Vancouver Canucks vs. Vegas Golden Knights: Prediction, Preview, Picks & Odds - 11/26/2022

Time: 10 p.m. ET

Venue: T-Mobile Arena, Las Vegas, NV

Where to watch: CBC, TVAS, SN, ATTSN-RM

DraftKings: Golden Knights -170, Canucks +145

FanDuel: Golden Knights -176, Canucks +146

BetMGM: Golden Knights -175, Canucks +145

Caesars: Golden Knights -178, Canucks +150

Canucks: 7-10-3

Golden Knights: 16-5-1

Canucks: won 4-3 at Avalanche

Golden Knights: lost 4-2 vs. Kraken

There's a little bit of inconsistency right now with the Vegas Golden Knights and I'm not really sure which way I should feel about it. On one hand, this schedule sucks for Vegas. Like absolutely horrendous scheduling with three home games in four days for Vegas in right in the middle of the Thanksgiving holiday. As far as I can tell the fact that Vegas even came back from a two goal deficit against Seattle on Friday would lead me to believe that things were actually better than they could have been. On the other hand, now you have another divisional opponent on Saturday in the Vancouver Canucks and really there's a bit of a disconnect with this game also.

So here's my thought process with this. Vegas played its worst game of the year on Friday in the 4-2 loss to Seattle. There's no denying that, even Vegas players will tell you that after that game it was just completely horrendous and that there was no place in the world for what in the world happened at that game. Do I think though that Vegas should bounce back against a very heavily struggling Vancouver team? Absolutely. But the thing that gets me is that not that long ago, the golden Knights played the Canucks in Vancouver, had a 2-1 lead going into the third period, gave up three goals in the span of 6 minutes, before Vegas scored three goals of its own to eventually win 5-4. Did you catch all of that?

Logan Thompson will start in net four Vegas after Adin Hill gave up four goals on 28 shots against Seattle. Thompson is, without question, the number one goalie in this system right now. There is no denying that he has been able to pick up wins in a situation where Vegas may not have had a lot of wins to deal with. He is going to be the number one guy going forward, with hill getting reps whenever he can. And that's not a bad thing considering Vegas’ goaltending situation could have been a whole lot worse. Remember just a couple of months ago that this was going to be the tandem along with maybe a healthy Laurent Brossoit, but what a time to be alive if you think about it.

The Canucks, meanwhile are in a very interesting situation that feels like it's on the verge of combusting at any given moment. Vancouver is in this weird spot where they are no longer considered safe to have a lead at any point. Look at what happened with Vegas the other night and then come back to me with your own opinion. But then you look at Vancouver winning 4-3 in Colorado the other night where the Canucks actually held on to a lead and you start getting inklings then maybe the Canucks have started to turn a corner and perhaps there is still some hope for this team to make a charge later on.

The biggest problem with Vancouver is that the goaltending has been inconsistent. Thatcher demco has done all he can to ensure that he can be the guy for this team, but when you have a defense that is Quinn Hughes and five other guys, you're pretty much trudging for water at this point. Hughes cannot do it all, even though poor Bruce boudreau is trying his hardest but it just does not look like it's going to happen the way that he would want it to. So in my estimation, this is gonna look like a very tough game for Vancouver once again. And the fact that Vegas is debuting its glow-in-the-dark reverse retro sweaters and it's going to be a massive show to begin with, anything can happen.

this is an important game for Vegas before it embarks on an important four-game road trip that caps off with coach Bruce Cassidy facing his former Boston Bruins team two Mondays from now. With Thompson and net, and me guessing that Thompson will get a lot of starts as December rolls on, it is very important for him to continue to play well. Golden Knights win 4-2

Canucks are 233-279 on the road when playing against a team with a winning record since 1996.

Canucks are 86-62 on the road after two days rest since 1996.

Golden Knights are 38-17 in the first half of the season the last 2 years.

Canucks:

J.T. Miller -- Bo Horvat -- Nils Hoglander

Andrei Kuzmenko -- Elias Pettersson -- Ilya Mikheyev

Conor Garland -- Sheldon Dries -- Brock Boeser

Dakota Joshua -- Nils Aman -- Curtis Lazar

Quinn Hughes -- Luke Schenn

Oliver Ekman-Larsson -- Ethan Bear

Kyle Burroughs -- Tyler Myers

Thatcher Demko

Golden Knights:

Chandler Stephenson -- Jack Eichel -- Mark Stone

Reilly Smith -- William Karlsson -- Jonathan Marchessault

Paul Cotter -- Michael Amadio -- Phil Kessel

William Carrier -- Nicolas Roy -- Keegan Kolesar

Alec Martinez -- Alex Pietrangelo

Brayden McNabb -- Shea Theodore

Nicolas Hague -- Zach Whitecloud

Logan Thompson