FSM Essential Preview: Golden Knights vs Coyotes - Game 3

FSM Essential Preview: Golden Knights vs Coyotes – Game 3

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The Vegas Golden Knights take on the Arizona Coyotes in game 3 of the regular season Monday night at T-Mobile Arena. It seemed like VGK would drop Saturday’s tilt against the Anaheim Ducks however a late goal William Karlsson tied the game with Marc Andre Fleury pulled. Max Pacioretty must have had a dinner reservation to make as he scored the OT winner just seven seconds in.

Monday marks the first of four games against the Coyotes.  The first two will be at T-Mobile Arena tonight and Wednesday. The Golden Knights will take a short to Arizona for Friday’s and Sunday’s games at Gila River Arena in Glendale. Gila River Arena will become “T-Mobile Arena, Southeast” as many fans will make the trip for the weekend’s games.

Arizona enters tonight’s contest 1-0-1 after their two games series against the San Jose Sharks. The Coyotes have not had any trouble scoring goals as they lit the lamp eight times in this young season. Vegas will be a much tougher test defensively as they have only given up three goals. With having three goals already, Phil Kessel is off to a quick start for the Coyotes. The Coyotes will be without their captain, Oliver Ekman-Larson, for the team’s two games in Vegas. Evander Kane gave Ekman-Larson a rough ride into the boards Saturday night and caught Ekman-Larson with a high stick.

Things are going well for Vegas after their first two games. Coach Pete DeBoer historically has not been a fan of changing a lineup after a win. I found it odd that he went with five defensemen (for the second time in a row) for Saturday’s game, but it worked. Based on Sunday’s practice, there may be some changes to Monday’s VGK lineup.

Nicolas Hague practiced as the sixth defensemen and Cody Glass was not practicing with his normal linemates. Glass may get scratched, Tomas Nosek may center line three, and Keegan Kolesar may center line four. Nicolas Roy and Alex Tuch have played well while being centered by Glass. It stands to reason that Glass will need some time to get his feet under him. After all, he has only played two NHL games since February 17^th, 2020.

Does DeBoer want to take a closer look at Kolesar or is he looking to create some urgency for Glass by scratching him? In coach Deboer we trust, for now at least.

As it is expected to be a hot topic all year, Robin Lehner and Marc Andre Fleury have started one game apiece. Both played well and are 1-0. Fleury leads the battle of style points, those gold pads and mask looked amazing with the new VGK gold jerseys. I must admit I was not a big fan of those jerseys until I saw them on the ice!

VGK plays two of their divisional opponents four straight times this season, this week against the Coyotes, and mid-February against the Colorado Avalanche. This is a great time to create some early separation between our divisional foe. In a fifty-six game season, every point is extremely important.

VGK and Anaheim will close their two-game set tonight at T-Mobile Arena. The puck drop is set for 7 p.m. on AT&T SportsNet and FOX Sports Las Vegas 98.9/1340.

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-Chris Gawlik – Franchise Sports Media

Follow Chris on Twitter @TDChrisG

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