Golden Knights Gameday 63: Getting Quicker: Lines and Notes vs Canadiens

The Vegas Golden Knights (37-19-6, 80 points) will wrap up their three-game homestand against the Montreal Canadiens (26-32-4, 56 points) this afternoon at 3:00 p.m. This is the final meeting of the season series between these two teams who met in the Conference Finals a few years ago.

With Will Carrier now out indefinitely with a lower-body injury, Paul Cotter is expected to draw back into the VGK lineup. However the big story in terms of lineup changes comes in goal as Jonathan Quick will make his Golden Knights debut.

Quick in the net means that every VGK trade deadline aquistion will play in today's game as Ivan Barbashev and Teddy Blueger will play too.

What to Watch For

Quick's Debut

Jonathan Quick is not the same goaltender he was a decade ago, but he is still a competitor and motivated to perform with his first new team in over 16 years. This season the borderline future Hall of Famer has struggled with a 3.50 GAA and a .876 save percentage.

But perhaps he can swing his game around with extra motivation on a new team.

Carrying On

Will Carrier has been a pleasant surprise for the Golden Knights this season as he has taken his offensive game to the next level, scoring 16 goals, with seven of them being game-winners. Without his presence on the third line, the Golden Knights will have to make some adjustments.

Calling Cotter

One of these adjustments will fall on the shoulders of rookie Paul Cotter, who enters the lineup after being a healthy scratch last game. Cotter has struggled as of late with one point in his last six games after he scored a goal in three straight. 

Head coach Bruce Cassidy said that he and Cotter had a long chat about the state of his young career at practice the other day. Carrier's absence creates an opportunity for the young forwards, and it is up to him to make the most of it.

Projected Golden Knights Line Combinations

Ivan Barbashev- Jack Eichel- Jonathan Marchessault

Reilly Smith- William Karlsson- Michael Amadio

Paul Cotter- Chandler Stephenson- Phil Kessel

Brett Howden- Teddy Blueger- Keegan Kolesar

Nicolas Hague- Alex Pietrangelo

Brayden McNabb- Shea Theodore

Alec Martinez- Zach Whitecloud

Jonathan Quick/Adin Hill

Golden Knights Special Teams

PP1: Stephenson, Marchessault, Smith, Eichel, Pietrangelo

PP2: Barbashev, Karlsson, Kessel, Amadio, Theodore

PK1: Karlsson, Smith, McNabb, Pietrangelo

PK2: Stephenson, Blueger, Whitecloud, Martinez

IR/Scratches

Nolan Patrick, Robin Lehner/Mark Stone (c), Logan Thompson, Laurent Brossoit, Will Carrier/Ben Hutton

Projected Canadiens Line Combinations

Mike Hoffman- Nick Suzuki (c)- Denis Gurianov

Rafael Harvey-Pinard- Jonathan Drouin- Josh Anderson

Rem Pitlick- Christian Dvorak- Jesse Ylonen

Michael Pezzetta- Chris Tierney- Alex Belzile

Mike Matheson- David Savard

Joel Edmundson- Kaiden Ghule

Jordan Harris- Jonathan Kovacevic

Jake Allen/Sam Montembeault

Canadiens Special Teams

PP1- Anderson, Suzuki, Harvey-Pinard, Matheson, Hoffman

PP2- Ylonen, Dvorak, Drouin, Guhle, Gurianov

PK1- Dvorak, Anderson, Matheson, Savard

PK2- Suzuki, Harvey-Pinard, Harris, Edmundson

IR/Scratches

Carey Price, Joel Armia, Paul Byron, Brendan Gallagher, Sean Monahan, Cole Caufield, Juraj Slafkovsky, Kirby Dach, Jake Evans, Arber Xhekaj

How to Watch/Listen

3:00 p.m. on AT&T Sportsnet, ESPN+ and Fox Sports 98.9 FM Radio.