The Golden Knights had just swept the Kings, their division rival, in the first round of the playoffs. They dominated a majority of the play, gave up just 3 goals in 14 periods, and trailed for less than 34 of the 275 minutes of play in the series.

I expected I’d be walking into a jubilant locker room full of laughter, smiles, and high fives. That was not the Golden Knights locker room after Game 4 of their sweep.

Still a few more games before it’s a good story. -Marc-Andre Fleury

It was cool and collected. I’m just already getting ready, starting to forget about this series, trying to get ready for the next one. See who we play and go from there. -Erik Haula

They’ve never been here before, but they had never been anywhere before, and that’s never stopped them. (Photo Credit: SinBin.vegas Photographer Brandon Andreasen)

This isn’t new for a winning Golden Knights locker room though. Outside of the very first game in franchise history in Dallas, the Vegas locker room doesn’t get too high after wins. Whether it was beating Tampa Bay to move into first place in the NHL, knocking off the Penguins for Fleury or a somewhat meaningless 7-3 win over Calgary, the demeanor in the room remained the same.

When they clinched the playoff berth, it was almost as if they thought it should have happened a while ago. When they won the division, they kind of had this look of, “well yeah, we’ve been ahead by 10 points all year.” When they won Game 1, and 2, and 3, the same, but I thought it might be a bit different having finished the series and knowing they’ve got a plenty of time to revel in this one before they have to move on. It wasn’t the case.

Why would you be satisfied? We don’t have the Stanley Cup. We didn’t start the playoffs thinking, alright if we make the second round we are happy about it. We’re excited because we just won a series and we’re probably going to get one more day to relax the bodies, but in two days from now it’s back to business. -Pierre-Edouard Bellemare

Read More

The Golden Knights have never been considered a particularly great defensive team,  especially in their own end. They allowed 228 goals on the season, more than all but three of the Western Conference playoff teams and 26 more than their first round opponent. However, through the first two games of the series, Vegas has allowed just one goal in 155 minutes and 23 seconds and have not been scored on a single time in more than 126 minutes of 5-on-5 time.

The main reason for the Golden Knights defensive dominance over the course of the first two games has been the way they’ve defended the blue line. Stats are hard to come by on zone entry success rates, but from the eye test, over the course of eight periods, the Kings are having an incredibly difficult time gaining clean entry to the Vegas zone.

A lot of communication. Working together with your linemates and your D partner to talk to each other, work it out, find the open way, and we’ve been pretty crisp and executing pretty well in our own end. -Jon Merill

The Kings deploy the dump-and-chase style of hockey much more than the transition style of entry Vegas is more known for. Los Angeles gains the red line, then throws the puck down into the corner. The idea being they will forecheck hard and force a turnover before the Golden Knights can break out. More than often this series though, that hasn’t been the case and the Golden Knights have easily “found the open way” out of the zone.

Vegas is doing it with two main principles, speed and simplicity. First off, they get to the puck incredibly quickly. The first King to the puck is usually more than a full second behind the Golden Knight defenseman who retrieved the dump. Then, they play fundamentally sound defense taking the simplest option available.

The key to any breakout is to get back, work for each other, work for your partner, talk to each other, and everyone’s got to be the way out. I think everybody’s played fast, played competitive, wanted the puck and wanted to be involved int he game both night, that’s been the difference. -Merrill

Read More

“I think we can win the series.” (Photo Credit: SinBin.vegas Photographer Brandon Andreasen)

Technically speaking, the Vegas Golden Knights are -140 favorites to win over the Los Angeles Kings in the first round. That’s the line at William Hill Sportsbooks which essentially indicates that they believe there’s about a 55-60% chance the Golden Knights will win the series.

When it comes to looking at the selections of many experts, the Golden Knights have definitely been selected less than the Kings, but that doesn’t mean no one is taking Vegas. Here on SinBin.vegas, we believe the Golden Knights are absolutely the favorites and think they’ll win in five games.

All of these opinions have turned the Vegas vs. Los Angeles series into one of the most intriguing of all eight matchups in the first round.

Do you feel like an underdog? -SinBin.vegas

Yeah. I mean, do we have a Drew Doughty or an Anze Kopitar? -Jonathan Marchessault

But you won the Pacific Division though? -SinBin.vegas

As a team yeah, but some of the best players in the world are on the other team and when you have that people expect you to win. -Marchessault

Are you guys favorites in this series? -SinBin.vegas

I’ll tell you after 6, 7 games. -Nate Schmidt

Going in though, do you feel like you are favorites or are you dogs? -SinBin.vegas

I think we can win the series. -Schmidt

Are you the favorites? -SinBin.vegas

No. -Gerrard Gallant

So you are an underdog? -SinBin.vegas

No. (laughter). Both teams won two games in the regular season and they were close games. I think it’s going to be two great hockey teams battling it out. They’ve got a lot of experience, that’s what I look at. Their team’s been together a lot, but that hasn’t affected us. I’m very confident in our group. I love our group. They’ve played hard all long, so we’ll see what happens. -Gallant

Let’s put it this way, no one really knows, and that’s what makes this such a fun series. No matter what you put stock in, you can come up with a compelling argument for both sides.

Underdogs, favorites, somewhere in between, who know’s who is actually right. All we really do know is we’re about to find out.

(Photo Credit: SinBin.vegas Photographer Brandon Andreasen)

During the regular season, NHL defenseman watch film, get prepared for their next assignment, and then move on. In the playoffs, these guys have to look at each other’s mugs for 7 straight games. Little things become more important, scouting goes further, and adjustments are constantly made as the series wears on.

The fun thing about the playoffs, it’s not just one game and you won’t see them for awhile. You can do certain things that might not have an effect in game one, but it may work game five, six, seven. -Luca Sbisa

It can go both ways though. For some a seven game series is beneficial, it can expose others.

You get to play the same guys four to seven times. You get know their tendencies. What sets them off, what makes them good. You just try to outplay them that way. -Sbisa

During the regular season a tough matchup comes and goes. If a player gets the best of a Golden Knight, they can move on and get the next guy. In the playoffs, there’s no moving on unless you figure out that same matchup over and over again.

Most likely we will be playing against Doughty. What is not to like that about the fact you’re going to be playing against one of the best defenseman in the league? Every hockey player wants a fun challenge and that’s a fun challenge. -Jonathan Marchessault

Read More