Golden Knights in the middle of the best hockey trajectory in team history

(Photo credit: TSN)

Tonight, the Golden Knights look to extend their postseason winning streak to five games with a win in Game 3. It would be the seventh five-game winning streak in franchise history if they succeed. They completed two five-game unbeaten runs in 2023 and went on to win the Stanley Cup trophy in five games. Vegas also did it in 2021 and twice in the 2018 playoffs. By all accounts, the Golden Knights are on one of their greatest runs in club history. Maybe even the best play in franchise history.

VGK’s postseason winning streaks since club history

• 2025-26: 4 straight wins (Utah Game 4 – ANA Game 1)
• 2025-26: 4 straight wins (ANA Game 5 – COL Game 2)
• 2024-25: 3 straight wins (MIN Game 4 – Game 6)
• 2023-24: 2 straight wins (DAL Game 1 and Game 2)
• 2022-23: 5 straight wins (WPG Game 2 – EDM Game 1)
• 2022-23: 5 straight wins (EDM Game 5 – DAL Game 3)
• 2021-2022: Missed playoffs
• 2020-21: 5 straight wins (COL Game 3 – MTL Game 1)
• 2019-20: 3 straight wins (CHI Game 1 – Game 3)
• 2018–19: 3 straight wins (SJ Game 2 – Game 4)
• 2017-18: 5 straight wins (LAK Game 1 – SJ Game 1)
• 2017–18: 5 straight wins (WPG Game 2 – WSH Game 1)

Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves, but if the Golden Knights beat the Avalanche, this would be a franchise with a league-best six straight playoff wins. Those are the kind of stretches that only championship teams string together. Like the 2023 Stanley Cup Champion Golden Knights.

Help our defense when we don’t have the puck, do the little things right, participate and if you have an opportunity to produce and make plays, do it. It’s always been a focus of my game, and I think it’s something you really need to focus on at this time of year. We know how hard it is to win, and a lot of that comes from playing hard defense. -Jack Eichel

The 2024 Florida Panthers won six straight games en route to securing their franchise’s first Stanley Cup championship. The Panthers trailed 2-1 in the Eastern Conference finals before reeling off six straight wins. Florida defeated the New York Rangers in Game 4 of the Conference Finals and did not lose again until Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final. The 2021 Tampa Bay Lighting also won six straight games in the playoffs.

Overall, most Stanley Cup champions have at least one streak of five wins or more during their successful runs to hockey immortality.

Stanley Cup champions longest winning streak since 2010

• 2024-25: Florida Panthers – 5-game winning streak
• 2023-24: Florida Panthers – 6-game winning streak
• 2022-23: Vegas Golden Knights – 5-game winning streak (x2)
• 2021-22: Colorado Avalanche – 7-game winning streak
• 2020-21: Tampa Bay Lightning – 4-game winning streak
• 2019-20: Tampa Bay Lightning – 6-game winning streak
• 2018-19: St. Louis Blues – 3-game winning streak (x2)
• 2017-18: Washington Capitals – 4-game winning streak (x3)
• 2016-17: Pittsburgh Penguins – 3-game winning streak (x3)
• 2015–16: Pittsburgh Penguins – 4-game winning streak
• 2014–15: Chicago Blackhawks – 5-game winning streak
• 2013–14: Los Angeles Kings – 6-game winning streak
• 2012–13: Chicago Blackhawks – 5-game winning streak
• 2011–12: Los Angeles Kings – 7-game winning streak
• 2010–11: Boston Bruins – 5-game winning streak
• 2009–10: Chicago Blackhawks – 7-game winning streak

Only two Stanley Cup victors achieved consecutive wins of just three games during the playoffs. The streaks of the other remaining Conference Final participants vary widely. Carolina reeled off eight straight wins to open this postseason before dropping Game 1 of the ECF. Colorado also started the playoffs with six straight wins. Montreal, on the other hand, hasn’t won more than two consecutive games since the playoffs began.

Our guys know what to do. I’m going to tell you that now. Our room is good no matter what is going on. We’ll have to deal with some things in the next game when it comes to momentum swings coming our way. We have a good room. So you rest on that. At least, that’s what I rest on. We trust them. And most importantly, they trust themselves. -John Tortorella

Overall, it was a somewhat shocking but successful run for the Golden Knights. While their opponents got most of the praise, Vegas quietly went to work, making quick work of the Mammoth, the Ducks and now, so far, the Avalanche. Sure, the Western Conference Finals are just three games away, but a win tonight would all but guarantee the Golden Knights their third trip to the Stanley Cup Final.

At what point can we start debating which Golden Knights team is the best in franchise history.