Golden Knights to play Kings in first-round Western series

The Vegas Golden Knights will play the Los Angeles Kings in the Western Conference First Round.

Vegas (51-24-7) won the Pacific Division in its first NHL season and will have home-ice advantage. Los Angeles (45-29-8) is the first wild card.
"There's no easy team. There's no easy way," said Golden Knights goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, a three-time Stanley Cup winner with the Pittsburgh Penguins (2009, 2016, 2017). "The series will be hard. Obviously it's a team with experience and they've been through it before. It'll be tough. But our guys are confident in our group."

The teams split four regular-season games, with each winning once in overtime. The Kings outscored the Golden Knights 11-10.
William Karlsson scored three goals, and Reilly Smith had one goal and five assists in the four games. Marc Andre-Fleury and Maxime Lagace each played two games in goal. Fleury was 1-0-1 with a 2.37 goals-against average and .931 save percentage.
Anze Kopitar had two goals and three assists, and Drew Doughty had one goal and three assists for Los Angeles. Jonathan Quick was 1-1-1 with a 3.51 GAA and .908 save percentage.
Kings defenseman Alec Martinez said they should have the advantage in experience against an expansion team.

"But there's still a lot of playoff experience," he said. "James Neal has been to the [Stanley Cup] Final last year (with the Nashville Predators) and Fleury has won it a couple times the past few years.
"I think it will be a really good matchup. They're a really fast team. They have had a lot of success this year. [T-Mobile Arena is] a tough building to play in, especially with a playoff atmosphere. The arena is going to be buzzing."
Vegas is the first NHL expansion team started from scratch to qualify for the Stanley Cup Playoffs in its inaugural season since 1967-68. No team that joined the NHL since 1991 advanced to the playoffs before its third season.
Los Angeles won the Stanley Cup in 2012 and 2014 and has not won a series since its second championship.