Golden Knights Gameday #43: Back-to-Brossoit: Lines, Notes, vs Hurricanes

For the first time since Mid-December, the Vegas Golden Knights will play back-to-back. The Golden Knights (25-15-2) take on the Carolina Hurricanes (27-9-2) at PNC Arena at 4:00 pm PST Tuesday. The team is coming off a strong defensive performance as they shutout Alex Ovechkin and the Washington Capitals 1-0.

Robin Lehner, who made 34 saves and broke his helmet Monday night, is expected to get the rest Tuesday night. Laurent Brossoit is expected to start his first game since January 2nd.

The Golden Knights welcomed both Brossoit and defenseman Nicolas Hague back into their lineup on Monday but it came at the cost of Reilly Smith who is now in COVID-19 protocols. Max Pacioretty, Zach Whitecloud, and Alec Martinez all traveled with the team on their current four-game road trip and it is possible that we could see some of them return Tuesday.

The Hurricanes sit third in the congested Metropolitan Division with 56 points. All things considered, they have had a relatively healthy season as Jake Gardiner is the only player listed on IR for them currently. They are led in scoring by Sebastian Aho who has 42 points in 35 games played. Frederick Andersen, who will likely get the start has 21 wins on the season and a .926 save percentage.

Keys To The Game

Gain Brossoit Some Confidence

I mentioned last night in my eight takeaways that having Robin Lehner have a big game and gain confidence Monday night is huge for the team. Not only this but for the first time in forever the Golden Knights had their goaltending duo healthy. For the past couple of weeks it has been a flip-flop between both Lehner and Brossoit getting injured.

Step one was to get both goalies healthy and that has been achieved. Step two was to get Lehner a big confidence-boosting win. And now step three is for Brossoit to have a solid game of his own.

Rise To The Challange

Monday night’s game against the Capitals had a playoff-like atmosphere to it. Both teams were skating very well and there was little room on the ice to make mistakes. Hence, Michael Amadio scoring the only goal off a rebound change. The Golden Knights showed up to battle against one of the toughest teams in the NHL and they need to do it again.

The Hurricanes are a young and fast team with an elite blue-line led this season by Anthony DeAngleo. The Golden Knights need to take the fraework of their game from Monday night and apply it against the Hurricanes Tuesday.

Special Teams

The Golden Knights took five penalties in Monday night’s game against the Capitals, something in which head coach Peter DeBoer called one of the only negatives his team’s game. The Hurricanes have tremendous special teams with their powerplay ranked at fifth and penalty kill ranked at second.

For the Golden Knights, staying out of the box will be key and executing on the powerplay as well. The Golden Knights went zero-for-four against the Capitals on the powerplay Monday night. Nicolas Roy, still leads the team in penalty minutes with 39 PIM. He took another penalty Monday night.

Projected Vegas Golden Knights Line Combinations

William Carrier- Chandler Stephenson- Mark Stone

Jonathan Marchessault- William Karlsson– Evgenii Dadonov

Mattias Janmark- Nicolas Roy- Keegan Kolesar

Brett Howden- Nolan Patrick- Michael Amadio

Nicolas Hague- Alex Pietrangelo

Shea Theodore- Zach Whitecloud

Brayden McNabb- Dylan Coghlan

Laurent Brossoit/Robin Lehner

Vegas Golden Knights Special Teams

21.10% Powerplay (13th) and 78.45% Penalty Kill (20th)

PP1: Roy, Karlsson, Janmark, Marchessault, Theodore

PP2: Stephenson, Dadonov, Patrick, Coghlan, Pietrangelo

PK1: Karlsson, Kolesar, McNabb, Pietrangelo

PK2: Stephenson, Janmark, Hutton, Hague

Injured Reserve/COVID-19 Protocols/Scratches/Taxi Squad

Jack Eichel (neck), Max Pacioretty (wrist), Alec Martinez (face), Reilly Smith (COVID)

Ben Hutton (scratched), Jake Leschyshyn (scratched), Daniil Miromanov (scratched), Jonas Rondbjerg (scratched)

Projected Carolina Hurricanes Line Combinations

Teuvo Teravainen- Sebastian Aho- Seth Jarvis

Andrei Svechnikov- Vincent Trocheck- Martin Necas

Nino Niederreiter- Jordan Staal- Jesper Fast

Steven Lorentz- Jesperi Kotkaniemi- Derek Stepan

Jacob Slavin- Tony DeAngelo

Brady Skjei- Brett Pesce

Brendan Smith- Ian Cole

Frederik Andersen/Antti Raanta

Carolina Hurricanes Special Teams

26.55% Powerplay (5th) and 88.32% Penalty Kill (2nd)

PP1- Trocheck, Aho, Teravainen, Svechnikov, DeAngelo

PP2- Niederreiter, Kotkamiemi, Necas, Jarvis, Slavin

PK1- Staal, Trocheck, Pesce, Slavin

PK2- Aho, Teravainen, Skjei, Smith

Injured Reserve/COVID-19 Protocols/Scratches

Jake Gardiner

How to Watch/Listen

4:00 pm on ESPN+ and Fox Sports 98.9 FM Radio