Golden Knights Gameday 72: Lines And Notes For Rematch vs Canucks

The Vegas Golden Knights (39-28-4, 82 points) will take on the Vancouver Canucks (32-28-10, 74 points) yet again Wednesday. It will be Organ Donar night at T-Mobile Arena with all fans set to receive light-up sticks and the VGK set to wear special jerseys for warmups that will later be auctioned off.

The Golden Knights are currently out of a playoff spot as the Edmonton Oilers, Nashville Predators, and Dallas Stars all won Tuesday night. The VGK can once again flip-flop the Stars in the standings for the second Wild Card position Wednesday night with a win against the Canucks.

The Winnipeg Jets and Calgary Flames are also in action tonight but in terms of the main bunch of teams the Golden Knights are battling in the standings, there are no such games.

No lineup changes are expected for the Golden Knights as Peter DeBoer has ruled out a lot of players as “not close” such as Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty.

Keys to The Game

Locked-in Lehner

Robin Lehner made his return to the Golden Knights lineup Sunday after missing roughly a month with a lower-body injury. He backstopped the VGK stopping 26 of 28 shots with the only goals coming off of fluke errors such as an Alec Martinez own-goal.

Lehner’s confidence will be a huge factor to the Golden Knights during the stretch run. Logan Thompson was able to hold down the fort well in Lehner’s absence. Now it is up to Lehner to re-take the reigns as the team’s starting goaltender and get this team into the playoffs.

With this focus in mind, Lehner recently deleted his Twitter account to keep his mind on hockey.

“At the end of the day, I have to take care of myself first. It has not been an easy climate for us out there. I have been fine with that before but sometimes enough is enough,” Lehner said Tuesday.

Standout Shea

A positive storyline for the Golden Knights these last few games has been the team’s nearly fully-healthy defense. Nicolas Hague is the only regular D-man missing and Peter DeBoer has run with seven-defenseman ever since both Alec Martinez and Brayden McNabb returned.

This has resulted in a domino effect for the team’s defensemen as everybody is playing in their comfortable positions and where they usually thrive in the lineup. The biggest example of this has been Shea Theodore, who has three goals in his last three games.

No Room For Error

Things are winding down in the 2021-22 NHL season with the Golden Knights only having ten games remaining after Wednesday’s game. Thanks to being one of the few NHL teams that did not have many games postponed due to COVID-19, the Golden Knights are further into their schedule than most teams.

The Dallas Stars, Nashville Predators, and Edmonton Oilers all have games at hand on the VGK which further drives home the point that every game matters for this team in the stretch run.

“Were a winning franchise and not making the playoffs would be unacceptable and we know that. It is good to have those expectations but handling them is another thing. We have done a pretty good job of handling them we have had crazy adversity this year,” said Golden Knights defenseman Brayden McNabb on the SLGND Podcast.

Projected Vegas Golden Knights Line Combinations

Evgenii Dadonov- Jack Eichel- Chandler Stephenson

Jonathan Marchessault- William Karlsson- Michael Amadio

Mattias Janmark- Nicolas Roy- Keegan Kolesar

Jonas Rondbjerg- Jake Leschyshyn- Dylan Coghlan*

Ben Hutton- Alex Pietrangelo

Brayden McNabb- Shea Theodore

Alec Martinez- Zach Whitecloud

Robin Lehner/Logan Thompson

Vegas Golden Knights Special Teams

18.38% Powerplay (24th) and 78.72% Penalty Kill (19th)

PP1: Dadonov, Stephenson, Marchessault, Theodore, Eichel

PP2: Janmark, Karlsson, Roy, Coghlan, Pietrangelo

PK1: Karlsson, Roy, McNabb, Pietrangelo

PK2: Stephenson, Janmark, Martinez, Whitecloud

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

Mark Stone (back), Max Pacioretty (undisclosed), Reilly Smith (knee), Laurent Brossoit (undisclosed), Nicolas Hague (lower-body), Brett Howden (upper-body), William Carrier (lower-body), Nolan Patrick (undisclosed).

Projected Vancouver Canucks Line Combinations

Tanner Pearson- JT Miller- Conor Garland

Elias Pettersson- Bo Horvat- Brock Boeser

Jason Dickinson- Juho Lammikko- Will Lockwood

Vasily Podkolzin- Nic Petan- Alex Chiasson

Oliver Ekman-Larsson- Tyler Myers

Quinn Hughes- Luke Schenn

Travis Dermott- Tucker Poolman

Thatcher Demko/Jaroslav Halak

Vancouver Canucks Special Teams

21.70% Powerplay (15th) and 72.82% Penalty Kill (31st)

PP1- Boeser, Horvat, Miller, Hughes, Pettersson

PP2- Chiasson, Podkolzin, Pearson, Ekman-Larsson, Garland

PK1- Richardson, Lammikko, Dermott, Myers

PK2- Richardson, Pettersson, Schenn, Poolman

Injured Reserve/COVID-19 Protocols/Scratches

Brandon Sutter, Nils Hoglander, Kyle Burroughs

How to Watch/Listen

7:00 pm on At&t Sportsnet, ESPN+, and Fox Sports 98.9 FM Radio.