LAS VEGAS – Doubt the Vegas Golden Knights at your own peril.It had been a while since they provided much reason to overlook them. In 2017, most of the hockey world did, with many calling their post-expansion draft roster the worst in all of the NHL. The Golden Misfits, as they called themselves, went on to a 109-point inaugural season that ended in the Stanley Cup Final.There hasn’t been much reason to underestimate them since then. The Golden Knights have won more division titles, more playoff games and more playoff series than any team in the league since their inception.This season, though, there were plenty of reasons to question Vegas. They won only 11 of their 38 regular-season games against playoff opposition. They finished with an overall record well outside of the top 10 league-wide. They fired their Stanley Cup-winning coach with eight games remaining in the regular season.But doubting the Golden Knights doesn’t end well.This squad no longer resembles the underdog misfit group that was easy to hop aboard the bandwagon and root for. This team is all about a cold, calculated and unrelenting pursuit of victory, often accomplished by acquiring disgruntled superstars from your favorite team.The result is the same, though. The Golden Knights entered the playoffs as underdogs and steamrolled their way through the Western Conference. Their coup de grâce was a sweep of the Presidents’ Trophy-winning Avalanche, which mercifully ended Tuesday night in Las Vegas in a 2-1 victory in which the Golden Knights broke the will of the top seed.Vegas was obviously better than its regular-season record indicated, but there was no way to anticipate this. Colorado finished 26 points clear of Vegas, and was the clear class of the NHL from puck drop in October until the start of the Western Conference final. The Golden Knights didn’t just beat the Avalanche, they demolished them.By the end of the series, the Avalanche looked like a shell of themselves, with Valeri Nichushkin knocked out of Game 4, and Nathan MacKinnon and Cale Makar playing but clearly hobbled. But even when the Avs were close to full strength, they were no match for this version of the Golden Knights.Vegas crowded the neutral zone and slowed Colorado’s high-octane offense to a slog for long stretches. It clogged shooting lanes with layers of defenders willing to dive in front of the puck, which turned Colorado’s territorial dominance into nothing more than window dressing for the underlying numbers. When the Avalanche did get the puck on net, Vegas goaltender Carter Hart was sharp.