Golden Knights Gameday 81: Not Dead Yet: Lines, Notes vs Blackhawks

The Vegas Golden Knights are still in the fight for a playoff spot after Tuesday night’s shootout loss to the Dallas Stars. They are hanging on by a thread. But they can still make the Stanley Cup playoffs if they win out their remaining two games and also see the Dallas Stars lose their final two games.

The Stars play the Arizona Coyotes at 5:30 pm. A win in any fashion would eliminate the Golden Knights from playoff contention. The Golden Knights (42-31-7, 91 points) are only in control of one game Wednesday night and that is their own against the Chicago Blackhawks (27-42-11, 65 points).

Far removed from the playoff picture, the Blackhawks are led in scoring by Patrick Kane, who is eight points off from his third 100-point season in the NHL. The Blackhawks also have a handful of former Erie Otters on their roster who are big pieces of their team in Alex DeBrincat, Dylan Strome, and Taylor Raddysh. However, on paper, the Golden Knights are the far superior team.

Robin Lehner and Keegan Kolesar are the latest names on the Golden Knights injury front. Both will miss the remainder of the regular season. Logan Thompson will likely start once more and the Golden Knights will roll with eleven forwards and seven defensemen again, even though Dylan Coghlan did not take a shift Tuesday against the Stars.

Keys to the Game

Focus on the Game at Hand

I’m not sure if it is a good or bad thing that both the Golden Knights and Stars games are on at the same time. It will be a channel-flipping/tab switching kind of night for Golden Knights fans. For the team, they need to block out the distraction that this Coyotes/Stars game has and focus on beating the Hawks.

Leave it All Out There

Pretty simple one here. If they lose their done- everyone needs to play at 110%.

Projected Vegas Golden Knights Line Combinations

Mattias Janmark- Jack Eichel- Evgenii Dadonov

Max Pacioretty- Chandler Stephenson- Mark Stone

Jonathan Marchessault- William Karlsson- Michael Amadio

William Carrier- Nicolas Roy- Dylan Coghlan*

Ben Hutton– Alex Pietrangelo

Brayden McNabb- Shea Theodore

Alec Martinez- Zach Whitecloud

Logan Thompson/Jiri Patera

Vegas Golden Knights Special Teams

18.18% Powerplay (24th) and 77.83 % Penalty Kill (21st)

PP1: Pacioretty, Eichel, Stone Dadonov, Theodore

PP2: Roy, Karlsson, Marchessault, Stephenson, Pietrangelo

PK1: Karlsson, Janmark, McNabb, Pietrangelo

PK2: Stephenson, Roy, Martinez, Whitecloud

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

Robin Lehner (shoulder), Reilly Smith (knee), Laurent Brossoit (undisclosed), Nicolas Hague (lower-body), Brett Howden (upper-body), Nolan Patrick (undisclosed), Keegan Kolesar (lower-body).

Projected Chicago Blackhawks Line Combinations

Alex DeBrincat- Dylan Strome- Patrick Kane

Dominik Kubalik- Jonathan Toews- Tyler Johnson

Philipp Kurashev- Sam Lafferty- Taylor Raddysh

Boris Katchouk- Reese Johnson- Henrik Borgstrom

Alex Vlasic- Seth Jones

Jake McCabe- Alec Regula

Riley Stillman- Caleb Jones

Kevin Lankinen/Collin Delia

Chicago Blackhawks Special Teams

19.42% Powerplay (21st) and 75.80% Penalty Kill (25th)

PP1- Raddysh, Strome, Kane, DeBrincat, S. Jones

PP2- T. Johnson, Toews, Kurashev, Kubalik, Regula

PK1- R. Johnson, Katchouk, Vlasic, S. Jones

PK2- Toews, Lafferty, McCabe, Regula

Injured Reserve/COVID-19 Protocols/Scratches

Connor Murphy, Jujhar Khaira, Kirby Dach

How to Watch/Listen

5:30 pm on At&t Sportsnet, ESPN+, and Fox Sports 98.9 FM Radio.