Vegas’ Ryan Reaves will begin a two-game suspension Wednesday, so the combined 74 penalty minutes in Sunday’s Game 1 between the Avalanche and Golden Knights might greatly decrease for Game 2 at Ball Arena.
At the same time, hostilities might also be amped up between the top-two point producers in the NHL’s regular season.
It could go either way.
The Avs, who shellacked the Golden Knights 7-1 in Game 1, will likely use the same lineup Wednesday for Game 2. Everyone from that game practiced Tuesday in the same lines and defensive pairings and goalie Philipp Grubauer will start in net.
Las Vegas will change personnel, with Reaves, a physical fourth-line winger, beginning his NHL-imposed suspension for roughing and unsportsmanlike conduct against Avs defenseman Ryan Graves in Game 1. Also, third-line winger Mattias Janmark is likely out with an upper-body injury.
Janmark, who was crushed by Graves on a hit that triggered the chippy play in Game 1, did not practice Tuesday. Keegan Kolesar will likely replace Reaves on the fourth line and Dylan Sikura could slot in for Janmark on the third line — or Vegas might go with just 11 forwards and an extra defenseman (seven).
Vegas is expected to start goalie Marc-Andre Fleury in net over Robin Lehner, who allowed all seven goals Sunday.
Fleury and Grubauer on Tuesday were each named finalists for the Vezina Trophy as the NHL’s best goaltender, along with Tampa Bay’s Andrei Vasilevskiy.
Avs coach Jared Bednar and Knights coach Peter DeBoer both had little to say on Tuesday about Reaves’ egregious actions against Graves at 8:04 of the third period Sunday with the Avs leading 6-1. Reaves acknowledged to the NHL Department of Player Safety that he pulled a chunk of Graves’ hair out while kneeing him in the head and that he was out for revenge over Graves’ hit on Janmark.
“He got two games, and, I mean, that’s it. I really don’t have anything (else) to say,” Bednar said. “My focus is to prepare our team for tomorrow night.”
“I’m not going to comment on my feelings on the suspension,” Deboer said. “It is what it is. We’ll deal with it and move forward.”
DeBoer defended the 6-foot-2, 225-pound Reaves after Game 1 and also supported one of the few remaining true NHL enforcers on Tuesday. Reaves has just 49 career goals and 101 points in 686 NHL regular-season games, but 937 penalty minutes.
“I think everybody wants a Ryan Reaves, particularly at different moments during the regular season and through the playoffs. This is still a big, physical, hard game,” DeBoer said. “We just came through a team in Minnesota. I watched the effectiveness of (Marcus) Foligno in that series. If he wasn’t their best player, he was in that conversation.
“It is tougher (to be a Reaves). I think you have to obviously be a special player now to play that role. You have to be able to play. You have to be able to skate, to be able to play within a system and the coach needs to be able to put you on the ice for 10 or 15 minutes. It’s not like it was maybe 10 years ago where that guy could maybe play four minutes and just do his thing. They’re special athletes and everybody wants one.”
Reaves also took a roughing minor against Grubauer seconds before he threw Graves to the ice in what turned into a match penalty. He had 14 minutes of penalties Sunday.
“Hard guy to play against. Physical. Usually, he doesn’t really cross the line too many times,” Grubauer said of Reaves. “I thought he did a little bit with Gravey there, but stuff like that happens. He didn’t like the hit from Gravey on Janmark so I get that he’s trying to send a message. That’s his game. Player Safety took care of it.”
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