The Golden Knights (12-12-1) have a chance to take their record above .500, but they’ll have to go through the Chicago Blackhawks to do so.
Vegas has won three games in a row and is coming off back-to-back shutouts against the top two teams in the Pacific Division (San Jose, Calgary). Tonight’s matchup pits them against a Blackhawks team that recently pulled off a trade with the Arizona Coyotes in hopes of improving a 9-10-5 start to the season.
Chicago general manager Stan Bowman shipped out Nick Schmaltz in exchange for forwards Dylan Strome and Brendan Perlini, who will make their Blackhawks debuts tonight as part of the team’s fourth line; Strome is set to skate on the team’s second power-play unit. Chris Kunitz and Andreas Martinsen will serve as healthy scratches. Defenseman Henri Jokiharju is listed as a game-time decision.
Patrick Kane, who leads the Hawks in scoring (13 goals and 14 assists for 27 points), will drop down to the second line to skate with Alex DeBrincat and Artem Anisimov.
Max Pacioretty enters tonight’s contest on a five-game point streak (6-1—7), as does Reilly Smith (1-7—8).
Marc-Andre Fleury has recorded three shutouts in his last six games; he leads the league with five.
Vegas has a 3-0-0 all-time record against Chicago.
Here are the projected lineups for both clubs:
Golden Knights
Marchessault — Karlsson — Smith
Pacioretty — Eakin — Tuch
Nosek — Carpenter — Carr
Carrier — Bellemare — Reaves
Schmidt — McNabb
Miller — Holden
Theodore — Engelland
Fleury
Subban
Blackhawks
Saad — Toews — Hayden
DeBrincat — Anisimov — Kane
Fortin — Kampf — Kahun
Perlini — Strome — Kruger
Keith — Forsling
Gustafsson — Jokiharju
Manning — Seabrook
Crawford
Ward
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