The Vegas Golden Knights (21-9-1, 43 points) continue their road trip this evening in Chicago against a downright awful Blackhawks (7-16-4, 18 points) squad that is wallowing in mediocrity. Chicago is just 1-8-1 in their last 10 games, and find themselves losers of their last 4 games played. Vegas has been uncharacteristically average at 5-5-0 over their last 10, and are looking to start another winning streak after prevailing over the Winnipeg Jets in a 6-5 barn burner.
The Golden Knights head into this game with an offense that has generated 3.29 goals per game (14th-best in NHL), and only surrendering 2.74 goals against per game (7th-best in NHL). Their power play has an efficiency rating of 23.6% which is 12th in the NHL as of this writing.
Chicago sits 30th in the league with a 2.41 goals per game average, and 27th with a 3.67 goals against average. In terms of special teams, their power play is clicking at 23.8 which is slightly better than Vegas.
When it comes to killing penalties, Vegas’ rating of 73.4% is 24th in the league, and the Blackhawks are killing penalties at a rate of 73.3% which is 25th-best in the league.
Players of Note
Chicago Blackhawks
Leading Scorer: Patrick Kane — 4-17-21 in 27 GP
Top Goal Scorer: Max Domi — 10 goals in 27 games
Best Goalie: Alex Stalock — 3-2-1, .914 SV%, 2.93 GAA (on Injured Reserve)
Vegas Golden Knights
Leading Scorer: Jack Eichel — 13-16-27 in 26 GP (on Injured Reserve)
Top Goal Scorer: Jonathan Marchessault — 14 goals
Best Goalie: Logan Thompson —13-7-0, .917 SV%, 2.70 GAA
Here are the projected lines for both sides.
Vegas Golden Knights
Paul Cotter — Chandler Stephenson — Mark Stone
Jonathan Marchessault — William Karlsson — Reilly Smith
Mike Amadio— Jake Leschyshyn — Phil Kessel
Will Carrier — Nicolas Roy — Keegan Kolesar
Nic Hague — Alec Martinez
Brayden McNabb — Daniil Miromanov
Ben Hutton — Brayden Pachal
Logan Thompson
Chicago Blackhawks
Sam Lafferty — Max Domi — Patrick Kane
Philipp Kurashev — Jonathan Toews — Taylor Raddysh
Andreas Athanasiou — Jason Dickinson — Tyler Johnson
Colin Blackwell — Jujhar Khaira — Mackenzie Entwistle
Jake McCabe — Seth Jones
Jarred Tinordi — Connor Murphy
Jack Johnson — Caleb Jones
Petr Mrazek
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