Tonight the Vegas Golden Knights have a chance to pickup two important points against an eliminated team playing out the string of the season, and it is an opportunity they need to take very seriously.
The Golden Knights enter tonight with a record of 39-29-4 (82 points), and are 7-3-0 over their last 10 games played. The Arizona Coyotes have a record of 22-44-5 (49 points), and are 2-7-1 over the last 10 games played.
This is the third meeting between both teams, with Vegas having taken the first meeting in December by a score of 7-1, and the second meeting going to the Coyotes by a score of 3-1. The Coyotes have a chance to play spoiler once again, and this is another must win games for Vegas as the clock is ticking down on the regular season.
Standings Update
Vegas remains on the outside looking in, and they trail the Dallas Stars by two points for the final Wild Card spot. However, Dallas was defeated by the New Jersey Devils in regulation earlier today, essentially burning a game in hand it held over Vegas if the Golden Knights were to win tonight.
A win would create a tie in points, although the Stars would still have two games in hand. That said, Vegas will play the Stars once more on April 26, so one of those games in hand can be neutralized if the Golden Knights were to win that game.
Here are the projected lines for both squads which are subject to change.
Vegas Golden Knights
Forwards
Evgenii Dadonov — Jack Eichel — Nicolas Roy
Jonathan Marchesault — William Karlson — Mike Amadio
Max Pacioretty — Chandler Stephenson — Mattias Janmark
Jonas Rondbjerg — Jake Leschyshyn — Keegan Kolesar
Defense
Brayden McNabb — Shea Theodore
Ben Hutton — Alex Pietrangelo
Alec Martinez — Zach Whitecloud
Goaltender
Robin Lehner
Arizona Coyotes
Forwards
Nick Ritchie— Travis Boyd — Nick Schmaltz
Michael Carcone — Barrett Hayton — Phil Kessel
Jan Jenik — Jay Beagle — Loui Eriksson
Andrew Ladd — Alex Galchenyuk — Matias Maccelli
Defense
Shayne Gostisbehere — Dysin Mayo
Cam Dineen — Anton Stralman
Kyle Capobianco — Vladislav Kolyachonok
Goaltender
Karel Vejmelka
Team Stats via NHL dot com
Enjoy the game!