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Golden Knights Gameday

Golden Knights Gameday 20: Johnny Canuck: Lines and Notes vs Canucks

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Vegas Golden Knights Vancouver Canucks AWAY

The Vegas Golden Knights (14-4-1, 29 points) finish off a two-game Canadian road trip Monday night with their first matchup of the season against the Vancouver Canucks (6-9-3, 15 points). Upon completion of the game, Golden Knights will have played every Pacific Division team once this year.

With a new head coach at the helm who previously coached exclusively Eastern Conference teams, and the VGK missing out on a playoff spot last season, these matchups are critical.

Nicolas Roy remains out for the Golden Knights with a lower-body injury and Logan Thompson will likely be tonight’s starter. A reminder that tonight’s game is at 7:30 p.m. and not the traditional 7:00 p.m.

The Canucks will be wearing their reverse retro jerseys at Rogers Arena, which features “Johnny Canuck” as an alternate logo. Fittingly, the Golden Knights scheduled first appearance of their reverse retro jerseys will be in a game against the Canucks, on Nov. 26th.

What to Watch For

Convoluted Canucks

The Canucks are such a wacky team, in my opinion. They have all the pieces to succeed with big-name players and young stars, but they continue to be stuck in this funk. Outside of their advancement through the play-in round, they haven’t made the traditional Stanley Cup Playoffs since 2015.

They started this season off losing seven straight games. Recently they have strung together a couple of sloppy wins and dug themselves out of last in the Pacific Division. The Pacific Division gets a bad rap for having the “weaker” teams in the NHL with the Canucks, struggling Ducks, and Sharks.

The Golden Knights need to take advantage of these divisional matchups and collect points. If you recall back to last season, the Canucks almost caught the Golden Knights in the playoff race.

Bo Yo

If things continue to sour in Van City, captain Bo Horvat could be traded. The 27-year-old center has one year left on his contract worth $5.5 million. If the VGK are looking to add to their forward depth (which we think they should), Horvat could be a player on general manager Kelly McCrimmon’s radar.

Projected Vegas Golden Knights Line Combinations

Chandler Stephenson- Jack Eichel– Mark Stone (c)

Jonathan Marchessault- William Karlsson– Reilly Smith

Paul Cotter- Michael Amadio- Phil Kessel

William Carrier- Brett Howden- Keegan Kolesar

Alec Martinez- Alex Pietrangelo

Brayden McNabb- Shea Theodore

Nicolas Hague- Zach Whitecloud

Logan Thompson/Adin Hill

Vegas Golden Knights Special Teams

PP1: Stone, Eichel, Stephenson, Marchessault, Pietrangelo

PP2: Howden, Karlsson, Smith, Kessel, Theodore

PK1: Karlsson, Smith, McNabb, Pietrangelo

PK2: Stephenson, Stone, Martinez, Whitecloud

IR/Scratches

Nicolas Roy/Jake Leschyshyn, Ben Hutton

Projected Canucks Line Combinations

Connor Garland- Bo Horvat (c)- JT Miller

Ilya Mikheyev- Elias Pettersson- Andrei Kuzmenko

Vasily Podkolzin- Sheldon Dries- Brock Boeser

Dakota Joshua- Nils Aman- Curtis Lazar

Oliver Ekman-Larsson- Ethan Bear

Quinn Hughes- Luke Schenn

Riley Stillman- Tyler Myers

Thatcher Demko/Spencer Martin

Canucks Special Teams

TBA

IR/Scratches

Micheal Ferland, Tanner Pearson, Jack Studnicka, Travis Dermott, Tucker Poolman, Nils Hoglander, Jack Rathbone, Kyle Burroughs

How to Watch/Listen

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