The Vegas Golden Knights learned something ugly last season: the Anaheim Ducks could make life miserable in a hurry.
Anaheim took the season series, sweeping it in a weird one with two of the three games going to overtime. That alone was enough to raise eyebrows, but the losses also put a couple of Vegas problems in plain view. The goaltending wasn’t holding up the way the defensive structure needed it to, and there was also real tension around then-head coach Bruce Cassidy, with rumors circulating that players were tuning him out.
The Ducks, though, are carrying issues of their own into this season. Their restricted free agent mess is still hanging over them, with Leo Carlsson nearly ending up with the Philadelphia Flyers and Cutter Gauthier still in contract talks. If you lose your best scorer from last season, that’s a problem you can’t just skate around.
So the path for Vegas is pretty straightforward: attack early, attack often, and don’t give Anaheim room to breathe.
That starts with offensive pressure. The Golden Knights need to stay on the gas against a Ducks team that was easy to score on last season, allowing 3.51 team goals per game, which ranked 29th in the NHL.
Anaheim was also tied for 29th in team save percentage at .883. That’s the kind of profile that invites pressure.
Lukas Dostal was part of the issue. For a 26-year-old goalie, a 3.10 GAA and an .888 save percentage didn’t exactly inspire confidence. He should be better by the 2026-27 season, but Vegas’ job in this matchup is simple: wear him down in the offensive zone, pile up zone time, and keep forcing him to make stop after stop until the game starts to tilt.
The Golden Knights also need to be especially sharp in the first period, where they struggled the most. They showed last season in the Stanley Cup playoffs, especially in Game 6, what that kind of start can look like when it goes right.
Vegas scored an even-strength goal, a shorthanded goal and a power play goal in the opening period. Mitch Marner was right in the middle of it, scoring once and adding a shorthanded assist.
Marner ended up taking over that series, finishing with five goals and six assists. He also kept pushing back against the idea that he wasn’t a playoff performer, and he did it against a Ducks team that proved pesky enough to cause real problems. That same kind of energy should be front and center again as Vegas tries to seize control of the regular season matchup.
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Golden Knights Have One Clear Edge Against A Canucks Letdown Spot
The Golden Knights have usually been able to lean on one clear advantage when the Canucks come around: their ability to turn special teams into a separator. Vancouvers defensive-zone puck control has been a problem in this matchup, and that matters because Vegas has long profiled as a team that can pressure mistakes, force whistles and make a game feel tilted before five-on-five play ever settles in. With the Canucks still in a rebuilding phase for the 2026-27 season, the gap in structure and execution becomes even more important for a Vegas group that tends to know exactly where to look for an edge.
For the Golden Knights, the path is straightforward even if it is not always easy to execute. Draw penalties, keep the puck in the offensive end and let the power play do the rest against a Vancouver penalty kill that has struggled to hold up. The personnel on Vegas man advantage gives that plan real teeth, and it is the kind of matchup detail that can decide whether this becomes a routine win or one of those nights where a supposed letdown spot turns into a trap for the other side. [Read more 🡒]
Golden Knights Enter 2026 With Three Huge Franchise Goals Still Alive
The conversation around the Golden Knights is already drifting toward 2026-27, and for a franchise that has spent most of its life trying to stay a step ahead of the league, that feels fitting. The speculation is centered on a roster that still has real upside, with Carter Hart a possible factor in goal and the broader expectation that Vegas could keep stacking regular-season success if its core continues to hold.
What makes the projection interesting is how it ties individual milestones to team history. There is a path for the Golden Knights to chase a franchise first at the top end of the scoring race, while also keeping alive the idea of another Pacific Division run that would extend their recent dominance. Nothing is decided, of course, but the fact those goals still feel reachable says plenty about where this team stands entering another winter of expectation. [Read more 🡒]