The Vegas Golden Knights kick off their longest road trip of the season against the Toronto Maple Leafs on Wednesday at Scotiabank Arena.
Vegas looks to continue its recent good form on the road. The Golden Knights have won back-to-back road games against the Anaheim Ducks and Utah Hockey Club.
“Our road game is coming around,” Vegas coach Bruce Cassidy said. “We want to be known as a team that can win anywhere. Our last Eastern trip, we didn’t play as well as we liked, so we want to rectify that.”
Goalie Adin Hill is expected to start in net for Vegas (11-5-2).
About The Maple Leafs
The Maple Leafs will be without forwards Auston Matthews, who is undergoing treatment for an upper-body injury in Germany, and Max Domi.
They still, however, have a potent offense led by forward Mitch Marner (24 points) and William Nylander (20 points).
“Marner is always a threat,” Cassidy said. “Nylander, in my days in Boston, he was a Bruins killer. John [Tavares] is having a great year. They still have lots of offensive threats.”
Defensively, the team is a little different than before, with coach Craig Berube at the helm. They signed defenseman Chris Tanev in the offseason to shore up the back end of the team.
“They’re tighter defensively in front of their net,” Cassidy said. “Taking care of business. Probably a different animal from what I’m used to seeing. … They’re going to play hard and play together. It should be a good game. We tend to play well in those types of games.”
Burke To Make Golden Knights Debut
After going with 11 forwards and seven defensemen in their last two games, things will return to some sense of normalcy when the Golden Knights go with 12 forwards.
Cal Burke will make his Golden Knights debut just 24 hours after being called up from the Henderson Silver Knights. He has six points this season for Henderson.
“He was good in training camp,” Cassidy said. “He’s got a good offensive IQ. … Does a good job that way. He’s not big in stature, but he’ll get on top of people. Should create some disruption on the forecheck.”
Paul Delos Santos is the Las Vegas sports insider for Dice City Sports. Follow him on X at @PaulDelos_.
