The Vegas Golden Knights are in town tonight which brings the return of Marc-Andre Fleury. The plan was for Fleury to play against Washington and sit out against Pittsburgh. This is still the case. Fleury will not be playing tonight. Neither will Matt Murray. You could make the case neither of them have really been “playing” this year. They’ve both been terrible.

Murray: .831
Fleury: .846

Murray was bad last year while Fleury had a career year.

Today Matt Murray took shots and skated with the team despite the concussion diagnosis from the other day. I would still slow play this recovery process even if Murray is ahead of the curve with his symptoms. Casey DeSmith was the first goalie off the ice and he will get his first start of the 2018-19 season. Tristan Jarry was called up to be the backup.

Derek Grant was sent to waivers to make room for these roster moves. Juuso Riikola remains with the team because he will be making NHL debut tonight. It appears Olli Maatta will be the odd man out. This is the beginning of what could be an interesting season for Maatta. Rutherford has no ties to Olli Maatta and he is directly tied to Jack Johnson. If one is out the door you can probably assume it is Maatta. If Riikola is competent this is going to create a lot of rumors as we go.

Vegas is 1-4 and their only win is against Minnesota and that came in a 2-1 shootout victory. They have lost to the Flyers, Sabres, and Capitals. It doesn’t appear that Vegas has that same magic to start the year as they did last season. Marc-Andre Fleury is far from likely to have another season at the same caliber he had last year and that isn’t going to hide things for the Golden Knights like they did last year.

Pittsburgh has had their own share of problems. They have been terrible defensively and have received even worse goaltending than Vegas. Pittsburgh has had an opportunity to practice for multiple days in a row. You don’t always have that chance with how the schedule works. They need to take advantage of the learning process.

Thanks for reading!

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