The Vegas Golden Knights topped the Edmonton Oilers 6-4 in a track meet Wednesday, weathering Leon Draisaitl's masterly four-goal night to win the second-round series opener. Keep an eye on these important battlegrounds as the matchup continues.
The big guns
Connor McDavid led all NHL forwards in ice time in Round 1, skating for 25:10 nightly. Draisaitl ranked second at 23:47. Oilers coach Jay Woodcroft leans on his stars, and he played his trump card during the Los Angeles Kings series, uniting Draisaitl with McDavid to stack Edmonton's top line.
Smartly, Woodcroft stuck with the idea Wednesday. McDavid's crafty feeds bookended Draisaitl's epic performance. Exhibiting genius, Draisaitl banked another puck in off of Laurent Brossoit's nameplate as McDavid charged to the net to receive a potential pass.
Draisaitl was the second player in as many nights to pot four goals in defeat, emulating Dallas Stars veteran Joe Pavelski. The Oilers center is the first skater since the dawn of the Original Six era to score 11 goals in seven playoff games. Draisaitl maxed out at seven goals in the 2022 playoffs despite averaging a sublime two points per contest. If the Oilers rally in this series, he might obliterate the long-held NHL postseason record of 19 tallies.
Edmonton's firepower is unparalleled, but Vegas trots out stars, too.
Jack Eichel led the Golden Knights in shots on net and shot attempts in Round 1. Healed from back surgery, Mark Stone produced eight points and eight takeaways to shine at both ends. Vegas outscored the Winnipeg Jets 5-1 and owned 67.7% of the scoring chances when Stone skated with Chandler Stephenson and Brett Howden at five-on-five, per Natural Stat Trick.
Seen laboring at practice this week, Stone absorbed bumps and cross-checks throughout Game 1 but kept venturing to the grimy areas. He beat Vincent Desharnais in a puck battle, then capped the shift seconds later by scoring on a redirect. Eichel, who passed to the point to facilitate Stone's goal, stripped McDavid in the final minute to earn a free shot at Edmonton's empty net. Sliding the puck the length of the ice, Eichel made no mistake.
The secondary scorers
Familiar names (Evander Kane, Zach Hyman) and unsung heroes (Klim Kostin, Kailer Yamamoto) stepped up throughout Round 1 when Edmonton needed a boost. In all, 10 Oilers players scored against the Kings, with seven scoring multiple times to tie the Toronto Maple Leafs for the opening-round high.
That help dried up in Game 1. Hyman's elbow grease and passing touch contributed to two of Draisaitl's goals, but Edmonton's remaining lines were silenced.
The Oilers couldn't contain the Golden Knights' transitional attacks or protect the puck when forechecked. Vegas is clinical in those phases of the game. Michael Amadio and Chandler Stephenson raced into open space off the rush before they buried shots behind Stuart Skinner. Ivan Barbashev induced a Desharnais giveaway when he bagged the first of his two goals.
Stephenson and William Karlsson paced Vegas with four goals apiece in the triumph over Winnipeg. Howden (two tallies) and Amadio (crucial overtime winner) emerged as X-factor contributors. That diversity of scoring maximizes the Golden Knights' offensive potential, as their 14th-ranked attack this season trails every remaining team except the Carolina Hurricanes.
Watch out for the defensemen when Vegas pushes the puck up ice. Alex Pietrangelo combined with Shea Theodore to record eight assists in Round 1, though no Golden Knights blue-liner scored. That dry spell continued Wednesday, but Zach Whitecloud's outlet pass and wrister from the point sparked separate Vegas goals, including Barbashev's tip that restored the lead for good in the third period.
The Oilers' power play
The blatant mismatch that could sink Vegas in this series was significant but not decisive in Game 1. McDavid's vision and Evan Bouchard's heavy shot teed up Draisaitl to convert two of Edmonton's three power-play opportunities. The Oilers went 19-2-4 in the regular season when the power play struck multiple times, per Stathead. Usually, it's a winning formula.
Because the Oilers besieged the Kings in Round 1, capitalizing on nine of 16 power-play tries (56.3%), Vegas' penalty kill was spared the shame of ranking last league-wide. The Golden Knights let the Jets capitalize on five of 12 attempts (41.7%).
No team was penalized less than the Golden Knights this season. They never went a man down on the night they bounced the Jets, and they generally minimized the damage of Winnipeg's power play.
They have to avoid the box in this round. The obstruction penalties Nicolas Hague and Nicolas Roy took in Game 1 were excusable, unlike Pietrangelo needlessly roughing up Bouchard after the second-period horn sounded.
The goaltenders
Advantage Brossoit.
Neither goalie was solid in the opener, but the Vegas netminder had less to do and made the requisite saves, denying McDavid's four shots on net and all five high-danger shots he faced at five-on-five.
At the other end, Barbashev neutralized Draisaitl's first and third goals by scoring on Skinner within a minute of the ensuing faceoffs. Five shots eluded Skinner for the first time since March 11.
It's remarkable that one of these guys will be a conference finalist. Brossoit made 20 starts for the Oilers over a four-year span back when Draisaitl and McDavid were finding their footing in the league. He quieted fans of the Jets, his next team, who needled him with "You're a backup!" chants in Round 1. Demoted to the AHL at the outset of this season, Brossoit turned 30 in March and has now started eight games in a row for Vegas, a new career high.
Skinner withstood adversity against the Kings - being yanked a period into Game 4, being scored on when his stick snapped in Game 6 - to win with a meager .890 overall save percentage. Despite the rocky postseason introduction, Woodcroft's faith in the Calder Trophy finalist didn't waver. Seven appearances in, Edmonton's still waiting for Skinner to submit a dominant playoff performance.
Nick Faris is a features writer at theScore.
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