Down 2-1 in their series against the Utah Mammoth, the Vegas Golden Knights’ offense has once again dried up. Thus, they have changed the one thing that remained constant throughout the season: the power play.
Barring a few games with injuries, the Golden Knights trotted a five-man forward group out for every 5-on-4 power play opportunity. Mitch Marner ran the point; Jack Eichel ran the half wall. Mark Stone worked his magic below the goal line, Tomáš Hertl was parked in the bumper, and Pavel Dorofeyev was set up in the right circle for a one-time opportunity.
In the regular season, this unit was money. Despite Stone missing 22 games, they finished the year as the 6th-ranked power play with a 24.6% success rate.
But now, in the postseason, they’ve hit a wall. After going 2-for-5 through the first two games of the series, the Golden Knights are 0-fer their last five opportunities. Three of those opportunities would have gotten them back into the fight in Game 3, which was ultimately a 4-2 loss.
So, the Golden Knights are changing things up.
On the first unit, Eichel, Stone, and Dorofeyev remain in their usual spots. But Ivan Barbashev replaced Hertl in the bumper, and Shea Theodore slots into Marner’s position at the point.
The second unit is a bit more interesting. Rasmus Andersson joins Marner at the point, and Noah Hanifin is on the half wall. Brett Howden is netfront, and Hertl is in the bumper.
Head coach John Tortorella simply said, “We changed it. We’re gonna see how it works.”
After starting all three postseason games with the same lineup, the Golden Knights are changing things up. They shuffled the top three lines and kept the fourth line intact:
Ivan Barbashev – Jack Eichel – Pavel Dorofeyev
Reilly Smith – Mitch Marner – Mark Stone
Brett Howden – Tomáš Hertl – Keegan Kolesar
Cole Smith – Nic Dowd – Colton Sissons
The defensive pairs remained unchanged. Carter Hart will remain the starting goaltender.