Golden Knights Gameday 54: Super Bowl Duck-Day: Lines and Notes vs Ducks

Before Super Bowl LVII kicks off this afternoon, the Vegas Golden Knights (31-18-4, 66 points) will play a noon game against the Anaheim Ducks (17-30-6, 40 points) at T-Mobile Arena, their first game at home in 21 days.

The Golden Knights will now be without All-Star goaltender Logan Thompson as he is out with a lower-body injury. Laurent Brossoit has been recalled from the Henderson Silver Knights. The VGK will also look to get scoring out of Reilly Smith and Jack Eichel, who both ended goal droughts in the VGK's last game.

This is the third and final meeting of the season series between these two teams. The VGK are 1-0-1 this season and 21-4-1 all-time against the Ducks.

What to Watch For

Take Care of Business

With the Ducks being one of the weakest teams in the NHL, the Golden Knights need to take care of business this afternoon and come out with a win. Plain and simple. You can't lose games like this in the stretch run to the Stanley Cup Playoffs with teams threatening you for a spot in the postseason.

Avoid the Duck Trap

The way the Ducks have won several of their games this season have resulted in them forcing overtime, as they struggle to score and overly rely on their goaltender John Gibson. They have gone past regulation 16 times this season and even beat the Golden Knights in the shootout in late December.

Gibby

John Gibson has been the only saving grace for the Ducks this season. In their last game against the Pittsburgh Penguins, Gibson was forced to make 53 saves (a Ducks regular-season record) only to lose the game. Shots shots shots will be the game plan for the busy goaltender. 

Projected Golden Knights Line Combinations

Paul Cotter- Jack Eichel- Jonathan Marchessault

Reilly Smith- William Karlsson- Michael Amadio

Will Carrier- Chandler Stephenson- Phil Kessel

Brett Howden- Nicolas Roy- Keegan Kolesar

Alec Martinez- Alex Pietrangelo

Brayden McNabb- Shea Theodore

Nicolas Hague- Zach Whitecloud

Adin Hill/Laurent Brossoit

Golden Knights Special Teams

PP1: Stephenson, Marchessault, Roy, Eichel, Pietrangelo

PP2: Carrier, Karlsson, Kessel, Smith, Theodore

PK1: Karlsson, Smith, McNabb, Pietrangelo

PK2: Stephenson, Roy, Whitecloud, Martinez

IR/Scratches

Shea Weber, Nolan Patrick, Robin Lehner/Mark Stone (c), Logan Thompson, Daniil Miromanov/Ben Hutton

Projected Ducks Line Combinations

Adam Henrique- Trevor Zegras- Ryan Strome

Max Jones- Mason McTavish- Frank Vatrano

Max Comtois- Isac Lundestrom- Jakob Silfberberg

Derek Grant- Jayson Megna- Brett Leason

Cam Fowler- Dmitry Kulikov

Colton White- John Klingberg

Simon Benoit- Kevin Shattenkirk

John Gibson/Olle Eriksson Ek

Ducks Special Teams

PP1- McTavish, Henrique, Strome, Fowler, Zegras

PP2- Comtois, Silfverberg, Vatrano, Shattenkirk, Klingberg

PK1- Henrique, Silfverberg, White, Fowler

PK2- Lundestrom, Megna, Benoit, Kulokov

IR/Scratches

John Moore, Justin Kirkland, Jamie Drysdale, Urho Vaakanainen, Troy Terry, Anthony Stolarz/Sam Carrick, Nathan Beaulieu

How to Watch/Listen

12:00 p.m. on AT&T Sportsnet, ESPN+ and Fox Sports 98.9 FM Radio.