Coyotes at Golden Knights preview

COYOTES (24-26-5) at GOLDEN KNIGHTS (31-22-4)
10 p.m. ET; ATTSN-RM, FS-A, NHL.TV

Vegas, which was 29-10-2 at home last season, has lost three straight at T-Mobile Arena and is 16-7-3 there this season.
Goalie Darcy Kuemper will start for the Coyotes, who have lost five of their past six games (1-4-1) after winning six of their previous eight (6-1-1). Arizona is six points out of the second wild card into the Stanley Cup Playoffs from the Western Conference.

Players to watch

Coyotes forward Clayton Keller has four assists in his past six games.
Golden Knights forward Jonathan Marchessault has four points (two goals, two assists) during a three-game point streak.

They said it

"Vegas is another tough opponent for us. They're a fast, hard-working team and we've got to be ready to match that. We've got to be ready from the start because they always seem to have good starts." -- Coyotes goalie Darcy Kuemper
"I think any time you play a team that's lower in the standings, they're fighting for every point they get. It makes it tough knowing a team's going to come in and give it their best effort, and we have to be sharp." -- Golden Knights defenseman Shea Theodore

Coyotes projected lineup

Richard Panik -- Derek Stepan -- Vinnie Hinostroza
Clayton Keller -- Nick Cousins -- Christian Fischer
Alex Galchenyuk -- Jordan Weal -- Conor Garland
Lawson Crouse -- Mario Kempe -- Josh Archibald
Oliver Ekman-Larsson -- Niklas Hjalmarsson
Jakob Chychrun -- Alex Goligoski
Kevin Connauton -- Jordan Oesterle
Darcy Kuemper
Calvin Pickard
Scratched: Michael Bunting, Ilya Lyubushkin
Injured:Kyle Capobianco (lower body), Jason Demers (lower body), Nick Schmaltz (lower body), Christian Dvorak (upper body), Michael Grabner (upper body), Brad Richardson (upper body), Antti Raanta (lower body)

Golden Knights projected lineup

Jonathan Marchessault -- William Karlsson -- Reilly Smith
Max Pacioretty -- Paul Stastny -- Alex Tuch
Oscar Lindberg -- Cody Eakin --
Brandon Pirri
William Carrier -- Pierre-Edouard Bellemare -- Ryan Reaves
Brayden McNabb -- Nate Schmidt
Shea Theodore -- Deryk Engelland
Jon Merrill -- Colin Miller
Marc-Andre Fleury
Malcolm Subban
Scratched:Valentin Zykov, Tomas Nosek, Jake Bischoff
Injured: Erik Haula (lower body), Nick Holden (undisclosed), Ryan Carpenter (undisclosed)

Status report

Kempe (upper body) is a game-time decision. … Pirri (upper body) will return to the lineup after missing the past two games.

Stat pack

Connauton is expected to play in his 300th NHL game. … Tuch has no points in his past five games after having 14 points (four goals, 10 assists) in his previous 13.