Winter Classic Preview; Vegas Golden Knights vs. Seattle Kraken

The Vegas Golden Knights travel to Seattle to compete in their first Winter Classic against the Seattle Kraken on New Year’s Day.

Betting line: DraftKings has the Golden Knights as minus-142 favorites with an over/under of six goals.

Key storylines: Who has the advantage going into this game? An argument can be made that the Kraken have a key advantage as they are the home team and their city is on display. Are the Kraken ready for this big of a stage? Conversely, the Golden Knights shined on the brightest stage six months ago. No stage is too big for the Stanley Cup champions.

About the Golden Knights (22-10-5, 49 points): Are the Golden Knights back to their winning ways? Can Logan Thompson string two consecutive successful starts? Can the defense limit the Kraken’s high-danger chances? There are more questions than answers as of late for the Golden Knights. Hopefully, Thursday’s win against the Los Angeles Kings was a glimpse of how the Golden Knights will perform through the all-star break.

Ben Hutton suffered an upper-body injury Thursday against the Kings and will miss the Winter Classic. Adin Hill, Shea Theodore, and Kaeden Korczak will not be available. Will Carrier practiced with the Golden Knights Saturday in Vegas and on Sunday in Seattle which makes him likely to participate in the Winter Classic.

Expected Lines:

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

Martinez-Pietrangelo
Hague-Whitecloud
McNabb-Pachal

Thompson

Golden Knights to watch: The biggest stages are when the best rise to the occasion. Mark Stone had a hat trick in the Stanley Cup clinching victory for the Golden Knights. Jonathan Marchessault won the Conn Smythe. Jack Eichel led playoff scoring. Thompson did not dress during last year’s NHL Stanley Cup Playoffs and will have plenty of motivation to perform well.

About the Kraken (14-14-9, 37 points): The Kraken are 6-1-3 in their last 10 games and on a four-game winning streak. This looks more like the Kraken team that was two goals away from facing the Golden Knights in last year’s Western Conference Final. Vince Dunn leads the Kraken with 30 points. Joey Daccord figures to get the start and is 8-5-8 with a 2.46 GA/G and .915 SV%.

How to watch
Time: Noon PST.
TV: TNT
Radio: FOX Sports Las Vegas 98.9/1340