Dimming the neon lights of Vegas

**What party?** · April 9th, 2018, 04:53 PM

Beyond expanding our domination in every direction over and above the goals allowed/power play kill this season was wondering what everyone is (realistically) expecting from this series.

**Dr. No** · April 9th, 2018, 05:00 PM

Fairly evenly matched, as the season series showed. Vegas has speed, Kings do too. Kings have the edge in goal, defense and PK. Vegas has more balanced scoring lines. I think the Kings will be inconsistent, but eventually wear down the Knights offense.

Kings in 7.

**DRGinLBC** · April 9th, 2018, 05:04 PM

What he said...but Kings in 6.

**Moog** · April 9th, 2018, 05:21 PM

If the Kings can play their game on a consistent basis, then they will have little trouble with the Knights.

Otherwise, the Knights will give them fits.
If the Kings try to play the Knights game, they will lose.

**santiclaws** · April 9th, 2018, 05:21 PM

It'll be interesting to see if the Vegas scorers, like Karlsson, who suddenly broke out this season will have the same success when faced with much tighter playoff checking. And whether Fleury will be as strong in the postseason as he was in the regular season; he has a rather checkered playoff history.

The Kings' goal differential for the season was +35, on the strength largely of their NHL-best defense (2.9 GPG; 2.43 GAA); Vegas' difference was 43, based in large part on their offense, but their defense was certainly solid as well (3.3 GPG; 2.71 GAA). The Kings' offensive numbers got a boost when Carter came back - to over 3.0 GPG. Conventional wisdom says that defense wins out in a 7-game series. The Kings have Doughty and Vegas doesn't. They also don't have a defensive center of Kopitar's quality. Those two guys could be the difference. So I'm picking the Kings in 7. Should be a hell of a series.

P.S. It's *%*^( great to see the Kings back in the playoffs!

**kings022** · April 9th, 2018, 05:31 PM

Kings in 5 or 6. Assuming they show up, that's been an issue for them.

**TooCool** · April 9th, 2018, 05:48 PM

Vegas is way more creative and they actually move around during the PP. Those are the only two things that scare me the most.

I know Fleury has 3 rings himself but he didn't actually win all 3 did he? Wasn't he a backup goalie 1 or 2 times with Pittsburgh because Matt Murray or someone else was playing better?

But with the Kings, we'll be okay as long as Kopitar, Carter, Brown, Pearson, Toffoli, Doughty, Martinez, and Quick show up to play. During that Dallas game, you could probably tell that the Kings wanted to lose because Carter and Kopitar were clearly half assing everything on the ice. So as long as they don't do that for the playoffs, we should be okay.

The toughest thing about Vegas is that for whatever reason they always get off to a hot start. They can score 2-3 goals within the first 10 minutes on you if you're not prepared. The issue with our Kings this year is that they constantly go down early in the game. Come playoff time, if that crap happens we might not be able to come back.