This isn’t the first time Schmidt, a 13-season veteran, is on a team making its playoff debut. He was a part of the Golden Knights in their inaugural season, when they reached the 2018 Stanley Cup Final and lost to the Washington Capitals in five games.
Now he’ll be heading back to Las Vegas to open this series.
“It’s a rowdy atmosphere. It’s fun. It’s exciting,” said Schmidt, who played three seasons (2017-20) for the Golden Knights. “I look at it as like a positive. It’s so much fun to be a part of. You want that. I’d much rather it be deafeningly loud than getting incredibly quiet, so I think it’s going to be a fun Game 1.
“A lot of times the guys are going to look around and the bench is just going to be rumbling. The music’s going to be playing, you know, warmups, all the stuff that they’ve got going on. It’s a show. They do a great job.”
In addition to the Panthers and Golden Knights, Schmidt has played in the postseason with the Capitals and Winnipeg Jets.
Schmidt had 22 points (five goals, 17 assists) in 82 games this season, his most points since he had 32 (four goals, 28 assists) in 77 games with the Jets in 2021-22. As he gets ready to face his former team, he knows it will be critical to slow down the Vegas offense.
“They have a lot of guys that like to carry it, a lot of guys that can make plays inside the zone if you allow them the time and space,” Schmidt said. “I think this series is going to be indicative of that; who’s going to be able to slow down the other team’s speed.”
It will be a test for the Mammoth (43-33-6), who are the first wild card in the West, but Schmidt is confident that his team has what it takes to make some noise in the playoffs. They’ll try to do so beginning against the Golden Knights (39-26-17), the No. 1 seed in the Pacific Division.
“We deserve to be here and we’re a good team,” Schmidt said. “We can put pressure on teams and continue to roll over them and roll onto them. … We’ve shown that this year, when we want to do it and when we’re good at doing it, it’s tough to play against.”
