LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The puck drops tonight as the Vegas Golden Knights look to take on the Dallas Stars in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final.
Head coach Bruce Cassidy said the team has continued to improve with each series.
"Winnipeg, early on, I didn't think we managed the puck well at all. We gave a number of easy chances and we were playing too much of a regular season game, maybe with the puck, not taking care of it. It hurt us the first game and then we addressed it the second. We got progressively better," Cassidy said. "I think that carried over in Edmonton. Other games, we were able to play through that part. I would say our checking game has tightened up in the area."
VGK defenceman Alex Pietrangelo said another thing is keeping a fresh mindset that every day, there's a chance to win.
"It might not go your way throughout the game or the series. I think, for me, it's being able to make the necessary adjustments as we go," Pietrangelo said. "I think we've got some really, really good dialogue in our group to help adjust to who we're playing."
One of those adjustments was having captain Mark Stone back in the lineup.
"When you think of players, it's the flashy guys your eye goes to first but he's not that flashy guy. He's just a guy that gets it done. At the end of the night, he's on the end of the score sheet and you don't notice him until he makes his play," Cassidy said. "We played against him in Ottawa a lot. My nephew Drake told me that Mark Stone had the best stick in hockey. He was right. He might have the best stick in hockey in terms of takeaways."
Pietrangelo adds that it's the details that make Stone so dangerous.
"He does a lot of things throughout the game too that if you were playing against him, it would frustrate you whether it's stripping pucks away from you, knocking pucks down on passes, and maybe the small things that go unnoticed or some of us who see him take for granted. The little things can make big impacts as well."
The team will also be taking on former head coach Pete Deboer who now leads the Stars.
"You're going to play against former players and coaches. That's the way it is. You can't dwell on that," Pietrangelo said. "You do review the film but even moreso, you review what's happened to them the previous two series. Playoffs are a different thing and you can notice their tendencies over the past month and a half."
Deboer called the matchup "ironic."
"I've been in five conference finals in the last eight years and the one thing I can guarantee you is at the end of this, in two weeks, either Bruce or I is going to get too much credit for winning and one of us is going to get too much blame for losing," Deboer said. "You get to this point, the Final Four, the margins are razor thin. For me, this is a road-building, one of the toughest in the league, as we all know. Our guys have to be prepared for the momentum swings that come with playing in this building."
Both teams face off starting at 5:30 p.m. tonight.