The Vegas Golden Knights finally activated one of their best defensive defensemen off the injured reserve.
An incredible eight-game winning streak and 13 game point streak came to an end for the Vegas Golden Knights against the St. Louis Blues on Thursday night. That run featured some of the best hockey performed by any team this year. But as Head Coach Gerard Gallant says, “it’s not what you did yesterday, it’s what you’re going to do today.”
The Golden Knights look to start a new winning streak when they take on the Chicago Blackhawks on Friday night at the United Center. The last time these two teams met, Oscar Dansk was the starting goalie for Vegas, and he led the way 29 saves and a 4-2 victory. A lot has changed since then; the Hawks are trying to fight their way into the playoffs, while the Knights are sitting pretty in first place in the Western Conference.
Before the game against Chicago, the Knights made a transaction and a lineup change for the first time in weeks. The Golden Knights announced they have activated Luca Sbisa off the injured reserve and will be in the lineup tonight. The corresponding roster move is Jon Merrill going on the injured reserve with an undisclosed injury.
In my opinion, this is a big boost to the blue line for the Golden Knights. Sbisa has been ready to go for quite some time now but in the hockey world plans always change. I can see why they didn’t want to change the lineup during the long win streak, but this move is for the best in the long run.
Sbisa was playing some of the best hockey of his career before his injury. He would always be out against the opposing top unit, and his job is to shut them down every night. He’s been Gallant’s top option on defense at the end of games when the team is leading.
The Ozieri, Italy native isn’t the most offensively gifted player as he only notched one goal, nine assists in 23 games played. Sbisa has never seen the ice this much in his entire career as he averages over 20 minutes a game. Playing under Gallant’s system has really helped him become a better player overall.
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All in all, Sbisa should be a significant improvement over Merrill performance-wise. However, it may take Sbisa awhile before he gets back in a gameday groove. We’ll see how his return to the lineup goes when the Vegas Golden Knights battle the Blackhawks.