By: Chris Nosek

In an Easter Sunday night matchup we will see the Minnesota Wild take on the Vegas Golden Knights. This is another matchup that we would love to see in a later round, but instead we get in the first round due to the playoff format that seemingly only Gary Bettman enjoys.

The Wild were off to an incredible start this season which was able to secure them a playoff position, but due to injuries they couldn’t hang onto a divisional spot. Karill Kaprizov missed half the season and still finished third on the team in scoring so getting him back will be crucial for their playoff push. With him and Eriksson Ek returning before the end of the regular season, both teams will be healthy for this matchup.

The coaching advantage clearly goes to Vegas as they have won a cup under Bruce Cassidy already and John Hynes has an overall playoff record of 4-15 and has never made it past the first round. The goaltending matchup is closer than you would think when you look at the career numbers, however Adin Hill has the cup with Vegas under his belt already. If Gustavsson falters then the Wild would turn to Marc-Andre Fluery while the Golden Knights would have to turn to Ilya Samsonov or Akira Schmid should Hill need to be replaced in the crease.

Series Prediction:

I don’t think any fan would be upset to see the legendary Marc-Andre Fluery go into his retirement with another Stanley Cup. The Golden Knights already had the scoring depth that any team would wish for, and this season was a breakout year for Pavel Dorofeyev. Dorofeyev led the team with 35 goals, while Eichel netted 28 himself while missing 5 games. The mantra of “one more for Flower” needs to be incredibly high and Kaprizov has to go Conn Smythe level for Minnesota to have a shot. While both of these can happen, the depth of scoring Vegas has is likely to not let up either. I think the Wild will steal a game they shouldn’t to keep the series going, so instead of losing in 5 games the series ends in 6.