Open Game Thread and Preview: Golden Knights vs. Lightning

Tonight the Vegas Golden Knights (25-16-3, 53 points) take on the Tampa Bay Lightning (29-10-5, 63 points) at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida. This is the second meeting of the season for both teams with the Lightning having taken the first meeting with a 4-3 defeat over the Golden Knights 4-3.

The Golden Knights are coming off a tough loss vs. the Florida Panthers in which the game was separated by a goal until a pair of empty netters in the third, and the Lightning have won two in a row, with their last victory being a 3-2 road win vs. the New Jersey Devils.

The Golden Knights head into tonight’s game vs. the Lightning with a nearly full squad, as Max Pacioretty made his return to the lineup in the 4-1 loss vs. Florida. Alec Martinez will not play tonight, and the lineup is up in the air due to some COVID-19 testing issues according to Pete DeBoer.

Pete DeBoer says Alec Martinez will not play tonight, and “We are dealing with some COVID testing stuff this morning so we don’t have a lineup solidified yet.”

— Jesse Granger (@JesseGranger_) January 29, 2022

Update:

Update: Chandler Stephenson and Dylan Coghlan are unavailable for tonight's game due to COVID-19 protocol. #VegasBorn

— Vegas Golden Knights (@GoldenKnights) January 29, 2022

Forwards

Max Pacioretty — Nolan Patrick — Mark Stone

Jonathan Marchessault — William Karlsson — Reilly Smith

Mattias Janmark — Nicolas Roy — Evgenii Dadonov

Will Carrier — Brett Howden — Keegan Kolesar

Defense

Nic Hague — Alex Pietrangelo

Brayden McNabb — Shea Theodore

Ben Hutton — Zach Whitecloud

Goaltenders

Robin Lehner

Laurent Brossoit

And here’s how the Tampa Bay Lighnting should stack up.

Forwards

Ondrej Palat — Brayden Point — Anthony Cirelli

Alex Killorn — Steven Stamkos —Mathieu Joseph

Pat Maroon — Pierre-Edouard Bellemarre — Corey Perry

Boris Katchouk — Ross Colton — Taylor Raddysh

Defense

Victor Hedman — Jan Rutta

Ryan McDonagh — Mikhail Sergachev

Frederik Claesson — Cal Foote

Goaltenders

Andrei Vasilevskiy

Brian Elliott

Numbers to Know

• Vegas is 3-4-3 over the last 10 games played
• Tampa is 8-2-0 over the last 10 games played
• The Lightning have 4th best home record at 15-4-2
• The Golden Knights have the 10th best road record at 12-6-1/
• Steven Stamkos leads the Lightning in scoring with a line of 20-31-51
• Andrei Vasilevskiy has posted a 12.54 Goals Saved Above Average, and a 10.2 Goals Saved Above Expected via Evolving-Hockey/

Feel free to use the comments section as an open thread to talk about the game.