Golden Knights Gameday 68: Where’s Fleury? Lines, Notes, vs Blackhawks

Vegas Golden Knights (35-28-4, 74 points) will look to build off their 6-1 victory over the Nashville Predators Thursday night with a Saturday afternoon game against the Chicago Blackhawks (24-32-9, 57 points). Given his departure at the 2022 NHL Trade Deadline, former Golden Knight  Marc-Andre Fleury will obviously not be playing for the Blackhawks Saturday.

Instead, the Golden Knights will get a struggling team in the Blackhawks whose season is out of hand. They are led in scoring by Patrick Kane who has casually put up 76 points in 61 games. Alex DeBrincat has 36 goals for the Blackhawks.

The Golden Knights will likely be welcoming back both Michael Amadio and Zach Whitecloud to the lineup as they return from COVID-19 protocols. Max Pacioretty, who was a game-time-decision against the Predators is now out indefinitely for the Golden Knights.

Forwards Brett Howden and Nolan Patrick are also questionable. Howden will not play as he took a nasty hit in the Golden Knight’s last game and was stretchered off the ice. Earlier in that game Patrick also left the game with an undisclosed injury, only playing three shifts.

Projected Vegas Golden Knights Line Combinations

Evgenii Dadonov- Jack Eichel- Nicolas Roy

Jonathan Marchessault- William Karlsson- Keegan Kolesar

Mattias Janmark- Chandler Stephenson- William Carrier

Michael Amadio- Jake Leschyshyn- Nolan Patrick

Ben Hutton- Alex Pietrangelo

Shea Theodore- Zach Whitecloud

Dylan Coghlan

Zack Hayes- Daniil Miromanov

Logan Thompson/Jiri Patera

Vegas Golden Knights Special Teams

19.32% Powerplay (22nd) and 78.45% Penalty Kill (18th)

PP1: Eichel, Stephenson, Marchessault, Karlsson, Theodore

PP2: Patrick, Stephenson, Roy, Coghlan, Pietrangelo

PK1: Karlsson, Roy, Pietrangelo, Hutton

PK2: Stephenson, Leschyshyn, Theodore, Coghlan

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

Alec Martinez (face), Mark Stone (back), Brayden McNabb (hand), Max Pacioretty (undisclosed), Reilly Smith (knee), Robin Lehner (lower-body), Laurent Brossoit (unknown), Nicolas Hague (unknown), Brett Howden (undisclosed)

Projected Chicago Blackhawks Line Combinations

Alex DeBrincat- Dylan Strome- Patrick Kane

Dominik Kubalik- Jonathan Toews- Taylor Raddysh

Philipp Kurashev- Kirby Dach- Sam Lafferty

Boris Katchouk- Reese Johnson- Mackenzie Entwistle

Riley Stillman- Seth Jones

Calvin de Haan- Caleb Jones

Alex Vlasic- Erik Gustafsson

Kevin Lankinen/Collin Delia

Chicago Blackhawks Special Teams

20.62% Powerplay (16th) and 76.09% Penalty Kill (23rd)

PP1- Raddysh, Strome, Kane, DeBrincat, Gustafsson

PP2- Dach, Toews, Kurashev, Kubalik, Jones

PK1- Dach, Lafferty, de Haan, Jones

PK2- Toews, Katchouk, McCabe, Stillman

Injured Reserve/COVID-19 Protocols/Scratches

Tyler Johnson, Connor Murphy, Jujhar Khaira

How to Watch/Listen

12 noon on At&t Sportsnet, ESPN+, and Fox Sports 98.9 FM Radio.