Stars-Golden Knights Series Preview.

 1C Dallas vs Vegas 2WC

And for the last series in the Western Conference playoff picture, we're going to be looking at the Dallas Stars and the Vegas Golden Knights, as the Stars won the Western Conference this year and they're taking on this year's second wild card team in the Vegas Golden Knights which are this years defending Stanley Cup champs. 

History of Rivalry Between teams in playoffs:

Now this is an interesting Series as this is going to be the third time that these two teams have faced off against each other in the playoffs, the first time was back in the bubble when the Stars won in the Conference Finals to go to The Cup Final, the second one was last year when the Knights won in the Conference Final to go to The Cup Final so it's going to be interesting see who wins this year in round one, so both teams have won once in their playoff series history so it'll be interesting to see who wins series three and who takes the series lead in the playoffs.

Season Series Record: 

Dallas 0-1-2 4-11-7

Vegas 3-0-0 11-4+7

Darren Yamashita USA Today Sports

Each teams X-Factors: Johnston vs Hertl

Next we go over to the two teams X-Factors in my opinion for this series and the two X-Factors in my eyes are the young Johnston and the veteran deadline acquisition Hertl. Now for Dallas they had a lot of contributions offensively this year from a lot of different places and one of their brightest spots was Wyatt Johnston, now Johnston was a fantastic offensive contributor for the Stars this year getting over 30 goals as a very young player and is a great element of the Stars secondary scoring, so if he is able to carry his success from the regular season into the playoffs then I like the Stars chances of winning, while the Knights went out at the deadline and made maybe the biggest possible splash they could and that was adding forward Tomas Hertl, now Hertl didn't get to play much in the regular season with Vegas given he was recovering from a injury, but since he started playing there, not only has he fit in well but his presence on the power play has finally given Vegas a lethal power play, so if he keeps that up heading into the playoffs then I like Vegas chances of winning the series. 

Which teams are best at 3 Positions:

Offense: so for these teams offensively I'll probably give the edge to the Dallas Stars, I mean the offense the Dallas Stars have right now top to bottom is fantastic especially if Mark Stone's out for the first few games of the playoffs, I definitely think the Stars have a a much deeper and much better offense than the Golden Knights, and even if Stone gets back it's a real toss up as to who has the better offense.

Stephen R Sylvanie USA Today Sports 

Defense: defensively I would say the Knights have the better defense, I mean if Pietrangelo is able to be healthy which I think he will be then that defense which now that has Hanifin on it is extremely scary and as much as the stars have a fantastic blueline with Heiskanen and Lindell, it's just not going to cut it against extremely good Vegas Golden Knights defense.

Goaltending: goaltending wise you got to give it to Dallas, Oettinger I think is a much better goalie than Adin Hill or Logan Thompson so I definitely give the edge in net to Dallas as Oettinger is a top 10 goalie right now.

Biggest on Ice Matchup: Thompson/Hill vs Stars offensive group

Now in my opinion the biggest on ice matchup in this series of heavyweight contenders has to be Vegas goalies (Who ever they put in) against the high octane offense of the Dallas Stars. Now last year Vegas had some amazing play from unlikely goaltending as I don't think anyone thought that Brossoit in the first 2 rounds and Hill for the rest of it would be able to give Vegas good enough goaltending to win a Stanley Cup, but they did and now they will need extremely good goaltending again whether from Hill who took them to the cup last year or from Thompson who has been the better goalie down the stretch, meanwhile we saw in the regular season just who deep and lethal the Stars offense is as they had something like 6 or 7 20 goal scorers this year and got a lot of scoring from different places, so I think who wins the matchup of Vegas goalies vs the Stars offense will have a really good chance to win this heavyweight series.

Predictions:

So if I had to pick a team to win this one, I think it will be a tight series and in my eyes is a tossup series as I could see either team winning this one, it's going going be an extremely tight series but I say Dallas in seven as I think Dallas exercises their demons and after losing in the conference Final last year to Vegas, I say they down the defending Stanley Cup champs in round one so it'll be interesting to see, but I have Dallas taking down Vegas in round one.