Golden Knights try not to think of Stanley Cup returning to Vegas on v…

Chandler Stephenson knows what this is like.

Five years ago, he and his Washington Capitals teammates went into Las Vegas and won the Stanley Cup, beating the Golden Knights in Game 5 of the final. Now he’s on the Golden Knights, who leave Florida on the verge of winning their first championship.

“It’s a different game than the other ones: There’s a lot more emotion, a lot more everything,” Stephenson said. “It’s one win away from a lot of dreams for a lot of guys.”

A dream they’re trying not to think about — at least not yet.

Vegas can hoist the Stanley Cup as soon as Tuesday by beating the Panthers on home ice. But the immediate task for players and coaches is not to dwell on how close they are.

Veteran defenseman Alex Pietrangelo, who captained the St. Louis Blues to their first title in franchise history four years ago, said it’s possible to overthink things in this situation.

His approach now?

“Try and get your brain away from it,” Pietrangelo said. “Get some rest, spend some time with our families and get ready to go back to work.”

The work so far has been nearly immaculate. Vegas has clearly been the better team in the final against Florida, and absent a late comeback in Game 3 might have been flying home Sunday with the Cup.

But the job isn’t done yet, and coach Bruce Cassidy knows all too well what it’s like to be one win away. His Boston Bruins lost to Pietrangelo’s Blues in seven games in 2019, so he’s not satisfied with getting to this point, no matter how well his team has played thus far.

“We’ll hit the ice and we’ll work on some things we feel we can do better from the previous four games and keep our rhythm up and get our touches in and heart rate up, etc., and prepare for the last one,” Cassidy said Sunday. “I think our preparation this time will be similar to what we’ve done with every other game. We know it’s a close-out game. I don’t have to tell the players that. They know what’s at stake.”

At stake, the dream…