LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The Vegas Golden Knights are getting ready to ride into battle against the Edmonton Oilers Friday night.
It's Game 5 of the second round of the Stanley Cup playoffs and the best-of-seven series is currently tied at two games each.
However, VGK will be without Alex Pietrangelo who is serving a one-game suspension after a slashing incident that happened during Wednesday night's game. VGK Insider Gary Lawless said Pietrangelo's previous conduct in the league is why he wasn't punished more severely.
"He's played almost 1,000 games. Never had a fine. Never had a suspension. So that's a huge factor," Lawless said. "He's been targeted throughout the series. I would have to believe that the people at the NHL realize that Evander Kane cross-checked him in the face after the buzzer had gone, the quintessential of not a hockey play and that was missed by everybody involved."
Lawless added Pietrangelo had time to decide what he was going to do and while it was intentional, it could have been worse.
"He doesn't get him anywhere near the wrist. He purposefully gets him around the elbow pad," Lawless said. "He was sending a message. I'm tired of you targeting me. I'm tired of no one doing something about it so I'm going to do something about it."
Edmonton defenceman Darnell Nurse was also given a one-game suspension after getting into a fight with Vegas defenceman Nicholas Hague.
"We've never backed away from anything like that. It's just playoff hockey. We know they're going to come out flying and we try to do the same. Emotions run high," Hague said on Friday. "That's what makes it great this time of year."
Lawless said he thinks the suspensions could affect Edmonton more than Las Vegas during Friday's game.
"Nurse has led them in ice time and he's very important to them. They're going to have to use Philip Broberg. He's not physical. He doesn't have Nurse's experience," Lawless said. "The load of the Oilers, from my perspective, it affects them more than Vegas losing Pietrangelo because of the depth the Golden Knights have."
Meantime, the players said they're ready to take the ice and hopefully, get ahead in the series before both teams go back to Canada for Game 6.
"It's a big game for us," said VGK forward Jonathan Marchessault. "For us, we have home advantage in a best-out-of three so we need to take advantage of that and make sure we win one of the battles tonight."
"We understand the way we have to play for us to be successful so it's important for us to establish it early," said VGK center Jack Eichel. "Our game is getting the puck up and getting it out of our zone and playing in their head and trying to wear teams down. We feel like we're good when we're on the cycle and we've transitioned pucks quick. We don't have options off the rush. We get it behind them. It's been a strength of ours this season."
Eichel added the key will be the Golden Knights limiting the Oilers' opportunities off of VGK turnovers.
The puck drops at The Fortress tonight at 7 p.m.
Tonight's game was sponsored by Scripps Sports, which is the parent company of Channel 13. The Golden Knights and Scripps Sports recently announced a historic broadcast partnership where Scripps Sports will televise all non-nationally exclusive VGK games on cable, satellite, and over-the-air television.
