Analyst considers Golden Knights as playoff team to watch

With only a couple of games remaining in the regular season and their spot atop the Pacific Division secured, the Vegas Golden Knights have their sights squarely on the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

Winners of four of their last five games, the Golden Knights find themselves peaking at the right time. Despite being in a Western Conference loaded with Cup contenders, Vegas has the talent, coaching and championship pedigree to go on a deep run. Assuming the team is at full strength, the Golden Knights should be favorites to win their second Cup in three years.

Analysts appear to agree with that assessment.

A prominent hockey analyst listed Vegas as a team to watch in the Stanley Cup Playoffs.

During a media conference call with ESPN commentators, Ray Ferraro mentioned Vegas as a team more people need to talk about as a legitimate contender.

“I’ve just had this gut feeling (sic) watching Vegas play. They just look like a playoff team,” Ferraro said. “Like, they look like a team that is big enough and skilled enough, and I think Jack Eichel is playing as well as I have ever seen him play. I’m curious to see how — Vegas is in a pretty good spot, I think, given the way that Edmonton and L.A. are going to go at it again. I think they’re just going to be sitting there.”

“They’re going to have a hard first-round series, but I really like Vegas. I think we kind of expect this level of success from them now already. I think we’ve kind of uncovered it how good they are.”

Despite Vegas facing one of the wild-card teams in the opening round of the playoffs, their journey to the Stanley Cup Final is far from easy.

Assuming they get past the first round, the Golden Knights will have to face either the Los Angeles Kings or Edmonton Oilers. Both teams have given problems to Vegas; the Kings, in particular, won the season series against the Golden Knights three games to one, scoring at least five goals in all of their victories. From there, they face the unenviable task of facing whoever comes out of the murderer’s row that is the Central Division quadrant of the bracket.

Out of the group of potential opponents, former NHL defenseman P.K. Subban listed the Colorado Avalanche as a team that could give the Golden Knights some difficulty.

“Colorado, that’s the team to really watch in the playoffs. In the West that’s the only team I really think can take out Vegas that’s deep enough to do it,” Subban said. “I don’t think Dallas can do it unless they show me differently, but I think the team to watch is Colorado with [forward Nathan] MacKinnon and [defenseman Cale] Makar and 4 Nations picking up [center Charlie] Coyle and all these guys potentially getting [forward Gabriel] Landeskog back, which is going to be a huge boost for their team.”

The Golden Knights do not have a cakewalk in front of them to bring the Stanley Cup to Vegas again, but they have all the tools necessary to pull it off.