The Vegas Golden Knights will play the Minnesota Wild in the first round of the Stanley Cup Playoffs. Vegas (49-22-9) is first in the Pacific Division, 10 points ahead of Minnesota (45-30-7) which is the first wild card in the Western Conference. The Golden Knights will have home-ice advantage in the best-of-7 series.

Had the Wild stayed on the trajectory that lifted them to one of the best starts in franchise history and atop the NHL into mid-December while Kirill Kaprizov was the early MVP favorite, they would have reached their destination much sooner.