Jared Bednar is pretty adept at finding nuggets of information to speak highly of an opponent, but he didn’t need to dig very far with the Vegas Golden Knights.
The Colorado Avalanche coach had plenty of nice things to say about Vegas, one of the hottest teams in hockey since John Tortorella replaced Bruce Cassidy as the coach near the end of the regular season. Tortorella’s team is 15-4-1 in its past 20 games, including back-to-back six-game series wins against Utah and Anaheim to reach the Western Conference Final and a battle with the Avs.
“It’s a really good team,” Bednar said. “We just beat a really good team. This is a team that’s now gotten healthier with (William) Karlsson back in the lineup. They have a super deep forward group. Half their team has won a Stanley Cup, right after our guys won it. It’s an experienced group, so you’re not going to rattle them.”
Vegas looked like one of the best teams in the league, on paper, at the start of the season. The marquee edition was Mitch Marner, a superstar two-way talent from the Toronto Maple Leafs. He had plenty of playoff disappointments, both personally and with the team in Toronto, but Marner leads the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs with 18 points.
The Golden Knights struggled at times during this regular season, to the point of firing Cassidy — who led the club to a championship in 2023. One big piece that’s missing is defenseman Alex Pietrangelo, but Vegas added Rasmus Andersson before the trade deadline to help replace its No. 1 defenseman. Nic Dowd also arrived as a depth center, and Karlsson returned during the second round after not playing since October because of an injury.
Marner actually inked an eight-year, $96 million contract with Toronto on July 1, but that was part of a sign-and-trade to get him to Vegas. The Golden Knights sent current Avs forward Nicolas Roy to the Maple Leafs as part of the deal.
The team was pretty good the past couple of years, but you add a top-quality guy like Mitch Marner, and they’re going to be even better,” Roy said. “They made some changes also at the deadline. It’s a good team. They have a really good lineup. They have depth, and we do as well. Looking forward to it.”
Vegas leads the tournament with 44 goals, while Colorado has scored the most per game. The success for both teams, despite the offensive numbers, is rooted in the defense.
The Golden Knights were one of the best teams at preventing scoring chances throughout the regular season, but their goaltending was an issue until recently.
“They’re very well defined in the structure of their game,” Bednar said. “They’re a stingy defensive team, and they’ve got lots of firepower.
“This team is probably in a better situation than Minnesota, because Minnesota had key injuries. These guys are healthy and firing on all cylinders since the coaching change.”
FOOTNOTES: Cale Makar, Brent Burns and Artturi Lehkonen did not practice Saturday. Josh Manson was on the ice ahead of practice, but left early. Sam Malinski participated, but in a red, non-contact jersey. Lehkonen and Malinski missed the final two games against Minnesota, while Makar was clearly playing through injury. Manson missed the first three games of the series.
Bednar said players who missed practice are “dealing with stuff and are day-to-day.” He did say after a follow-up question that “some of them” will practice between now and Game 1, which is Wednesday night at Ball Arena.
