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Vegas Golden Knights Battling Through Injuries And Illness

By Richard Cardinale

LAS VEGAS, NV - FEBRUARY 17: Pierre-Edouard Bellemare #41 is helped off the ice by his teammates Brayden McNabb #3 and Tomas Nosek #92 of the Vegas Golden Knights after being injured during the game against the Montreal Canadiens at T-Mobile Arena on February 17, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/NHLI via Getty Images)
LAS VEGAS, NV - FEBRUARY 17: Pierre-Edouard Bellemare #41 is helped off the ice by his teammates Brayden McNabb #3 and Tomas Nosek #92 of the Vegas Golden Knights after being injured during the game against the Montreal Canadiens at T-Mobile Arena on February 17, 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada. (Photo by Jeff Bottari/NHLI via Getty Images) /
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Due to injuries and illness, the depth of the Vegas Golden Knights is starting to dwindle.

We all know about the challenging start of the season where the Vegas Golden Knights were scrambling with their goaltending depth. The team managed to find a way to battle through that tough month and a half stretch without Marc-Andre Fleury, Malcolm Subban, and Oscar Dansk. It seemed like the Golden Knights were out of the woods as the full team nearly stayed healthy for two and a half months.

However, bad luck has found its way back to the expansion franchise. Subban has made his way on the injured reserve once again because of an upper-body injury. William Carrier remains out with an upper-body injury of his own, and it’s undetermined when he’ll return.

Fortunately, Jon Merrill will make his return to the lineup tonight against the Calgary Flames taking the spot of Brad Hunt. But perhaps the most critical injury of them all came versus the Montreal Canadiens involving Pierre-Edouard Bellemare. Bellemare went into the boards awkwardly and left holding his left hand.

The team put the Le Blanc-Mesnil, France native on the IR and called up both Stefan Matteau and Tomas Hyka from the Chicago Wolves. Losing Bellemare is a crucial loss to the fourth line, he’s been the glue to that line all-year long. Looking how he went into the boards was very scary, and the team is lucky it’s only a hand injury.

And to make matters worse for Vegas, Shea Theodore and James Neal are battling illness. The word is that Theodore has a throat infection and needs a little more time to recover than most. There’s no report out there that says Neal’s sickness is related to Theodore’s, but both players are out tonight versus the Flames.

For the first time in their inaugural season, the Golden Knights are without some of their best skaters. They’re missing a top offensive weapon, one of the best defensive forwards, the best puck-moving defenseman, and the backup goaltender. This team can’t afford to lose another high-end player to go down as we head down the stretch.

Head Coach Gerard Gallant didn’t hold a full morning skate today, so we’ll see how warmups look during line rushes. After a 2-0 loss to the Anaheim Ducks, you know Gallant is going to switch up some of his lines. If there’s any line that’s going to remain intact its the line of Jonathan Marchessault, William Karlsson and Reilly Smith.

Next: Vegas Golden Knights: Five Trade Deadline Targets

Overall, it’s exciting to see new faces, but points are at a premium, and this team needs to stay healthy. The Vegas Golden Knights can’t manage to go limping into the postseason because they may very well be a first-round knockout. We’ll see how well the bottom half of the roster does, but the primary focus is getting healthy.

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