Western Conference contenders should fear Golden Knights

The Vegas Golden Knights were licking their wounds three weeks ago around the time of the NHL trade deadline.

After a failed and mildly humiliating attempt to dump Evgenii Dadonov on the Anaheim Ducks, Vegas was shut out on consecutive nights by the Minnesota Wild and Winnipeg Jets in a 36-hour span after officially finalizing its roster. Suddenly the overwhelming preseason favorites in the Pacific Division were in a precarious spot well outside of the postseason picture, and with the teams they were chasing in both the division and wild card boasting as many as four games in hand.

In their efforts to be great, it seemed the Golden Knights stretched themselves too thin this time. As a result, and for the first time ever in franchise history, the expansion team that became an immediate power broker wouldn’t be involved in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

In order to reverse the momentum toward that, two things needed to happen.

For one, Vegas needed to start winning games. But most importantly, another team had to stumble. Unfortunately for the Golden Knights, the teams that were in closest touch — Dallas and Edmonton — have been two of the eight hottest teams in the NHL since the trade deadline.

Failure needed to come from perhaps a more unlikely source, and the one team that didn’t boast the benefit of extra games on the schedule.

Enter the Los Angeles Kings.

Los Angeles has lost three straight games and six of its last nine since the Golden Knights suffered those shutout losses after the deadline. For Vegas, it has resulted in a four-point swing, and a game secured in hand, with the Golden Knights rattling off six wins from seven — which happened to include some heroics from Dadonov — over the same time…