The set-up: The expansion Vegas Golden Knights have been the "feel-good" story of the 2017-18 season so far and the 39-15-4 Golden Knights now have 82 points, good enough to sit atop the NHL. They can stay there if they can complete a four-game sweep of the season series against the visiting Anaheim Ducks on Monday. The Golden Knights rolled to a 6-3 victory over Montreal on Saturday and own a comfortable lead in the Pacific Division, as the second-place Sharks have 72 points. The 29-20-1 Ducks come in off a 3-2 shootout victory at Minnesota and are playing for postseason lives. The Ducks moved into third place in the Pacific Division (69 points) with that win over the Wild and into a virtual tie for the second wild-card spot with Minnesota (also 69 points), although the 31-20-7 Wild have two games in hand.
Anaheim: The Ducks have recorded points in five of their last six games (4-1-1). "The pressure is ramped up a little more, obviously," Ducks forward Corey Perry (12 goals & 33 points) told the Orange County Register. "It's teams battling for the playoffs. … You need every point you can get. It seems every team's winning on every single night. It's a matter of going out and doing your job." Veteran center Ryan Kesler (7 goals and 35 points in 36 games), who missed almost the first three months of the season while recovering from hip surgery, sat out Saturday's game with a lower-body injury and is day-to-day. "We've known there's going to be a maintenance opportunity with him," head coach Randy Carlyle told reporters. "It wasn't going to be like he was going to step back into the lineup and play without having some ups and downs with it." All-Star Rickard Rakell leads the team with 22 goals and 46 points but has been limited to one assist over his last five games.

Vegas: William Karlsson (team-high 30 goals) and Reilly Smith come into Monday's contest riding seven-game point streaks and are tied for third on the team with 51 points overall. Jonathan Marchessault leads the way with 58 points (21 goals), including four in his last two games. David Perron (14 goals) has registered seven of his 53 points in his last six contests. Defenseman Nate Schmidt also has been on a roll of late with eight points (two goals, six assists) in his last eight games, while Ryan Carpenter has scored in three consecutive contests and five of his last seven.

The pick: A 3-0 start to the season, an eight-game win streak and most wins in a season by an expansion team (34), are among the records the Golden Knights have broken. And, it's still only mid-February. Vegas is an NHL-best 22-4-2 at home, outscoring the opposition 103-64 (that's a 3.64-to-2.25 GPG margin!). What's more, the Golden Knights have outscored the Ducks 11-6 in the three previous meetings (all wins) this season. Make Vegas an 8* play.