Golden Knights Gameday 56: Thunderstruck: Lines and Notes vs Lightning

The Vegas Golden Knights (33-18-4, 70 points) will face a huge test Saturday night in the Tampa Bay Lightning (35-16-2, 73 points), who have appeared in the last three Stanley Cup Finals and won two of them. This is the first of two meetings between these two teams this season.

No lineup changes are expected for the Golden Knights, who are still without both Mark Stone and Logan Thompson.

With 26 games remaining in the season, the Golden Knights narrowly lead the Pacific Division with 70 points. The Los Angeles Kings, Seattle Kraken, and Edmonton Oilers are all within three points of the VGK.

What to Watch For

The Powerplay

The Golden Knight's powerplay has been awful as of late, going 0-for-their-last-24 and not scoring on seven chances against the San Jose Sharks.

Clutch Carrier

Will Carrier continues to have a monster season with the Golden Knights. His game-winning goal with just 16.6 seconds left puts him at 15 goals on the season with 26 games to go. His seven game-winning goals are tied for third in the league with players such as Connor McDavid and Brayden Point. Only Leon Draisaitl and Kyle Connor have more game-winning goals than Carrier.

Jack's Back

After struggling in the game before the All-Star Break, Jack Eichel now has five points in his last three games. Without Mark Stone, Eichel's play will perhaps be the main catalyst to whether or not the VGK make the playoffs.

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 Lightning Line Combinations

Brandon Hagel- Brayden Point- Nikita Kucherov

Anthony Cirelli- Steven Stamkos (c)- Alex Killorn

Ross Colton- Nick Paul- Pat Maroon

Vladislav Namestnikov- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare- Corey Perry

Victor Hedman- Zach Bogosian

Mikhail Sergachev- Erik Cernak

Ian Cole- Nicklaus Perbix

Andrei Vasileviskiy/Brian Elliott

Lightning Special Teams

PP1- Hagel, Point, Kucherov, Stamkos, Hedman

PP2- Killorn, Paul, Perry, Colton, Sergachev

PK1- Cirelli, Hagel, Cernak, Sergachev

PK2- Bellemare, Namestnikov, Hedman, Cole

IR/Scratches

Brent Seabrook/Cal Foote, Haydn Fleury, Phillipe Myers

How to Watch/Listen

7:30 p.m. on AT&T Sportsnet, ESPN+ and Fox Sports 98.9 FM Radio.