Golden Knights shuffle lines as injuries and illness continue to take toll.
The Vegas Golden Knights will play seven of their next eight games at home, as they look to get back on the winning track.
They are 4-6-0 in their last 10 and were shut out in their last outing in the Winter Classic.
The injury to William Karlsson, who was placed on injured reserve on Thursday, and an illness to Keegan Kolesar prompted the Golden Knights to shake up their lines. Paul Cotter joins Nicolas Roy and William Carrier on the third line.
“Paul’s a better fit to go down with Nic and Will,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We always thought that would be Paul’s best fit. … We feel Paul can be a puck possession guy.”
They also called up Grigori Denisenko and Lukas Cormier from the Henderson Silver Knights.
Denisenko will play on the fourth line, alongside Michael Amadio and Brett Howden. Cormier will likely be a healthy scratch, pending another injury to a defenseman in warmups.
“I’m feeling good. I’m really excited to be here and just want to have fun and play,” Denisenko said.
As for the Panthers, they aim to pick up their first win in T-Mobile Arena in franchise history (0-7-1 all time).
Jonah Gadjovich enters the lineup with Nick Cousins out of the lineup in concussion protocol.
Here are the projected lines:
Panthers projected lineup
Forwards
Evan Rodrigues - Aleksander Barkov - Sam Reinhart
Carter Verhaeghe - Sam Bennett - Matthew Tkachuk
Eetu Luostarinen - Anton Lundell - Ryan Lomberg
Jonah Gadjovich - Kevin Stenlund - Will Lockwood
Defensemen
Gustav Forsling - Aaron Ekblad
Niko Mikkola - Brandon Montour
Oliver Ekman-Larsson - Dmitry Kulikov
Goalies
Sergei Bobrovsky
Anthony Stolarz
Golden Knights projected lineup
Forwards
Ivan Barbashev - Jack Eichel - Jonathan Marchessault
Pavel Dorofeyev – Chandler Stephenson - Mark Stone
William Carrier - Nicolas Roy - Paul Cotter
Grigori Denisenko - Michael Amadio - Brett Howden
Defensemen
Nicolas Hague - Alex Pietrangelo
Brayden McNabb - Zach Whitecloud
Alec Martinez – Brayden Pachal
Goalies
Logan Thompson
Jiri Patera