Slumping Vegas Golden Knights officially eliminated, will miss Stanley Cup Playoffs for first time

It's official: Vegas will miss the NHL postseason for the first time in franchise history.

The Golden Knights' second-half collapse to this season left them with wafer-thin playoff hopes, and those were snuffed out entirely on Wednesday in a 4-3 shootout loss to host Chicago.

To stay alive, Vegas would have had to defeat the Blackhawks in any fashion and Dallas would have had to lose in regulation to Arizona. The Stars and Golden Knights played each other on Tuesday, where a regulation win by Dallas would have eliminated Vegas outright. Vegas led Dallas twice in that game, but ultimately fell in a shootout.

That put Dallas' magic number to clinch a spot ahead of Vegas at one point, which it dropped in the bag Wednesday in the loss to Arizona.

Now that the Stars have clinched the Western Conference's final playoff spot, the 16-team field is set. Seeding will continue to be determined this week.

«I'm surprised. I'm disappointed. I'm at the front of the line for responsibility,» Vegas coach Peter DeBoer said. «There's a lot of expectations on this team. It's not an easy thing and it doesn't feel good for anybody right now.»

For the Golden Knights, this goes down as a wasted season. The expansion club had made the playoffs in each of the past four seasons, advancing to the Stanley Cup Final in its inaugural 2017-18 campaign.

Vegas looked like it could be contenders again this season. In early February, the Golden Knights were a top-10 club in the league with a 28-16-3 record and hadn't suffered consecutive regulation losses in over two months.

Around that same time, captain Mark Stone was sidelined by an injury from which he would not return until early April. That was a significant loss but moving Stone to long-term injured