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Golden Knights vs. Predators: Open Game Thread and Preview

The Vegas Golden Knights desperately need a win, and find themselves in a tough matchup this evening against the surging Nashville Predators. Everything that can go wrong has gone wrong for the Golden Knights as of late, and at some point things have to turn around. Right?

The Golden Knights enter tonight with a record of 34-28-4 (72 points), and are 3-7-0 over their last 10 games played, including a pair of back-to-back loses. Nashville is one of the league’s hotter teams, even though they are looking to bounce back from a loss, and have tallied a record of 37-23-4 (78 points), and have gone 7-3-0 over the last 10 games played.

The biggest news of late, besides all of the injuries, is Evgenii Dadonov. The Golden Knights attempted to trade the veteran winger at Monday’s trade deadline, and a deal to the Anaheim Ducks was officially invalidated on Wednesday.


NHL Officially Invalidates Evgenii Dadonov Trade


The league didn’t release anything in-depth, and it remains a mystery who was at fault regarding the confusion around Dadonov’s 10-team no-trade clause which included the Ducks.

Despite the Golden Knights’ attempt to jettison him to create some much needed cap room, Dadonov’s expected to be in the lineup tonight.

Truth be told, Vegas could get a bit of a boost with him back in the lineup, as he’s been pretty productive in the month of March. Dadonov’s posted a line of 5-1-6 in 11 games, and he ranks 1st in goals and 4th in points for the Golden Knights during that timespan.

Standings Update

Vegas currently is on the outside looking in, and they trail the Dallas Stars by one point, and the Stars have four games in hand. Nashville currently occupies the first Wild Card spot, and they lead Dallas by five points having played in two more games.

Tonight is the third game that Vegas will play against the Predators this season. On January 4th the Predators defeated Vegas 3-2, and on November 24th the Golden Knights were victorious by a score of 5-2. Tonight is the final matchup of the season between both squads, and Vegas will attempt to take the season series.

With that said, here are the projected lines for both squads which are subject to change.


Vegas Golden Knights

Forwards

William Karlsson — Jack Eichel — Jonathan Marchessault

Will Carrier — Chandler Stephenson — Nicolas Roy

Evgenii Dadonov — Nolan Patrick — Mattias Janmark

Mike Amadio — Brett Howden — Keegan Kolesar

Defense

Shea Theodore — Dylan Coghlan

Ben Hutton — Alex Pietrangelo

Zackary Hayes — Brayden Pachal

Goaltender

Logan Thompson


Nashville Predators

Forwards

Filip Forsberg— Ryan Johansen — Matt Duchene

Eeli Tolvanen — Mikael Granlund — Luke Kunin

Yakov Trenin — Colton Sissons — Tanner Jeannot

Nick Cousins — Michael McCarron — Philip Tomasino

Defense

Roman Josi — Alexandre Carrier

Mattias Ekholm — Jeremy Lauzon

Mark Borowiecki — Matt Tennyson

Goaltender

Juuse Saros


Team Stats via NHL dot com

Enjoy the game!