Golden Knights end regular season with one goal — stay healthy
CALGARY, Alberta — If the Golden Knights end the regular season Saturday with their second consecutive loss, coach Gerard Gallant won’t get too uptight.
Sure, he would like the two points entering the Stanley Cup playoffs. But from Gallant’s perspective, he would prefer that his team get through its game against the Calgary Flames at Scotiabank Saddledome with no injuries.
“Just go out and play, have fun and be smart,” Gallant said Friday of his message to the team after an optional practice at the Saddledome. “We’re pretty much locked in, so we want to get everyone ready for next week.”
Expect Gallant to rest some players while others might find themselves on the ice. Reilly Smith, in particular, might be ready to return from his upper-body injury that he suffered March 6. He has been skating with the team all week during its three-game swing through Western Canada and has been cleared for contact.
Jonathan Marchessault rejoined the team Friday after sitting out the first two games of the trip in Vancouver and Edmonton for maintenance purposes. If both play as expected, Gallant gets his top line of William Karlsson, Smith and Marchessault together for the first time in a month.
Karlsson was given Friday’s practice off, and Smith and Marchessault participated.
But slowly, the Knights are regaining their continuity. Will Carrier’s return this week saw him back with Pierre-Edouard Bellemare and Tomas Nosek on the fourth line, and they will be leaned on heavily during the playoffs.
Erik Haula and James Neal eagerly await the return of linemate David Perron, who will miss his sixth straight game Saturday but is expected back for the playoffs. Gallant has used Tomas Tatar with Haula and has put Alex Tuch on that line, along with Karlsson.
“One of our strengths this year has been depth,” Gallant said. “We’ve been able to put guys in when guys went out with injuries, and they’ve played well. Guys like Tuch, Carpy (Ryan Carpenter) and Tatar have been all over the lineup, and they’ve done a good job wherever we’ve asked them to play.”
Gallant said other than the final score — a 4-3 loss Thursday at Edmonton — he couldn’t have asked for a better scenario.
“It was an up-and-down game, a skating game, no chippy stuff, just good, clean hockey, and nobody got hurt,” he said. “As a coach, that’s what you’re hoping for at this time of the year.”
Some of the Knights have something to play for Saturday. Haula, who has had a career season, needs one goal for 30. Karlsson is looking for an additional plus/minus point to get to plus-50, something no one in the NHL has done since 2010.
Karlsson and Colin Miller are looking to finish the season having played all 82 games. Tatar has played 81 games, but his first 62 were with Detroit before he was traded Feb. 26.
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Contact Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow @stevecarprj on Twitter.
Game day
Who: Golden Knights at Flames
When: 7 p.m. Saturday
Where: Scotiabank Saddledome, Calgary, Alberta
TV: AT&T SportsNet (Cox 313/1313, DirecTV 684, CenturyLink 760/1760, U-verse 757/1757)
Radio: KRLV (98.9 FM, 1340 AM)
Line: Off
Three storylines
1. Who’s in net? Does Marc-Andre Fleury start against the Flames and risk injury? Or does coach Gerard Gallant keep Malcolm Subban in goal for the third straight game?
2. Top line expected back. Reilly Smith is expected to return to the lineup for the first time since March 6, and Jonathan Marchessault rejoined the team after sitting out the past two games. That means the Knights’ No. 1 line will be back together, which should make William Karlsson happy.
3. Flames’ farewell. The Flames (36-35-10, 82 points) have lost nine of their past 10. Changes are coming, and there is speculation that Glen Gulutzan could be coaching his final game.
Steve Carp Review-Journal
