Golden Knights Gameday 66: Rock You Like A: Lines and Notes vs Hurricanes

The Vegas Golden Knights (39-20-6, 84 points) will play the Carolina Hurricanes (43-12-8, 94 points) in their third game of a current five-game road trip. This is the second and final meeting between these two teams who met just ten days ago with the VGK winning 3-2.

No lineup changes are expected for the VGK, who begin their fourth back-to-back of the season this afternoon. They will play the St. Louis Blues tomorrow at 4:00 p.m. One minor thing of note is that Pavel Dorofeyev has been sent back down to the Henderson Silver Knights of the AHL.

What to Watch For

Score First

As on the of the top teams on offense in the NHL, the Hurricanes are 33-4-4 when scoring the first goal this season. The Golden Knights are 27-4-2. As always, scoring first will be critical for the victor in this one.

Back to Back

The Golden Knights are 2-1-0 this season in their first game of a back-to-back. Their only loss came in their New York trip where they lost to the Rangers before also losing to the Devils. With a back-to-back coming up, Jonathan Quick will start tonight with Jiri Patera expected to start tomorrow in St. Louis.

Pacific Points

Despite the team going 10-2-2 coming out of the All-Star Break, the Golden Knights are still being pressured hard in the Pacific Division standings. The Los Angeles Kings are tied with 84 points and both the Seattle Kraken and Edmonont Oilers have 80. All three teams play tonight.

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/Jiri Patera

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, Adin Hill/Ben Hutton

Projected Hurricanes Line Combinations

Andrei Svechnikov- Sebastian Aho- Seth Jarvis

Teuvo Teravainen- Jesperi Kotkaniemi- Martin Necas

Jordan Martinook- Jordan Staal (c)- Jesper Fast

Stefan Noesen- Paul Stastny- Derek Stepan

Jaccob Slavin- Brent Burns

Brady Skjei- Brett Pesce

Calvin de Haan- Shayne Gostisbehere

Frederik Andersen/Pyotr Kochetkov

Hurricanes Special Teams

PP1- Noesen, Aho, Svechnikov, Burns, Necas

PP2- Stastny, Kotkaniemi, Jarvis, Teravainen, Gostisbehere

PK1- Staal, Martinook, Slavin, Burns

PK2- Aho, Teravainen, Skjei, de Haan

IR/Scratches

Jake Gardiner, Ondrej Kase, Max Pacioretty, Antti Raanta/Jesse Puljujarvi, Dylan Coghlan, Jalen Chatfield

How to Watch/Listen

4:00 p.m. on AT&T Sportsnet, ESPN+ and Fox Sports 98.9 FM Radi