season, I wanted that division banner and the President's trophy. But I digress, it is what it is. The Golden Knights still finished with the highest goal differential of 67, 191 GF and 124 GA. Marc Andre Fleury and Robin Lehner won the William J Jennings trophy.

Ups:

Penalty kill

Somehow, yet again our penalty kill is fantastic. At 86.8% we finished at top the league. Which is especially great since the VGK do not take a ton of penalties, we ranked 21st in penalty minutes on the season. So not only do we not take too many penalties, but even if we do good luck trying to score on us during the penalty.

I'm not complaining but you'll see why I'm confused in a minute.

Captain Stone

Seriously Captain Stone has been an absolute monster for us this season. 21 goals and 40 assist, totally 61 points earning him 11th in the league. Funny enough he also ranked 11th in terms of plus/minus with a +26. In my pre-season prediction article, I talked about how immensely proud and honored I was to have Mark Stone to be our very first team captain. He certainly has not let us down. Captain stone has stepped up to the challenge.

Going into playoffs though, I would like to see Stone be a little bit more selfish. It's fact when Mark Stone scores, our record is significantly better. Unfortunately I don't have the precise record, but when Stone scores it means good news for the Knights. But that's just me nitpicking.

Defensemen

Shae had an incredible season with 42 points, finishing in the top 10 amongst defensemen. Alex Pietrangelo is starting to heat up at the right time. Alec Martinez deserves some love. Martinez finished this season with the most blocked shots in the league. We have amazing defensemen.

Goalie tandem

As explained above the duo of The Flower and The Panda, won the William J Jennings trophy. MAF is having arguably the best season of his career which is insane since he's in his 17th season! MAF finished with a save percentage of.928 and a GGA of 1.98. Lehner is no pushover either, .913 save percentage and a 2.29 GAA. I am very confident whoever is in net. What an unfair one two punch.

3rd period

Our goal differential in the 3rd is +26, that's absolutely ludacris. And as they say, it's not about how you start it's about how you finish. And out scoring your opponents 26 goals in the 3rd period is a great way to finish. I do however how some concerns, because I don't like games where we have to play catchup nor do I like relying on a herculean 3rd period to win the game when we're trailing.

Overtime

I do not like playing overtime games, especially during the post season. Sure it's great still getting a point because the overtime loss, however that's just extra minutes and extra wear and tear on their bodies. So why is this an up? Well, Vegas was actually perfect in overtime going 10-0.

Downs:

Powerplay

How a top tier team can be terrible with the advantage still confuses me, it's the same problem we've had since year one and I'm not sure if we can fix our powerplay. The Vegas Golden Knights were only able to convert on 17.8% of their powerplays, that has them ranking 22nd in the league.

2nd period

It's crazy to me that a +10 goal differential is your "bad period". However when your 1st period is +23 and 3rd is +26, yeah the 2nd is our "bad period".

Health

Granted this is a given for any team. Every franchise with championship aspirations, wants to and needs to stay healthy even with all the depth in the world. Sadly in this shortened season the Vegas Golden Knights experienced some very poorly timed injuries to key players, such as: Nosek, Pacioretty, and Reeves. Fingers crossed they can stay healthy.

X-factor

Our X-factor will be our home ice. My Vegas bias aside, it's a well known fact that Vegas always show out at home and the fans respond accordingly. Proof 21-5-2. The fortress is not a fun arena to play in if you're visiting. With covid restrictions easing slowly but surely as time goes on, and capacity limits being increased as time goes on. If Vegas can perform at home, like they always have. That will be our X-factor to winning the Stanley Cup.

Overall impressions going into the playoffs

I know I've been saying this since our very first Stanley Cup appearance, however I truly do believe we can win it all. I'm incredibly excited for this post season, I don't care if this was a shortened season and we only played within our division due to covid. A championship is a championship period. History hasn't placed asterisks on lockout seasons (91-92, 94-95, and 12-13) when the Penguins, Devils and Blackhawks won, respectively. Same goes for last year's winners the Tampa Bay Lightning won. So no, there won't be an asterisks on this season even if my Lightning don't win. It's still a championship, period. Rant over, since if we do win I'm going to get so irritated hearing our first championship was in a shortened season with only divisional games.

GO KNIGHTS GO!!

Thank you for your time, I hope you enjoyed what you have read today. I have plenty of different articles on many different topics. Feel free to give those other articles a read or two. Also if you'd be so kind, I'd greatly appreciate a heart and if you really feel so inclined tips are always appreciated but by no means required.