The Golden Knights head to the other desert tonight to take on the Coyotes in Vegas’ final game of 2018. The Knights have an all-time record of 5-1-0 against Arizona, including a 3-2 overtime win earlier this season.
Vegas (22-15-4) is coming off an impressive 4-1 win against the Kings and has picked up at least a point in 11 out of the last 13 games. Arizona (17-19-2) is coming off a 5-4 overtime win against the Ducks and has gone 3-1-0 in the last four games.
A few lesser-known Coyotes who have played particularly well in recent games are defenseman Jakob Chychrun and forward Conor Garland. Chychrun has goals in back-to-back games and has a point in three out of his last four games, while Garland enters tonight’s game on a four-game point streak despite skating on the fourth line at even strength. Alex Galchenyuk also has points in four straight games (two goals, six assists) after getting off to a slow start in his first season with the Coyotes.
Brandon Pirri’s epic point streak came to an end yesterday as he failed to find the scoresheet for the first time in a Golden Knights sweater, so it would seem he might be human after all. However, he’ll get another shot at extending his offensive hot streak as he remains on the second line with Paul Stastny and Alex Tuch. Stastny has a goal and an assist in back-to-back games, and William Karlsson grabbed his 15th of the year yesterday.
Since Malcolm Subban started against Los Angeles (and finally got his first win!), expect Marc-Andre Fleury to man the crease one last time in 2018. Darcy Kuemper will start for the ‘Yotes.
Here are the projected lineups for both clubs:
Golden Knights
Marchessault — Karlsson — Smith
Pirri — Stastny — Tuch
Lindberg — Eakin — Carpenter
Carrier — Bellemare — Reaves
McNabb — Schmidt
Theodore — Engelland
Merrill — Holden
Fleury
Subban
Coyotes
Panik (#14) — Stepan (#21) — Keller (#9)
Galchenyuk (#17) — Schmaltz (#8) — Hinostroza (#13)
Crouse (#67) — Cousins (#25) — Archibald (#25)
Garland (#83) — Kempe (#29) — Fischer (#32) —
Ekman-Larsson (#23) — Hjalmarsson (#4)
Chychrun (#6) — Goligoski (#33)
Connauton (#44) — Lyubushkin (#46)
Kuemper (#35)
Hill (#31)
Let’s discuss!