FSM Essential Preview: Golden Knights vs Blues- Game 7

The Vegas Golden Knights take on the St. Louis Blues tonight in what could be a preview of a potential playoff matchup. The Blues come in with a 3-2-1 record and are in third place in the Honda West division.

The Knights have looked pretty dang good so far this season and are the early favorites to compete for the first spot in their division. They boast a 5-1 record worth ten points in the standings, two points ahead of the second-place Minnesota Wild. They have found multiple ways to win games whether it’s coming from behind, dominating most of a game, and even shutting out their opponent (stick taps for Fleury’s performance on Sunday). However, one can argue that the Blues are a much tougher matchup than the Ducks and Coyotes, who are in the bottom three spots of the Honda West Division.

St. Louis is only two years removed from etching their names on Lord Stanley’s Cup and is still a team that should not be taken lightly. After taking a beatdown by the LA Kings on Sunday, look for them to come out with a chip on their shoulder and try to establish their heavy playstyle early on. It would greatly benefit the Golden Knights to come out firing to start the game and hopefully score a couple of early goals as the Blues typically try to wear teams down with their physicality throughout the game.

The Vegas Golden Knights have a great chance to improve upon their powerplay as the Blues come into tonight’s game with the 26^th ranked penalty kill in the league.

Considering the fact that Jordan Binnington is currently ranked as the sixth-best goalie in the league, you would expect them to have better numbers on the penalty kill. VGK should take full advantage of this opportunity to build some confidence with the extra man, which has been a struggle up to this point in the season as they are currently ranked 27^th in terms of powerplay percentage. The Knights have plenty of scoring ability and have more recently gotten scoring from their defensemen and a few of their bottom-six forwards as well.

If the Knights can increase their productivity in the special teams department at the same time their defense and depth players are finding their stride, it would be huge in terms of building momentum and confidence. This is crucial because as the competitive level rises throughout the season, a timely powerplay goal can be the deciding factor in any given game. Tonight is the perfect night to start this trend as every game this season is a four-point swing. This makes beating the teams that the Vegas Golden Knights are competing with for first place that much more important.

With a rare three days off coming after Thursday’s game against the Blues, I’m sure most VGK fans would love to go into the weekend with a commanding lead in the Honda West Division.

That starts tonight as the Knight’s return to T-Mobile Arena and look to keep their perfect 4-0 record at home. If VGK head coach Pete DeBoer follows the same trend he’s followed so far this season, expect Robin Lehner to start in between the pipes with an opportunity to improve upon his 2-1 record. Lehner would come into the game with a .899% save percentage and a goals-against-average of 2.68 per game, stats that he should want to improve upon if he wants to prove himself to his skeptics.

VGK and the Arizona Coyotes will continue their season series on Friday night at Gila River Arena. The puck drop is set for 6 p.m. on AT&T SportsNet and FOX Sports Las Vegas 98.9/1340.

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-D.J. Wood– Franchise Sports Media

Follow D.J. on Twitter @DJwoody97

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