With the dust starting to settle on the NHL offseason and the Vegas Golden Knights’ Stanley Cup celebrations beginning to wind down, it’s time to take a deep dive into the factors that determined this truly historic playoff run.
The Golden Knights were the second-fastest team in the modern era to hoist the Stanley Cup, doing so in just six seasons after joining the league. As an organization, they’ve challenged the traditional strategies of managing an NHL franchise with their aggressive decision-making, which has allowed them to remain competitive every season and ultimately built this championship roster.
While there are so many more insane facts that I could list that put this Golden Knights team among hockey’s greatest, let’s take a look at some of the most noteworthy statistics that came from these playoffs and try to figure out what separated them from their competition.
Even Strength Dominance
Throughout their 22 postseason games, the Golden Knights managed to score 66 goals at 5-on-5, which is the most by any team since the NHL began tracking goals by strength in 2010. The closest team was the Los Angeles Kings in the 2013-14 season, who scored 60 goals and needed 26 games to do so.
While it isn’t surprising that the Golden Knights’ production at even strength was the defining part of their offensive success, the rate of scoring was certainly unpredictable. After finishing 14th in scoring during the regular season averaging 3.26 goals-per-game, the Golden Knights led the league with a 4.00 goals-per-game average in the playoffs despite converting on just 21.9 percent of their power plays.
Head coach Bruce Cassidy played a huge role in this result with the way he spread out the offensive talent throughout the lineup rather than loading up the top six with their best players. The lines still managed to be structured very similarly, with two perimeter playmakers being slotted alongside a net-front presence.
The top line had Jack Eichel and Jonathan Marchessault as the primary puck carriers alongside Ivan Barbashev while Chandler Stephenson and Mark Stone found chemistry together along with the hard-nosed play from Brett Howden. Then Michael Amadio took major strides as an offensive threat and was promoted to play with William Karlsson and Reilly Smith, combining to create one of the top-three line combinations in the league.
While their placement in the lineup was changed around at various points throughout the postseason, their roles ultimately stayed the same and made for a relentless core of forwards that had defenders on their heels when playing at even strength.
Scoring By Committee
With any Stanley Cup run there are always going to be a number of contributors that propel each team to victory, but the Golden Knights are in rare company when it comes to their distribution of offense in the 2023 Playoffs. Twelve different players had at least 10 points in the postseason, with the 1984 Edmonton Oilers being the only team in NHL history to have more double-digit scorers (14).
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The Golden Knights also had 13 different goal scorers in the Stanley Cup Final, with the 2014 Chicago Blackhawks (14) and the 2019 Boston Bruins (16) being the only teams in NHL history to have more. To break down even further just how remarkably even the contributions were offensively, here’s a look at the goal distribution for the Golden Knights by line at even strength throughout the entirety of the playoffs.
- 1st Line: 18 goals
- 2nd Line: 16 goals
- 3rd Line: 16 goals
- 4th Line: eight goals
- Defensemen: eight goals
While the headline of goal scoring for the Golden Knights was Jonathan Marchessault’s incredible run of 13 goals in the final 15 games, they don’t win without contributions from players deeper in the lineup like Amadio. After being picked up on a waiver claim from the Toronto Maple Leafs in October of 2021, Amadio was able to find a role as a depth forward in the Golden Knights lineup, leading to a career-high 16 goals and 27 points through 62 games in the 2022-23 season.
Prior to this season, Amadio had played in just one playoff game with the Los Angeles Kings in the 2017-18 season, which happened to be against the Golden Knights. He finished with five goals and 10 points through the 16 games he played in the playoffs, including a pivotal double overtime goal against the Winnipeg Jets in Game 3 of their first round series.
Not a single forward on this team averaged over 19 minutes of ice time and found ways to thrive in nearly every on-ice situation, reinforcing just how fortunate the Golden Knights were to have such an offensively deep and interchangeable group of players.
Final Thoughts
The Golden Knights won nine of their 16 playoff games by three or more goals, with their team shooting percentage reaching an incredible high of 13.1 percent over their 22 games played. There’s always a level of luck that comes into play in the playoffs and these inflated numbers reflect that, but there are so many other factors that define a championship-winning season, and the Golden Knights’ health in the playoffs is one that goes overlooked.
For a team that struggled with injuries all season, Shea Theodore and Brayden McNabb were the only two players to miss time due to injury. It’s been a narrative that’s followed the Golden Knights over the past few years, and it’s no coincidence that once they were able to overcome that issue they were finally able to complete the goal that they came so close to accomplishing over the past few seasons.