DeBoer: Golden Knights 'got what we deserved' in Game 1 loss

Vegas Golden Knights head coach Peter DeBoer believes his club didn't play nearly well enough to earn a win in Game 1 of the Western Conference Final on Sunday.

"Bottom line is we got what we deserved," DeBoer said following the 1-0 defeat to the Dallas Stars, according to The Athletic's Jesse Granger. "We didn't play hard enough for long enough tonight."

After a dramatic Game 7 victory over the Vancouver Canucks to reach their second conference finals in three years of existence, the top-seeded Golden Knights put together one of their worst performances of the playoffs.

Vegas managed only 46.91% of the shot attempts, 34.29% of scoring chances, and 41.39% of expected goals for the contest at five-on-five, according to Natural Stat Trick.

DeBoer added that the Stars present a different challenge than Vegas' previous playoff opponents did.

"This is going to be a different series," he said. "We haven't played the best defensive team or one of the top two defensive teams in the league yet. So this is going to be a different series, and we're going to have to get our head around that and find a way to create offense. It's not going to look or feel like the last series or the (Chicago Blackhawks) series."

Dallas ranked second in goals against during the regular season, allowing only 2.52 per contest.

Game 2 goes Tuesday evening.