Oilers HC Kris Knoblauch makes his thoughts clear on 'dangerous' Golden Knights ahead of Round 2 battle

Thanks to a thrilling opening-round victory, the Edmonton Oilers and Kris Knoblauch still have a chance to avenge their title loss last year. They needed six games and lost the first two, but they prevailed.

They'll take on the Vegas Golden Knights, who were the top team in their division, finishing nine points ahead of them. Vegas was the third-best team in the league in points.

Knoblauch started looking at the matchup by saying he thinks the Golden Knights do a lot of things well, although he didn't discredit the LA Kings. However, unlike the Kings, Vegas has a ton of offensive firepower from every single position.

"Usually, you think of big, strong defense on being stay-at-home guys that don't produce much offense in the play," Knoblauch said during Monday's press conference. "But I don't think that's the case with them at all. I think all six of them provide some offense, but make it hard to get for the opposition, hard to get to the net, just with their size and strength, with their systems."

He added that LA was "a mountain" completely different from the Golden Knights.

"I think the biggest thing is just how dangerous they are off the rush as a group," Knoblauch said. "And they scored more goals off the rush than any team, than any child during the regular season. So that can be really important, that we were managing pucks, and we have a good back check to limit those opportunities."

Knoblauch and the Oilers are aiming to avenge a Game 7 loss in the Stanley Cup Final last year to the Florida Panthers, but they face a tall task in getting back to that stage.

---

Kris Knoblauch addresses key Oilers changes

Kris Knoblauch has been experimenting with the Edmonton Oilers' lineup. He is considering going back to Staurt Skinner in goal instead of Calvin Pickard, and in the LA Kings series, he wasn't sure how to set his lines.

Kris Knoblauch has made some changes (Imagn)

“(We didn’t know) what our lines were going to be like. Who was going to be playing well," Knoblauh said on Monday, via Sportsnet. "Now, we’ve got some idea of it. They’re going to change, especially in Vegas (where) they’ve got last change. But for me, knowing what I’ve got, I’ll have a better understanding than I did two weeks ago.”

As the series progresses, Knoblauch could continue making changes to keep his team at an advantage.