The Ducks haven\u2019t played the Golden Knights since John Tortorella took over as coach March 29, either. The Golden Knights finished the regular season on a 7-0-1 run and defeated the Utah Mammoth in six games in the first round.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt looks like they\u2019ve got a little more pace,\u201d Anaheim coach Joel Quenneville said. \u201cThey look like they\u2019re playing well. They had a good series. They had a good run at the end of the year as well, so they\u2019ve got the momentum going right now. We\u2019ve seen these guys play a lot of hockey — when I say that, winning hockey in the playoffs. They know the recipe, and so that\u2019s going to be the challenge.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that we can learn. We learned a little bit in our last series. Some of our younger guys got some exposure that we\u2019re happy to see, and I thought they played well, and I think the momentum and enthusiasm from winning that series helped us in the last couple days, just being around it. We\u2019re excited about looking forward to this challenge.\u201d<\/p>\n
Killorn sounded confident.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe feel like we\u2019re a fast team,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019re a physical team, maybe not as big of an underdog as people some people would expect. I know a lot of our players don\u2019t have a ton of playoff experience, but in the short amount of time that we\u2019ve played, they\u2019ve done really well with it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Here are three things to watch in Game 1:<\/p>\n
1. Team USA<\/p>\n
Each team is led in scoring by a player who won gold for Team USA at the Olympics in Milan in February. Vegas center Jack Eichel<\/a>\u00a0and Anaheim defenseman Jackson LaCombe<\/a>\u00a0each has nine points (one goal, eight assists) in six games.<\/p>\n Eichel is an established star and Stanley Cup champion who played a huge role for the United States. This is more of a coming out party for LaCombe, who didn\u2019t play as an injury replacement at the Olympics and is in his first NHL playoff run.<\/p>\n LaCombe can tie Joe Micheletti for the fewest games by a defenseman to 10 career playoff points in NHL history. Micheletti had 10 points (one goal, nine assists) for the St. Louis Blues in 1981.<\/p>\n