This morning, Luca Sbisa slipped out of a red no-contact jersey and back into a regular practice jersey. "Hopefully, play Saturday," Sbisa indicated.
With Sbisa and William Carrier's return to health -- Carrier has participated in full practice for almost a week -- along with Ryan Carpenter's presence, the Golden Knights will be facing a bit of a roster crunch, as they'll have a healthy 24, one more than what's allowable.
We'll see what happens, but the easiest thing to do would be to waive or trade Carpenter, Carrier, Jon Merrill, or Brad Hunt. I would guess Merrill would be the most likely to pass through waivers unclaimed, if it comes to that.
Yesterday was an off-day, so Sbisa took his wife to see Mariah Carey sing at Caesars Palace.
"I was very surprised how much I enjoyed it," admitted Sbisa. "The guys asked me how it was, thinking I'd be like, 'Pfft.' But yeah, actually, I'd go back."
He pointed to Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You" as his favorite tune from the veteran hitmaker's performance.
As we all guessed, Sbisa noted that he suffered his injury when Elias Lindholm landed on his right ankle on December 12th.
"I thought it was pretty close to doing a lot of damage to it," he said. "Just a sprain, I guess. Could've been way worse."
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What's remarkable is that Sbisa actually completed the game.
"Sometimes, you get injured, and adrenaline carries you to the finish line."
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The Jonathan Marchessault-William Karlsson-Reilly Smith line has been one of the best in hockey this year.
This was from two weeks ago, but checking the numbers yesterday, they're still performing like a top-five line league-wide.
Over the last couple weeks, I've caught up with Marchessault, Karlsson, and Smith, along with James Neal, to get their opinions about what makes this trio tick.
HockeyBuzz: How exceptional has the line's chemistry been?
Jonathan Marchessault: In your pro career, you play with a lot of different linemates. But I don't remember playing with two guys that I want to play with more than those two.
William Karlsson: I don't know if I've ever had chemistry like this [with a line].
Reilly Smith: Chemistry, it's been good since day 1.
James Neal: They have a great feel for where each other are on the ice.
HB: On this line, what is each guy's role?
Neal: Marchy is more of a shooter; Karly is great down the middle, he's strong on pucks: Smitty is a great disher.
Karlsson: Smith is a guy who makes other guys good. He might be the key to our line.
He's good at everything. He's good at forechecking. He's very good with the puck. He sees guys very well. He's good defensively. He really has a 200-foot game.
It's hard to explain. But he always seems to be in the right position.
Marchessault is also a 200-foot guy. Sees the ice very well too. But he's a little more feisty. Hell of a shot.
I try to play a 200-foot game too. I want to score, but I also want to keep it tight in the back.
Smith: The good thing about our line is all three of us are interchangeable. We're pretty similar players.
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Russian hockey expert
Igor Eronko had an absolutely stellar Reddit AMA
earlier today. He dropped some juicy Vegas tidbits:
He didn't have any chance to sign Gusev cause SKA was going to offer him lucrative contract. And Gusev's also a guy who doesn't want to get out of comfort zone. He's a very big talent but characterless. I don't think it will somehow affect McPhee's standing. Shipachyov was 30 at the moment. It's quite risky to bring such guys over there. And McPhee had great Russian examples to work with: Ovechkin, Kuznetsov and Orlov. McPhee also drafted Zhukov at the 2017 draft.
No, Shipachyov is not going to come back. He could actually stay there, Ducks wanted him, they were trying to convince him to stay. Kings were interested. But he decided to go home. He's comfortable here.
Basically, Gusev is probably never coming to Las Vegas, the Kings were in on Shipachyov, and the Russians still love McPhee.
The Kings make sense, because at the time, they had just lost Jeff Carter. The Gusev story seems to bear more investigation: Did McPhee think that Shipachyov's presence would draw in Gusev? Because you presume they knew that Gusev wasn't necessarily keen on coming over. If you recall, Tampa Bay had some intriguing young defenders like Jake Dotchin and Slater Koekkoek which Vegas passed over in the expansion draft for the rights to Gusev, Jason Garrison, a 2017 second-round pick, and a 2018 fourth-rounder. Perhaps Gusev was just a throw-in in a deal which netted them more picks?
The whole AMA is worth a read if you have any interest in the KHL, Olympics, or any Russian NHL prospects.
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