The Vegas Golden Knights look like the team to beat in the Western Conference
There’s a strong case to be made that the Pacific Division boasts the NHL’s best and worst teams.
There really is no debate over whether the San Jose Sharks are the league’s premier cellar-dweller. They’ve given up 55 goals in 11 games while scoring just 12 of their own. That’s a stat line you might expect to see in a low-level junior league — not in the NHL. But it’s very, very real, and the Sharks likely aren’t pulling out of their spiral any time soon.
And then there are the Golden Knights, who went to war against the Sharks in amazing playoff matchups not that long ago. While San Jose has fallen off the face of the Earth, Vegas has remained at the very top of the NHL totem pole. The defending Stanley Cup champs have been on fire to start the 2023–24 season, going 12 games without a regulation loss before falling 4–2 to the upstart Anaheim Ducks on Sunday.
On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff Live, Tyler Yaremchuk and Frank Seravalli broke down the Golden Knights’ torrid start to the season while also conjuring up a hypothesis about them and one of their main Central Division rivals.
Tyler Yaremchuk: The Vegas Golden Knights, I am putting the stamp on them, Frank: they are an absolute, certified wagon. This team goes out and just absolutely toys with the Colorado Avalanche in a matchup that was supposed to be this great head-to-head, who’s going to be the best, hard-fought game. No, Vegas just rolls them. I am now convinced the only thing that will derail this Golden Knights team is injury.
Frank Seravalli: OK. You did see they lost to the Ducks on Sunday night, right? Their first regulation loss of the year?
TY: Don’t even care, you’re 11–1, I don’t care. When you smoke the Avs like that, you’re allowed to go party on the Strip and have an off night on Sunday.
FS: I’m with you, I’m kidding. The Golden Knights have been insanely impressive and I thought the Avs were, too, to start this year. When you consider the chip on their shoulder that they entered the year with, yeah, losing that game to the Golden Knights hurts — especially in the touchdown fashion that was the final result. I think the one thing that really stands out to me, and maybe this is just something to watch moving forward, maybe it’s nothing, it kind of just feels like the Golden Knights have the Avs’ number. Think back to the Avs in 2022, they go on and win the Cup, they don’t have any sort of Golden Knights team standing in their way.
Watch the full episode here …