The Vegas Golden Knights are fresh off a dominating performance and win over the Senators in Ottawa on Tuesday night.
Saturday’s game at the Bell Centre will be the first meeting between the two teams this season as the Knights look to remain hot. Puck drop is at 4 p.m. PT. After tonight, they will head to Toronto to face the Leafs before heading to Buffalo to face the Sabres.
Jack Eichel, who was finally acquired last season from Buffalo, leads the team with 13 points with five goals and eight assists. With a 10-2 record, Vegas is currently in the top spot in the Pacific Division.
The Habs currently have a record of 5-5-1 and are on a two-game losing skid, coming off an overtime loss to the Winnipeg Jets on Thursday night. In the previous game, they got blitzed by the Minnesota Wild 4-1. Nick Suzuki, who was a Vegas draft pick back in 2017, leads the team with 13 points.
Montreal finished at the bottom of the standings last season and won the first overall draft pick in the lottery. Their pick, Juraj Slafkovsky, has gotten mixed reviews so far and only has two goals to date.
A win tonight for the Golden Knights would be the 225th in franchise history, but their longest winning streak was 10 games back in April 2021. Head coach Bruce Cassidy met the media at the morning skate and confirmed Adin Hill would get the start tonight.
“There was good energy this morning,” Cassidy said. ” There always is in this building and everybody knows the history here and I hope it translates to the game.”
Cassidy was also asked about the major difference between last year and this year and he spoke about the system he brought in that seems to be working well.
“We changed some structure in our end from the red line in and I think the guys have really bought into that and we are defending very well and not taxing our goaltenders every night and they have been good for us”.
He also confirmed that this season he mapped out a schedule where neither goaltender is playing 80% of the game since both Logan Thompson and Adin Hill are young goaltenders and will be in a 1A, 1B situation.
Brayden McNabb was also asked to give his thoughts on the big game tonight and says the day off yesterday was nice to rest and rehab.
“We’re used to these kinds of trips,” McNabb said. “It was nice to have a day off to regroup and to make sure we are sharp this morning to get ready for tonight.”
Michael Amadio stressed the importance of playing 60 minutes and not taking the foot off the gas if the team has a lead.
“We need to play a full 60, we just need to play our game and finish strong because I felt last game we kinda let up.”
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