Golden Knights vs Stars opens final 18-game push

That matters even more right now because Vegas still needs more of its offense to arrive on time. Too many recent games have forced the Golden Knights to chase from behind and trip in the win column. Eichel has still produced through it, and his line remains the clearest path for Vegas to grab control of games earlier.

Mitch Marner has also stayed productive, with six points in his last five games. Pavel Dorofeyev has two goals in that span and remains one of the club’s most reliable finishers.

Dallas is rolling

Dallas presents a different kind of problem. The Stars are not just hot. They are balanced.

They are scoring 3.43 goals per game, allowing 2.68, winning 52.3 percent of their faceoffs, and carrying a 29.9 percent power play into the night. Vegas has strong special-teams numbers of its own, but the Stars have been cleaner overall and far more consistent over the last two weeks.

Jason Robertson enters on a tear with eight points in his last five games. Wyatt Johnston has three goals in that span. Jake Oettinger and Casey DeSmith have both given Dallas steady work in net.

The Golden Knights also know this matchup has already been thin once. Dallas took the first meeting 5-4 in a shootout on Jan. 29.

No room to drift

The challenge for Vegas is not complicated. It has to turn enough good stretches into complete ones.

The Golden Knights have had long patches lately where they have carried play, but they have not always protected themselves from the short mistakes that swing games. Against Dallas, that usually gets punished.

That is why this opening step of the final 18 matters. Vegas does not need to look at the whole runway at once. But it does need to start stacking points again, and it needs to do it against one of the league’s hottest teams.

Puck drop is 5 p.m. PT in Dallas.