Do Ducks, Golden Knights have a chance of winning in Round 3?
The second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs in the Western Conference can be seperated into the “main event” and the “undercard”, to borrow the parlance of boxing. The main event is certainly the Central Division clash between the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Colorado Avalanche and the 104-point Minnesota Wild. The undercard, on the other hand, is the Pacific Division battle between the Vegas Golden Knights and the Anaheim Ducks, both of whom finished the regular season with fewer than 100 points.
With Anaheim’s 4-3 Game 4 win on Sunday, their series is tied at 2-2 and could go either way. The question is, can either the Ducks or the Golden Knights provide a serious challenge to one of those Central Division titans in Round 3? Many are treating that Avalanche-Wild series as the de facto Conference Finals, but if either Vegas or Anaheim hit their stride, they have enough talent to reach the Stanley Cup Finals.
On Monday’s episode of Daily Faceoff LIVE, hosts Tyler Yaremchuk and Steve Peters discussed whether the Ducks or Golden Knights would have a better chance of pulling off the upset next round.
Tyler Yaremchuk: With what you’ve seen so far through these four games, is there one of these teams that you think has a better shot, if they move on, of getting past a Colorado or Minnesota?
Steve Peters: It depends which of these versions of these teams show up? This has been back and forth like a ping-pong match because the Golden Knights do the things they do well. They’re bigger, they’re more experienced, they can win those battles along the wall, they’re supposed to be a better defending team than Anaheim. Anaheim is younger, quicker, and they’re going to outscore you. It’s been back and forth as to which of those teams can play to their identity the most.
I think it’s going to be interesting. I like the Golden Knights experience. I know with (Mark) Stone out of the lineup, that shifts a little bit, but (Mitch) Marner’s been elite. If they can get solid goaltending, and that’s a huge if with Carter Hart, they can win this series. I think that’s going to be an interesting matchup for Colorado because they’re not going to try to match Colorado’s speed, which is what Anaheim’s going to do. It’s going to be speed vs. speed, and who can outscore the other, and I don’t know if you want to get into that kind of match against the Colorado Avalanche.
You can catch the full discussion and the rest of Monday’s episode here…