Flyers at Golden Knights Preview – Game 1 of 82

Opening night, part two.

For the third year in a row, Philadelphia is out on the west coast to begin the season. This year, they begin in Las Vegas against the Golden Knights.

After riding the rapids in Colorado, its time for business as usual. Taylor Leier was waived, and Hextall claimed goaltender Calvin Pickard off waivers from Toronto. He’ll likely serve as backup in Vegas.

Line combinations are as of Wednesday night:

Flyers lines in Vegas Wednesday

Giroux-Couturier-Konecny
Lindblom-Patrick-Voracek
JVR-Vorobyev-Simmonds
Laughton-Lehtera-Raffl

Weal, Weise extras

— John Boruk (@johnborukNBCS) October 3, 2018

What we have here is lines 1, 2A, 2B, and a very talented fourth line as well.

Defensively, Provorov and Gostisbehere are together on the top pairing. Sanheim and Gudas make up a surprisingly effective, play driving second pair. MacDonald and Hagg will play the third pairing.

Elliott will start the season in goal.

Max Pacioretty will make his much anticipated regular season debut for the Golden Knights. He’s coming off a 17 goal season, though he’s hit 30 or more five times.

Mikhail Vorobyev is playing in his first NHL regular season game, and the performance of JvR is a point of interest.

In last year’s matchups with Vegas, the teams split, going 1-1 and each losing their home games.

The puck drops at 10 PM EST.