GAME PREVIEW: Golden Knights host Penguins

The Vegas Golden Knights look to make it three in a row against the Pittsburgh Penguins at T-Mobile Arena on Saturday.

The Penguins enter the game off a 3-0 victory against the Seattle Kraken and are 21-15-6 overall.

“Really good numbers offensively in terms of 5-on-5 generation,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “I’m surprised the record isn’t better than it is. Seems like they’ve outplayed where their record is, but at the end of the day, it’s some puck luck here and there. I would say that’s a bit of a challenge.”

Sidney Crosby and Jake Guentzel lead the team with 46 points apiece. Crosby leads the team with 26 goals, showing no signs of slowing down at age 36.

“A lot of talent up front with arguably one of the best players to ever play. He's surrounded by a lot of a lot of really good guys too,” Vegas defenseman Nicolas Hague said. “They're a fast team. They're smart, They move the puck well, so I don't think anything really changes for us but it definitely helps to kind of be aware of what you're out there against and ust manage it the best we can.”

Former Golden Knights forward Reilly Smith is injured with an upper-body injury, marring his return to Las Vegas.

The Penguins shut out the Golden Knights 3-0 in their last meeting on Nov. 19.

“We had some looks, but their goalie was good,” Cassidy said of that game. “They were better than us early. They get on top of you in your end and generate from everywhere, specifically below the goal line with rely on some quick hitters to the net. They converge to the net. For us tonight, our D has to be ready to box out and get on their sticks. One and done. Get the save, get the rebound, and get it out of there.”

Here are the projected lines:

Jake Guentzel -- Sidney Crosby -- Rickard Rakell

Drew O'Connor -- Evgeni Malkin -- Bryan Rust

Colin White -- Lars Eller -- Valtteri Puustinen

Jansen Harkins -- Noel Acciari -- Jeff Carter

Marcus Pettersson -- Kris Letang

Ryan Graves -- Erik Karlsson

Pierre-Olivier Joseph -- Chad Ruhwedel

Tristan Jarry

Alex Nedeljkovic

Ivan Barbashev -- Nicolas Roy -- Jonathan Marchessault

Pavel Dorofeyev -- Chandler Stephenson -- Mark Stone

Brendan Brisson -- Brett Howden -- Paul Cotter

Jonas Rondbjerg -- Byron Froese -- Keegan Kolesar

Alec Martinez – Alex Pietrangelo

Nicolas Hague -- Zach Whitecloud

Brayden McNabb -- Kaedan Korcazak

Logan Thompson

Isaiah Saville

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