Predicting every matchup in the Stanley Cup semifinals
Pacific Division – San Jose Sharks vs Las Vegas Golden Knights
Offense – Hey, these two teams are still playing hockey! Both the Sharks and Knights swept their first round opponents and have had plenty of rest ahead of their second round matchup. The Knights don’t have a lot of offensive stats to show for their first round victory. They took on the Kings who were the stingiest team in the NHL, so that’s not too surprising. No player had more than one goal and Reilly Smith led the team in points with three assists.
The regular season saw the Knights led by William Karlsson, Jonathan Marchessault and David Perron from a points standpoint. Vegas needs those players to show up more on the scoreboard to move on to the Western Conference Finals.
From the Sharks perspective, both Logan Couture and Joe Pavelski were at the forefront of their attack on the Ducks with five points each. Winger Evander Kane made himself right at home with four points, including three goals.
Edge – It seems odd, but Vegas holds the edge in the forward group. If Karlsson and Marchessault cancel out Pavelski and Couture, Vegas has the more balance attack past the two big guns. James Neal goes a long way towards swinging that to the Vegas side.
Defense – To be perfectly blunt, it’s hard to figure out how the Vegas defense was as good as they were during the regular season and in the four games in the playoffs. They have plenty of fine defenseman but there is nobody that is a number one by any stretch. Nate Schmidt is the closet player they have but that’s not exactly who you would draw up as a number one defenseman. Players like Colin Miller and Deryk Engelland are complimentary guys until they they got to Vegas and suddenly played well.
The Sharks have the luxury of dressing Brent Burns every night and he’s one of the more gifted offensive defenseman in the NHL. The next best defenseman is likely considered to be Marc-Edouard Vlasic and San Jose is in sort of the same boat as Vegas. The group plays better than the names and pedigrees would suggest.
Edge – It goes to San Jose soley because Vegas does not have anyone close to Brent Burns in their defense corps.
Goaltending – The Sharks have Martin Jones, who went to the Cup finals two years ago when the Sharks lost to the Pittsburgh Penguins. He played out of his mind that year and he showed good form in the first round. He’s going to need to be at his absolute best in this series because Vegas netminder Marc-Andre Fleury is on his “A” game. The man they call “The Flower” would have been up for the vein trophy if he had played enough games and he was lights out in round one. He out-dueled Kings goalie Jonathan Quick and only gave up three goals in four games and racking up a save percentage of .977.
Edge – It’s truly not that close given his current form. Fleury and the Knights have significant edge in the crease.
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Series Prediction – I did pick against the Knights in round one but I’m not making that mistake again. The Sharks have a lot more offensive firepower than the Kings had but Vegas is just on some sort of heater right now. Fleury backstops the Knights to the West Finals as Vegas bite the Sharks in 6 games.