The Vegas Golden Knights concluded the 2025-26 NHL regular season with a 10-game point streak (7-0-1) and have not lost in regulation since John Tortorella replaced Bruce Cassidy as head coach in late March. The fans in “Sin City” are hoping the runs carry over into the postseason.
After capturing their second straight Pacific Division title and the fifth in their nine-season history, the Golden Knights take on the Utah Mammoth in a first-round series of the 2026 Stanley Cup Playoffs starting Sunday. Vegas, which has earned at least one point in each game since losing 4-1 to the Jets in Winnipeg on March 24, clinched first place in the division with Wednesday’s 4-1 home triumph over the Seattle Kraken.
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Tortorella, who guided the Tampa Bay Lightning to the Stanley Cup championship in 2004, is behind the bench of his sixth different NHL team after being hired by the Golden Knights on March 29. The 67-year-old has not led a team to the postseason since 2020 (Columbus Blue Jackets) and hasn’t won a playoff series since the previous year.
Vegas, which won the Stanley Cup in 2023, reached the Final in its first playoff appearance following the 2017-18 regular season — which also was its inaugural campaign in the NHL. The Mammoth aspire to do the same, as they secured the first wild-card spot in the Western Conference to punch their ticket to the postseason for the first time after officially joining the league as an expansion team in 2024-25.
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The Golden Knights and Mammoth met three times during the regular season, with Utah winning twice. Vegas recorded a 4-1 victory at Utah on Nov. 20 but was defeated 5-1 in the Beehive State four days later and was blanked 4-0 at home on March 19. The Mammoth, who lost their regular-season finale on Thursday but have won six of their previous nine games, haven’t allowed a goal in their last two contests at T-Mobile Arena as they posted a 6-0 triumph there on Nov. 30, 2024.
NHL betting odds at the major sportsbooks see the Golden Knights as the favorites in the first-round series, with futures betting odds in the -160 to -190 range. Meanwhile, the Mammoth are priced from +130 to +155. Learn how to read betting odds here.
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WESTERN CONFERENCE FIRST-ROUND SERIES |
||||
|
TEAM |
DRAFTKINGS |
FANDUEL |
CAESARS |
BETMGM |
|
Vegas Golden Knights |
-190 |
-188 |
-160 |
-190 |
|
Utah Mammoth |
+155 |
+155 |
+130 |
+155 |
Pick: Golden Knights to advance
The Mammoth are a great story as they qualified for the postseason for the first time after finishing seven points out of a playoff spot in their inaugural 2024-25 campaign. After the 5-3 loss to the St. Louis Blues in their final regular-season game, they finished with 43 wins and 92 points — five and three more, respectively, than they earned last season.
But despite having won two of its three meetings with Vegas in 2025-26, I can’t see Utah getting past a Vegas squad that possesses plenty of playoff experience. The Golden Knights have many players that are battle-tested, and 11 members on the current roster were on their Stanley Cup-winning team in 2023.
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Three of those player were among the team’s top five in scoring this season. Jack Eichel led Vegas with 90 points, four shy of the career high he set last campaign, and Mark Stone matched the personal best of 73 he recorded in 2018-19 while appearing in 17 fewer games. Meanwhile, Ivan Barbashev set career highs with 38 assists and 63 points.
Several members of the Mammoth also had career seasons, as Dylan Guenther — who didn’t play in Utah’s finale against St. Louis — recorded a team-leading 40 goals and 73 points while Nick Schmaltz entered Thursday with 33 tallies and 74 points. But the postseason is a different animal than the regular season, and I believe getting past the Golden Knights will be too difficult a task for the Mammoth.
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