Golden Knights ready to ‘flip the switch’ for series with Sharks

SAN JOSE, Calif. — In the book of hockey cliches, one of the most popular among players this time of the year is some variation of the phrase “flip the switch.”

It’s almost always delivered in the context of something to stay away from, too. As in, “you don’t want to have to flip a switch” entering the playoffs.

“You try to avoid any bad habits, that’s what it is,” Golden Knights defenseman Nate Schmidt said. “You just don’t want to develop anything that you don’t want to be bringing into the postseason.”

Despite their wishes, the Knights are going to have to flip a switch … or turn it on, or pick it up — however they want to say it — as they begin defense of their Western Conference championship against the San Jose Sharks.

The best-of-seven quarterfinal series opens Wednesday at SAP Center. The Knights eliminated San Jose in six games when the teams met in the conference semifinals last season.

“You want to be playing good hockey going into the playoffs,” right wing Ryan Reaves said. “You don’t want to all of a sudden have to turn on a really intense game of hockey when maybe you’ve had your foot off the gas a little bit.

“I think we’ve struggled a little bit these last couple weeks, but I don’t think we lost our game. I think when we get into San Jose, we’ll be ready and we know what’s at stake here. We’ll be ready for that.”

The Knights held out several players down the stretch in order to heal minor injuries and dropped seven of their final eight games, including a 4-3 overtime loss at San Jose on March 30.

The Sharks also went through a similar scenario in the final weeks and closed on a 3-6-1 skid.

While it’s not an ideal way to enter the postseason, even Knights coach Gerard Gallant acknowledged it was difficult for his club to get up for every game while it spent every day after the All-Star break in third place.

But the challenge for the Knights now shifts toward trying to recapture the form that saw them win 10 of 11 after the trade deadline.

“Have we played good over the last seven, eight games? We’ve played OK,” Gallant said. “Do I know we’re going to play well come Wednesday? I’m not worried one bit.

“A lot of teams aren’t happy with their game right now, but it’s all the teams that had positions guaranteed and they know where they were going the last number of weeks.”

The Knights didn’t sprint across the finish line in their inaugural season, going 10-7-2 in March and April before they got on a roll starting in the first round.

And history shows that it helps to play well entering the playoffs, but it’s not a requirement to win the Stanley Cup.

Pittsburgh stumbled home at 4-4-2 in 2017 and went on to its second straight title. Chicago squandered the Central Division title in 2015 with four consecutive losses to end the regular season then captured its third Stanley Cup in six seasons.

The Knights were without goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury for much of their season-ending skid, but the bad habits they wanted to avoid were evident in the final two games.

Defenseman Shea Theodore and center Paul Stastny committed turnovers that led to goals in the 4-1 loss to Arizona on Thursday. Valentin Zykov had a pair of first-period miscues in the 5-2 loss at Los Angeles to close the regular season.

“When you’re playing like your normal self, you anticipate whether it’s going to be a turnover or not and you’re always on your toes,” Stastny said. “So, for us, it’s back to being on our toes, back to being aggressive and being able to roll those four lines.”

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Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.