{"id":491043,"date":"2026-05-20T18:21:09","date_gmt":"2026-05-20T22:21:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/?p=491043"},"modified":"2026-05-20T18:21:09","modified_gmt":"2026-05-20T22:21:09","slug":"vegas-golden-knights-vs-colorado-avalanche-game-1-lineups-and-notes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/2026\/05\/20\/vegas-golden-knights-vs-colorado-avalanche-game-1-lineups-and-notes\/","title":{"rendered":"Vegas Golden Knights vs Colorado Avalanche Game 1 Lineups and Notes"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here at\u00a0Last Word On Hockey<\/em>, our writers strive to provide the latest information on the Stanley Cup Playoffs through the final game. The Vegas Golden Knights and Colorado Avalanche will do battle at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time tonight in Colorado to kick off the Western Conference Finals. We will discuss lineup news, starting goalies, and everything you will need to know before puck drop. Also, feel free to check out our series preview<\/a> and Game 1 predictions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/smartframe-embed><\/p>\n

Credit Image: \u00a9 Alex Cave\/ZUMA Press Wire<\/span><\/p>\n

Vegas Golden Knights vs Colorado Avalanche Game 1 Lineups<\/h2>\n

Both teams have had a good amount of rest following their respective second-round series. However, it is expected that many players will not be at 100%. Most notably, Cale Makar<\/a> will not play Game 1 and is listed as day-to-day, according to Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar. Other players who missed practice over the last week, including Josh Manson, Brent Burns, Artturi Lehkonen, and Sam Malinski, are expected to play. <\/span>As for Vegas, things remain more uncertain. “There’s no update on injuries right now,” <\/em>Vegas coach John Tortorella<\/a> said. “I know he was on the ice. You saw that. But there’s no update.”\u00a0<\/em>Mark Stone<\/a> has not played in the last three games, but he reportedly skated with the scratches on Wednesday’s skate.<\/p>\n

As for goaltending, Carter Hart<\/a> (8-4, 2.37 goals-against average, .917 save percentage) and Scott Wedgewood<\/a> (7-1, 2.21 goals-against average, .914 save percentage) are expected to start Game 1.<\/p>\n

The projected lineups are as follows. Lineups have not officially been confirmed yet, so please check social media for the most updated information before locking in your daily fantasy lineups.<\/span><\/p>\n

Golden Knights Lines<\/h3>\n
\n

Barbashev \u2013 Eichel \u2013 Dorofeyev
\nHowden \u2013 Karlsson \u2013 Marner
\nSaad \u2013 Hertl \u2013 Sissons
\nSmith \u2013 Dowd \u2013 Kolesar<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

McNabb – Theodore
\nHanifin \u2013 Andersson
\nHutton \u2013 Coghlan<\/p>\n

Hart<\/p>\n

Notable scratches: Stone, Lauzon, Korczak<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Avalanche Lines<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n
\n

Landeskog \u2013 MacKinnon \u2013 Necas
\nLehkonen \u2013 Nelson \u2013 Roy
\nColton \u2013 Kadri \u2013 Nichushkin
\nKelly \u2013 Drury \u2013 O\u2019Connor<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Toews \u2013 Malinski
\nBurns \u2013 Manson
\nKulak \u2013 Ahcan<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

Wedgewood<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Notable scratches: Makar, Kiviranta, Blankenburg<\/p>\n

Main Photo Credit: Isaiah J. Downing-USA TODAY Sports<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here at\u00a0Last Word On Hockey, our writers strive to provide the latest information on the Stanley Cup Playoffs through the final game. The Vegas Golden Knights and Colorado Avalanche will do battle at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Daylight Time tonight in Colorado to kick off the Western Conference Finals. We will discuss lineup news, starting goalies, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5733,"featured_media":135905,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,4547,34,4548,807],"tags":[8285,1515,5781,871,6182],"class_list":["post-491043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-avalanche","category-hockey","category-news","category-nhl","category-vegas-golden-knights","tag-2026-stanley-cup-playoffs","tag-cale-makar","tag-colorado-avalanche-news","tag-mark-stone","tag-vegas-golden-knights-news"],"modified_by":"Levi Pike, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491043","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5733"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=491043"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":491054,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/491043\/revisions\/491054"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135905"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=491043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=491043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/hockey\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=491043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}