Vegas Golden Knights: Return of the Glass in Ducks matchup

Christmas has come again for the Vegas Golden Knights who will have rookie Cody Glass back in the lineup tonight.

Glass has missed the last eight games for the Vegas Golden Knights because of an upper-body injury, an ailment that was suffered after taking a Brendan Lemieux elbow to the head against the New York Rangers on Dec, 8.

It looked a serious injury at the time with the 20-year-old struggling to get off the ice, and it is likely that Glass suffered with concussion even though the exact details of the injury wasn’t disclosed by the team.

However, the forward will make his return to the lineup tonight as the Golden Knights take on the Anaheim Ducks in a one-game road trip at Honda Center (7:00 p.m. PT).

And, according to Jesse Granger of The Athletic, Glass will slot in on the third line but not as a center.

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Taking to the ice at morning skate earlier, Glass played on the right wing with Paul Stastny centering that line and Alex Tuch playing as the left wing.

That is a strong looking third line for the Knights who have struggled to generate much secondary scoring so far this year, with 74 of the 122 goals scored by the Golden Knights this year coming from the top six forward unit.

So, with Glass back tonight, Vegas will be hoping that his skill and creativity sparks that third line into life with Tuch in particular set to benefit from Glass’ quality on the ice.

And what about the rest of the year for Cody Glass?

Prior to his upper-body injury, Glass had recorded four goals and seven assists for 11 points, with four of those points coming in his first five games.

It has been a lot of ups and downs since then with the rookie tallying just seven points in his last 27 games.

Glass has also struggled at 5-on-5 at times with six of his 11 points coming on the power play, although he was starting to show signs of progression before injury struck.

He also needs to improve in the faceoff circle with a winning percentage of 42.9 through 32 games, although he may not have much chance to do so if he plays out on the wing.

As far as the Calder Trophy goes, Glass is out of the race with Colorado Avalanche rookie Cale Makar seemingly on his way to winning the award comfortably, so the rest of the year needs to be about development for Glass.

We’re seeing with the two top picks in the 2019 NHL Entry Draft in Jack Hughes and Kaapo Kakko that it isn’t an easy transition to life in the NHL, and Glass should treat the rest of the year as a learning curve.

It hasn’t helped that Glass has been used up and down the lineup so far this season, while his most consistent linemates have been Cody Eakin and Brandon Pirri, who have three goals between them this year.

So, if Glass can remain healthy for the rest of the year and also get the opportunity to play with better quality linemates, then hopefully the rookie forward will be able to carve out a strong finish to 2019-20.

Starting with tonight’s matchup against the Anaheim Ducks.