Maple Leafs enter Las Vegas having won five straight; Golden Knights aim to end home losing skid
The Vegas Golden Knights aim to end a three-game home losing skid against the Toronto Maple Leafs, and will have to do so without some of its top players.
"It's time to get our game in order," Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said.
Mark Stone, who is reportedly recovering from a lacerated spleen, is out week to week, while Jack Eichel is still on the mend from surgery.
"We can make up some of the offense as we go along, but if we play good defense with this team generally leads to good offense," Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. "I look at it as an opportunity. A little bit now it falls in the lap some of those middle of the road guys are getting opportunity."
To compound issues, they face a Maple Leafs team that has won five straight, including a 6-3 victory on Wednesday against the Arizona Coyotes.
Auston Matthews comes in with a NHL-best 51 goals and has scored in nine goals in the last four games.
"He's always a threat to score. He's finished a little more often this year obviously, but he's always been that guy's a threat and you circle every time," Cassidy said. "So that's the biggest challenge is trying to quiet him and (Mitch) Marner down."
Here are the projected lines:
Maple Leafs Lines
Forwards
Matthew Knies - Auston Matthews - Mitchell Marner
Tyler Bertuzzi - Max Domi - William Nylander
Bobby McMann - John Tavares - Noah Gregor
Pontus Holmgren - David Kampf - Nicholas Robertson
Defensemen
TJ Brodie - Timothy Liljegren
Morgan Rielly - Jake McCabe
Marshall Rifai - Max Lajoie
Goalies
Martin Jones
Ilya Samsonov
Golden Knights Projected Lines
Forwards
Ivan Barbashev - Nicolas Roy - Jonathan Marchessault
Brendan Brisson - Chandler Stephenson - Michael Amadio
Paul Cotter - William Karlsson - Keegan Kolesar
Mason Morelli – Byron Froese - Sheldon Rempal
Defensemen
Alec Martinez – Alex Pietrangelo
Brayden McNabb - Shea Theodore
Nicolas Hague - Zach Whitecloud
Goalies
Adin Hill
Logan Thompson
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