(Photo Credit: SinBin.vegas Photographer Brandon Andreasen)
Mark Stone is back.
After missing the last 16 games, the captain returns to the lineup in an unfamiliar place.
Due to the emergence of Braeden Bowman, Bruce Cassidy has elected to slot Stone onto a line with Mitch Marner and Brett Howden. Stone will play in his usual spot on the right wing, which will force Marner to shift over to the left, a place he has not played thus far as a Golden Knight.
That keeps Tomas Hertl with Pavel Dorofeyev and Brandon Saad, and sends Reilly Smith down to the 4th line.
Barbashev-Eichel-Bowman
Marner-Howden-Stone
Saad-Hertl-Dorofeyev
Smith-Sissons-Kolesar
On special teams, Stone will head right back into the same spot near the goal line he occupied to start the season. The power play scored an incredible nine goals in the first six games and hit on 37.5% of their opportunities. They’ve scored just nine goals in the 16 games since, for a 17.0% power play success rate.
The top power play unit remains with five forwards.
Stone
Eichel-Hertl-Dorofeyev
Marner
The second unit gets a bit of a changed look with Bowman’s right-handed stick. This unit has two defensemen, Shea Theodore and Noah Hanifin, as well as a couple of big bodies to occupy the front of the net in Ivan Barbashev and Colton Sissons. Unlike the top unit that runs a 1-3-1 look, the second unit will use a 2-3.
Bowman-Sissons-Barbashev
Hanifin-Theodore
The Golden Knights were 4-0-2 with Stone in the lineup to start the season. They averaged 4.33 goals per game and scored at least four in all but one game. Since Stone’s injury, they are 6-5-5 and have scored just 2.63 goals per night.
