The 2026 Western Conference Finals will feature the last two teams from the West to win the Stanley Cup. The Vegas Golden Knights are gunning for their second championship in the last four years. On the other end, you have the President's Cup-winning Colorado Avalanche, who are trying to make it back to the Stanley Cup Finals for the first time since 2022, when they won it all.

Last week, the Vegas Golden Knights eliminated the Anaheim Ducks from playoff contention and punched their ticket to the Conference Finals with a 5-1 road victory in Game Six. After Anaheim tied the series 2-2, the Knights outscored the Ducks 8-3 to win their next two games.

“It obviously feels great,” Vegas forward Mitch Marner said last Thursday. “We worked extremely hard for all these little goals that we set throughout the year, and you know, another one achieved, but obviously, the work just keeps getting harder and harder.”

As tough a decision as it was at the time, the Golden Knights' firing of Bruce Cassidy and naming John Tortorella the interim head coach with eight games remaining on their regular-season schedule turned out to be the spark this team needed to turn things around. Since then, Vegas is tied for third in the NHL in win percentage (.750).

“I thought as we finished up the regular season, having some success as we went on a little bit of a run there, that always helps,” Tortorella said during a May 16th press conference. “Feeling good about yourself and your confidence. I thought it started then. Right now, the way we finished a couple of series here, I think we've gotten better as each series went on. I think we feel really good about ourselves. I think it's very important in playoffs, it's not just the X's and O's and all. It's how you feel and the confidence level you have. I think we're in a good spot.”

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The Avalanche have been even better than the Golden Knights, with a 15-3-1 record in their last 19 games. Just when it looked like the Minnesota Wild were going to go on a run in the Western Conference Semifinals following a 5-1 victory in Game Three, Colorado turned on the afterburners and won its next two games to advance to the Conference Finals.

“Every year I've been here after my second year, it's like cup or bust… But I wouldn't want it any other way,” Avs coach Jared Bednar said on May 14th. “I don't think our players would want it any other way. I don't think the players that join our team at the deadline, the guys that have been here for years, would want it any other way… And, we're only halfway home. We could be leaving ourselves open to criticism later on in this year if things don't go well, but it's still the way you want it.”

You could argue that the series-clinching win over the Wild in Game Five was Colorado's most impressive victory of the campaign. The Avs overcame a 3-0 first-period deficit to beat the Wild in overtime, 4-3.

“It was a tough, tough night at the start, but the good news is we were down early, and we had time to come back,” Colorado star forward Nathan MacKinnon said after the win. “It wasn't too late to come back, and we figured it's a long time for someone to hold a lead against us. We have confidence in our game. We could get it going. I felt like we just needed to survive that first 10 by them. They were pushing hard. But that was fun. A lot of fun.”

Understandably, there is a lot of respect between these squads. The Avalanche might have won the regular-season series 2-1, but Vegas beat Colorado in OT, 3-2, when these teams last went head-to-head on April 11th. Very little separates these groups.

“From a coach's point of view, I’ve seen them play all year long. Not so much as a coach in my situation coming in so late this year, but I've seen them play a lot of hockey this year,” Tortorella said on Monday. “I'm not going to talk a whole bunch about them, but we certainly respect them. They have been the top team of the National Hockey League all year long. We know that. Come to the playoffs, we join together. I think it's two good teams, probably playing some of their best hockey starting the series. Let's have at it.”

Prediction for Vegas Golden Knights (+210) vs. Colorado Avalanche (-260)

This will undoubtedly be an intense matchup. I originally anticipated this thing to be decided in six games, but I’m now thinking seven after it was announced today that Cale Makar, the best defensive player in the league, was ruled out of tonight’s contest with an injury. Assuming he returns for Game Two since he's only listed as day-to-day, this series is bound to go to a Game Seven.

Colorado's goals should be stifling Vegas' top line and containing forward Mitch Marner. They should manage to limit Marner, considering their success against elite skaters in the previous rounds, like Artemi Panarin and Kirill Kaprizov, holding those guys to nine total points in nine games. Marner's 1.5-point-per-game pace won't be sustainable against the Avs' elite defensive group. Also, the Golden Knights' Brett Howden and Pavel Dorofeyev won't be able to keep up this scoring rate. Howden has eight goals after scoring just 12 in the regular-season games. Simultaneously, Dorofoyev has five games without a point in the playoffs, so he shouldn't be able to stuff the statsheet at will against the best team in hockey.

Vegas has not faced a team with this type of offense yet in the playoffs. The Utah Mammoth and Anaheim Ducks finished the regular season 12th and 13th in scoring (3.27 and 3.23 goals per game, respectively). The Golden Knights will struggle against the Avalanche and their top-ranked offense, which averages 4.11 goals per game in the postseason. On top of all that, Nathan MacKinnon is playing the best hockey of his career, and he should continue to have immense success in this matchup as the Conn Smythe Trophy favorite.

Prediction: Avalanche win the series in seven games.

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