Ducks At Golden Knights: 3 Keys To The Game

How a win and a few deals heals all wounds.
Or at least seems to.
Following a day off on the heels of Sunday's overtime win against the Arizona Coyotes, the memories of the Golden Knights' three-game losing streak from last week all seem to be forgotten.
Vegas is now 16-9-1, and with injured stars Marc-Andre Fleury and David Perron both having resumed skating (although both remain on IR), the fortunes for this team seem to be looking up.

Although with the Anaheim Ducks coming to town, it isn't exactly as if life is getting easier for the Golden Knights. Despite probably playing their best game of the season in their only other meeting with the Ducks on November 22, the Golden Knights are facing the five-time defending Pacific Division champions.
And even with the Ducks ravaged by injuries, facing Anaheim is never easy.

Tonight's game is at 7:00 PM. It can be seen on AT&T SportsNet.
Jonathan Marchessault is the Corsi God](https://www.nhl.com/goldenknights/news/why-does-goldenknights-twitter-call-jonathan-marchessault-the-corsi-god/c-293642058)
This is Cox channels 313 (SD) and 1313 (HD), DIRECTV channel 684, U-verse channels 757 (SD) and 1757 (HD), and CenturyLink channels 760 (SD) and 1760 (HD).
Dave Goucher and Shane Hnidy will have all the action.
Dan D'Uva will be calling the game on FOX Sports Radio. This is 98.9 FM and 1340 AM.
Here are three keys to today's game.

1. Depleted Ducks
For a team that has gone through as many goalies this season as the Golden Knights, there's not exactly about to be sympathy for the Anaheim Ducks.
But boy oh boy, the Ducks' injury issues are significant.
Marc-Andre Fleury skating](https://www.nhl.com/goldenknights/news/fleury-passes-neuropsychology-test-skates-on-sunday/c-293639984)
To date, Anaheim has missed 159 man games to injury this season. Right now, four of their five leading scorers from last season is out.
Captain Ryan Getzlaf has missed the last 16 games with a bone fracture; Ryan Kesler had hip surgery during the offseason and is yet to play in 2017-18. Rickard Rakell has missed the last five games with an upper-body injury, while Jakob Silfverberg went down this season, too.
Patrick Eaves, who combined to score 32 goals with the Dallas Stars and Ducks last season, is also sidelined.
To combat this, the Ducks traded franchise cornerstone defenseman Sami Vatanen to the New Jersey Devils last week in a multi-player deal centered around Anaheim receiving center Adam Henrique.
Henrique has scored at least 20 goals in three of the past four seasons.
Despite this, the Ducks are a shell of themselves right now. And this gives the Golden Knights a chance to capitalize on a team not at its best.

2. Gibson Formidable
As depleted as the Ducks' lineup is, their goalie, John Gibson, has emerged as one of the league's best.
Although Vegas eventually scored four times on Gibson in November, Anaheim's goalie's performance as undoubtedly the best the Golden Knights have seen from an opponent this season.
Through two periods of that game, Vegas had a 30-12 shots advantage…and trailed, thanks to Gibson's brilliant goaltending. The Golden Knights them mustered a 19-shot barrage in the third period to finally break through, finishing with a season-high 49 shots.
With the Ducks' lineup depleted this significantly, Gibson has faced this sort of workload repeatedly. And he's managed to keep Anaheim within three points of a playoff spot.
To overcome a goalie of this caliber, the Golden Knights are going to have to play well. A game where the teams are equal could definitely swing in the Ducks' favor, because of Gibson.
So even more so, the Golden Knights will have to exploit the injured Ducks lineup.

3. Not Looking Ahead, But….
The Golden Knights' schedule gets absolutely ungodly after tonight's game.
Vegas departs later this week for a two-game road trip against the Nashville Predators and Dallas Stars. Nashville, the second ranked team in the Western Conference, is 7-2-1 in its last 10 games. The Stars have won five straight games, including a 3-0 win at T-Mobile Arena next week.
After the road trip, the Golden Knights return home for five games, although NHL powers Tampa Bay, Washington and Pittsburgh will all be opponents during that stretch.
It's not to discount the Ducks by any means. Fully healthy, the Ducks are a league power themselves, perhaps more formidable than any of the teams Vegas faces in its upcoming stretch.
Although with such a difficult batch of games coming up, having lost three of their last four games, it would really behoove the Golden Knights to win tonight. If for nothing more than to build up a little cushion before entering perhaps the most difficult stretch of the season.