Much of the chatter in the Stars locker room heading into the Western Conference finals series against the Las Vegas Golden Knights has been about the caliber of their opponent.
Every player who has spoken over the past few days has noted the Golden Knights will be their biggest challenge yet.
Vegas is scoring at a higher rate than any team left in the playoffs at 3.73 goals per game. It also allows the fewest goals at 2.90 per game.
“They’re a good team top to bottom,” Stars forward Jamie Benn said Wednesday. “They can match and play a hard game.”
Identifying the challenge was step one. Finding how to overcome it is the greater task.
Vegas doesn’t have too many glaring weaknesses. It earned the No. 1 seed for a reason. But to the Stars’ fortune, an area in which they have seen great success this postseason is where Vegas has faltered — in special teams.
The Stars have excelled both on the power play and on the penalty kill. Among the four teams remaining, Dallas leads the NHL in postseason power play goals with 13, having converted on 31.7% of its man-advantages. In those same categories, Vegas is last at seven goals and 17.5%.
Dallas also leads the other three teams in penalty kill percentage, preventing its opponents from scoring while up a player 83.3% of the time. That statistic is nearly the same from the regular season, where the Stars ranked third in the league.
Vegas’ success rate on the penalty kill is just 60%, near the bottom of all playoff teams and a stark drop from its 77.6% rate in the regular season.
Vegas did face Edmonton in the conference semifinals. The Oilers lead the league in power play goals and power play percentage by a landslide in both the regular season and the playoffs.
“The PK has been good for us the whole season,” said Radek Faksa, who has been a part of the Stars’ second penalty kill unit. “It’s huge, especially in the playoffs. It starts with faceoffs. We’re gonna win faceoffs and then we can save up to 30 seconds until they get back in the zone.”
The Stars have won 52.24% of their faceoffs while on the penalty kill in the playoffs. Vegas, on the other hand, is winning just 40.74%.
Faksa said staying at equal strength will be key in the series, as the teams have sent players to the box more often this postseason than any other team in the league. Vegas, which had a league-low in penalty minutes in the regular season, now tops that category at 226 minutes in the playoffs. Dallas isn’t far behind at 202.
As important as it will be to capitalize on any weaknesses Vegas may present, Mason Marchment said the Stars’ focus is more internal. Despite running into the conference’s top team, he believes a spot in the finals will be secured if they can play to their own strengths.
But the power play will certainly be one of them.
“Everyone’s tracking, everyone’s winning battles, we’re making smart plays at the right time,” Marchment said. “We’re not too worried about what’s going on over on the other side.”
