Vegas Start Playoffs as No. 1 Team in West

Good morning and happy Friday, April 14th.

We’re officially entering the best time of the year for us hockey fanatics as the NHL regular season has concluded with the full first round of the playoffs schedule announced later today!! 🎉🍾

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The Vegas Golden Knights continue to raise the standard by which all future expansion teams will be judged.

The Golden Knights downed the Seattle Kraken 3-1 Thursday to win their third Pacific Division title and claim the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. Vegas will face the Winnipeg Jets in the opening round of the playoffs.

This will be the first playoff meeting between the two teams since the Golden Knights beat them in five games in the 2018 Conference Finals.

Vegas is the third franchise in NHL history to win at least three division titles in its first six seasons. The others: Edmonton Oilers and Boston Bruins.

Coach Bruce Cassidy’s squad totaled 111 points to establish a new franchise record. The Golden Knights have qualified for the playoffs in five of their six seasons of existence. They also tied the team record of 51 wins.

Laurent Brossoit made 33 saves for the Golden Knights. He was 7-0-3 in 11 games (10 starts) this season. That’s the most starts by an NHL goalie without a regulation loss since Jean-Sebastien Aubin was 9-0-2 for the Toronto Maple Leafs in 2005-06.

He’s expected to start in the postseason for Vegas.

Reilly Smith also scored his 200th career NHL goal to help the Golden Knights close out the regular season with an eight-game points streak (5-0-3).

Jack Eichel returned to the Vegas lineup after missing two games with an upper body injury. He posted an assist and two blocked shots.

🐻 Nobody is perfect, but the Boston Bruins often played like they were this season. They added to their NHL records for wins (65) and points (135) by downing the Montreal Canadiens 5-4 Thursday. They will play the Florida Panthers in the opening round of the playoffs. David Pastrnak scored his 61st goal. Michael Pezzetta had a goal and an assist, Patrice Bergeron left the game because of an upper body injury, but Boston coach Jim Montgomery said he is “fine.” Bergeron wanted to return to the game, but Montgomery wouldn’t let him.

🛢️ The Edmonton Oilers are the NHL’s hottest team heading into the postseason. The Oilers pounded the San Jose Sharks Thursday 5-2 for their ninth consecutive win. Connor McDavid boasted an assist to extend his point streak to 16 games for Edmonton. McDavid finished with a league-leading 153 points. The Oilers were 14-0-1 record in their final 15 games of the regular season. Leon Draisaitl had a goal and two assists. Stuart Skinner made 27 saves for his 29th win of the season. That moved him past Grant Fuhr (1981-82) for the most by a rookie in Edmonton history.

In their last playoff series win, who did the Toronto Maple Leafs beat in the 1st round of the 2004 playoffs?

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TRIVIA ANSWER

The last playoff series the Toronto Maple Leafs won was in the 1st round of the 2004 playoffs against the Ottawa Senators