San Jose fans still have that Game 7 burned into memory, the one that sent the Sharks past the “hated” Vegas Golden Knights. It came after Cody Eakin was assessed a major that should’ve been a minor for cross-checking Joe Pavelski, and Marc-André Fleury got lit up for four goals.
That run became San Jose’s version of a Stanley Cup. The Sharks then knocked out the Colorado Avalanche in the Second Round before falling to the eventual champion St.
Louis Blues. And yes, the Blues part still comes with a Brett Hull wink.
The playoff side of this matchup has at least looked competitive. Vegas holds a 7-6 edge in series, with each team owning one series win, so things are even enough when the games matter most.
The regular season tells a completely different story.
Vegas is 31-2-5 all-time against San Jose in the regular season, and the Golden Knights’ only two regulation losses came on January 10, 2019, by a 3-2 score, and on November 15, 2022, by a 5-2 score. Both of those losses happened at T-Mobile Arena.
The Sharks have never beaten Vegas in regulation at SAP Center during the regular season. That’s the kind of stat that makes the whole rivalry label feel a little shaky.
It also puts the bigger picture in focus. Vegas has a Stanley Cup and has now reached its third Stanley Cup Final. San Jose, meanwhile, has one Stanley Cup Final appearance, and that came against Sidney Crosby and the Pittsburgh Penguins.
Maybe that changes if Macklin Celebrini becomes the kind of player who can drag the Sharks into a different tier. But with an $18.8 million cap hit to work with, that climb is going to be a tough one.
For now, the reality is pretty plain: this is a one-sided rivalry, if it’s a rivalry at all.
In Other News...
Jack Eichel Is Forcing A Golden Knights Debate Fans Never Expected
Since arriving in November 2021, Jack Eichel has done just about everything the Golden Knights could have hoped for, and then some. He has become one of the franchises defining players, capped by a 94-point season in 2024-25 that set a new team single-season scoring record and reinforced how central he has been to Vegas attack.
He was also the engine of the clubs 2022-23 Stanley Cup run, leading the NHL in playoff points and putting himself in the same conversation as some of the most important names in Golden Knights history. With Jonathan Marchessault, William Karlsson and Mark Stone all part of that broader legacy, Eichels rise has quietly pushed the organization into a debate it probably never expected to have this soon. [Read more 🡒]
Jack Eichel Is Giving Golden Knights Fans A Real Argument Again
Jack Eichel is back in the middle of a familiar kind of conversation for Golden Knights fans, the sort that turns into a barstool debate as soon as rankings and projections start getting tossed around. Harman Dayal of The Athletic slotted Eichel and William Karlsson as Tier 3 centers, a placement that naturally drew some pushback from a fan base that has watched Eichel become one of the most important players in the lineup. Around the same time, Bleacher Report put a little more shine on the picture by projecting Eichel as a candidate to become the first player in franchise history to hit 100 points in a season.
The backdrop makes the discussion even livelier because Eichel is not being measured in a vacuum. San Joses Macklin Celebrini just signed a five-year deal worth an $18.8 million annual average value, a figure that comes in higher than the contracts of both Mitch Marner and Eichel. For Vegas, it is another reminder of how quickly the market around elite talent keeps changing, and why Eichels value can look different depending on whether the argument starts with rsum, role or pure ceiling. [Read more 🡒]