GAME DAY: Golden Knights look for third straight preseason win
LOS ANGELES — The Golden Knights look to remain undefeated in the preseason when they face the Los Angeles Kings on Thursday at Staples Center.
Opening faceoff is scheduled for 7:30 p.m., and the game will be televised on KTNV-13 and NHL Network.
Goaltender Oscar Dansk will make his first start of the preseason for the Knights, and coach Gerard Gallant unveiled two intriguing forward line combinations during morning skate at City National Arena.
Mark Stone is set to make his preseason debut at right wing with center William Karlsson and left wing Jonathan Marchessault. Stone and Marchessault skated together during the IIHF world championship in May and helped Team Canada to the silver medal.
Also, top prospect Cody Glass will move to right wing and skate with center Cody Eakin and left wing Alex Tuch. Glass, the sixth overall pick in the 2017 draft, played center throughout his career in major-junior.
“We want to give (Glass) a shot on the right side just to see how he gets along with those guys tonight,” Gallant said. “He’s going to play center most of the time but sometimes we’re making little switches so we’ll see the line gets along.
“You hope it goes well. You hope he looks good and all that. It’s things in the back of coaches’ minds when you talk about your lineups. You look down the road or you look at three weeks’ time and you say, ‘Is this a possibility? Well, it might be.’ It’s the time to do it.”
The Knights are coming off a 5-0 win at Colorado on Tuesday, as Brandon Pirri notched two goals and an assist. Goaltender Garret Sparks made 24 saves to record the shutout in his debut.
The Knights have outscored their two opponents in the preseason 11-2 and successfully killed 13 straight penalties.
Los Angeles played a pair of split-squad games on Tuesday, winning 4-1 at Arizona while losing 5-0 at home to the Coyotes.
Kings coach Todd McLellan is expected to ice a relatively strong squad after resting his top line along with defenseman Drew Doughty on Tuesday.
Winger Ilya Kovalchuk suffered an undisclosed injury Wednesday during practice and will not be available.
Golden Knights projected lineup
Forwards: Cody Glass, Curtis McKenzie Cody Eakin, Patrick Brown, Reid Duke, Jake Leschyshyn, Paul Cotter, Mark Stone, Lucas Elvenes, William Karlsson, Jonathan Marchessault, Alex Tuch
Defense: Jimmy Schuldt, Deryk Engelland, Nic Hague, Jaycob Megna, Jake Bischoff, Nate Schmidt
Goaltenders: Oscar Dansk, Garret Sparks
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Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.
