The Next Big Test: Vegas Golden Knights vs. Colorado Avalanche Preview

The Vegas Golden Knights take on the Colorado Avalanche on Saturday night at T-Mobile Arena. This will be the biggest test for the Golden Knights since defeating the Dallas Stars two and a half weeks ago.

About the Golden Knights (10-0-1, 21 points): The Golden Knights played their best game of the 2023-24 campaign Thursday night against the Winnipeg Jets. Jonathan Marchessault had a hat trick and Logan Thompson logged an assist. The Golden Knights controlled the game and had their best 60-minute effort of the season.

William Carrier projects to return to the lineup after an illness forced him to miss Thursday’s game. Nicolas Hague is day-to-day with a lower-body injury and remains out. Nicolas Roy remains on IR with an undisclosed injury. Zach Whitecloud remains on LTIR.

Expected lines

Barbashev-Eichel-Marchessault
Cotter-Stephenson-Stone
Dorofeyev-Karlsson-Amadio
Carrier-Howden-Kolesar

Martinez-Pietrangelo
McNabb-Theodore
Hutton-Pachal

Hill

About the Avalanche ( 7-2-0, 14 points): The Avalanche suffered back-to-back shutout losses before defeating the St. Louis Blues Wednesday night.

Mikko Rantanen (14 points), Cale Makar (11 points), and Nathan MacKinnon (9 points) lead the Avalanche. Alexandar Georgiev (2.40 GA/G, .915 SV%) projects to get the start in net.

Tonight’s game might be the most physical and intense of the season.

Golden Knights to watch: Carrier projects to return to the lineup after missing Thursday’s game due to illness. It is not just Carrier’s spark that helps the Golden Knights. Carrier returning means the fourth line will get a normal share of minutes. Keegan Kolesar has been doing everything right this season and is due to score his first goal of the season.

Key storyline: The Golden Knights enter Saturday’s game on an 11-game point streak. The players and coach Bruce Cassidy have not been happy about the team’s performance for many of those games. “We were winning some hockey games but weren’t playing our best games. Marchessault after Thursday’s victory over the Jets. “It was good to get out there. We got the work done and got rewarded.”

The Golden Knights got back to work after Saturday’s victory in Los Angeles over the Kings and had a pair of practices Tuesday and Wednesday. The Golden Knights took Friday off. The Avalanche have brought the best out in the Golden Knights and Saturday’s game should be a good one.

BROADCAST INFORMATION
Time: 7:00 p.m. PST.
TV: Vegas 34 (Scripps Sports)
Streaming: KnightTime+
Radio: FOX Sports Las Vegas 98.9/1340