Golden Knights Logan Thompson And Reilly Smith Expected To Be Out At Least For One Game

The Vegas Golden Knights will have to take the good with the bad Thursday night as they defeated the Calgary Flames 3-2 but lost two players to injury in the win. In his first game back since Feb. 9, Logan Thompson left the game in the third period with a lower-body injury. Reilly Smith left in the second, also with a lower-body injury.

Head coach Bruce Cassidy stated after the game that both players would likely not be available Saturday against the Edmonton Oilers.

"I don't think either will be available Saturday. That is the initial diagnosis, but we will reconvene tomorrow and obviously Saturday on gameday. Right now we're obviously concerned about Logan, he missed a lot of time. With Reilly, I think it was just the lower body that he couldn't play through. Obviously, Logan missing that much time we will have to really look closely at that one," said Cassidy.

Smith took a hit from Flames' forward Walker Duehr, left the game, and did not return. Cassidy confirmed in an aforementioned quote that the injury was to Smith's lower body. This injury ends Smith's career-high nine-game point streak that we was on in the leadup to tonight's game.

Thompson left the game with roughly six minutes remaining in the third period. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary until Thompson unexpectedly got up and went to the dressing room, possibly re-injuring the same injury that previously kept him out of the lineup. Jonathan Quick finished the game for the VGK.

"I don't know what happened. He just got up and left. I wish he had taken his time so that Quickie (Quick) could have had more time to warm up, to be honest with you. But he knows his body. I have no idea and at the end of the day let's hope it's not related to the previous injury and will be short-term," said Cassidy.

Fortunately for the Golden Knights, they have enough depth in their organization to patch these two holes for the time being. With Nicolas Roy also returning from injury on Thursday, rookie Paul Cotter was scratched. Forward Keegan Kolesar is also expected to return from injury soon.

In goal, the Golden Knights acquired Jonathan Quick for this exact reason and also have Laurent Brossoit traveling with them as he attempts to make a return back from injury. 

"It's been an interesting year in the goaltending area… Life goes on, it's Edmonton next. Paul Cotter was out, (Keegan) Kolesar is close and LB (Laurent Brossoit) is practicing, so we just have to be mindful. The next guys gotta be ready to go in. We have kind of dealt with that all year," said Cassidy.

The Golden Knights will play the Edmonton Oilers next on Saturday at 7:00 p.m. to conclude a three-game Western Canada road trip.