The Vegas Golden Knights (19-7-1, 39 points) are back home to face the New York Rangers (12-10-5, 29 points). The Blueshirts head to town in a bit of a tailspin as they’ve gone 4-4-2 over their last 10 during a stretch in which they’ve lost to a number of teams toward the bottom of the standings such as the Anaheim Ducks, Chicago Blackhawks, and the Ottawa Senators. Vegas is fresh off a successful road trip capped off with a victory over the Boston Bruins.

Tonight’s contest will pit two teams that play better on the road than they do at home, and Vegas will look to pickup two important points against former bench boss Gerard Gallant.

The Golden Knights head into this game with an offense that has generated 3.41 goals per game (12th-best in NHL), and only surrendering 2.63 goals against per game (5th-best in NHL). Their power play has an efficiency rating of 22.1% which is 17th in the NHL as of this writing.

New York sits 21st in the league with a 3.04 goals per game average, and 10th with a 2.93 goals against average. In terms of special teams, their power play is clicking at 21.4% which is slightly worse than Vegas’ performance of 22.1%.

When it comes to killing penalties, Vegas’ rating of 74.3% is 24th in the league, and the Rangers are killing penalties at a rate of 79.8% which is 13th-best in the league.

Players of Note

New York Rangers

Leading Scorer: Artemiy Panarin — 6-24-30 in 27 GP

Top Goal Scorer: Mika Zibanejad and Chris Kreider — 13 goals in 27 games

Best Goalie: Igor Shesterkin —11-4-1, .910 SV%, 2.67 GAA

Vegas Golden Knights

Leading Scorer: Jack Eichel — 13-16-29 in 26 GP

Top Goal Scorer: Jack Eichel — 13 goals

Best Goalie: Logan Thompson —13-5-0, .921 SV%, 2.55 GAA

Jack Eichel and Alex Pietrangelo are both expected to miss another game, and Jonas Rondbjerg, recently recalled from Henderson, skate on the third line at practice today.

With that said, here is a projected lineup for both sides.

Vegas Golden Knights

Paul Cotter — Chandler Stephenson — Mark Stone

Jonathan Marchessault — William Karlsson — Reilly Smith

Jonas Rondbjerg— Nicolas Roy — Phil Kessel

Will Carrier — Jake Leschyshyn — Keegan Kolesar

Alec Martinez — Zach Whitecloud

Brayden McNabb — Shea Theodore

Nic Hague — Daniil Miromanov

Logan Thompson

New York Rangers

Alexis Lafrenière — Mika Zibanejad — Kaapo Kakko

Artemiy Panarin — Filip Chytil — Barclay Goodrow

Chris Kreider — Vincent Trocheck — Jimmy Vesey

Sammy Blais — Ryan Carpenter — Julien Gauthier

Ryan Lindgren — Adam Fox

K’Andre Miller — Braden Schneider

Libor Hajek — Jacob Trouba

Igor Shesterkin

Feel free to use this as an open thread to discuss the game.

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