- Jeremy Lauzon returns to the Vegas lineup for Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final after a month off with an upper-body injury
- The 6-foot-3 defenseman will skate alongside Dylan Coghlan, with Kaedan Korczak coming out
- Read below for video and Tortorella’s full take on what Lauzon brings against Carolina
The Golden Knights are getting their hammer back.
Vegas head coach John Tortorella confirmed Tuesday that Jeremy Lauzon will skate in Game 1 of the Stanley Cup Final against the Carolina Hurricanes at Lenovo Center. The 6-foot-3 defenseman has been out since May 1, when he took a Pavel Dorofeyev shot to the head in Game 6 of the first round against Utah.
Watch pregame sound from Lauzon and the rest of the Vegas room before puck drop:
A month of watching from the press box wasn’t easy.
Lauzon talked about how tough it was sitting through the playoff run:
“It’s probably the most anxious I’ve been watching games, that’s for sure. But I never had a doubt that the guys would pull through.”
Vegas picked Lauzon up from Nashville last summer in the Nicolas Hague trade and got exactly what they were paying for. The 225-pound blueliner finished 10th in the NHL with 251 hits, ate penalty-kill minutes, and chipped in 13 points (1G, 12A) across 68 regular season games.
That physicality is the whole point of dressing him against Carolina’s grinding cycle game.
Tortorella was asked about Lauzon’s role and what he brings to the back end:
“Good solid positional defenseman. Has some bite to him. He was missed. He’s just good positionally, and he does his job each and every shift. He anchors his position.”
Check out Tortorella’s full media day session ahead of Game 1:
Lauzon will pair with Dylan Coghlan, who has been one of the surprise stories on Vegas’s blue line in the playoffs. Coghlan only played three regular season games and didn’t have a point, but he’s posted a plus-eight rating with three points (1G, 2A) across eight postseason appearances.
Kaedan Korczak is the odd man out.
With Lauzon back, the Knights have a fully healthy roster for the first time since opening night. Carter Hart will be in net opposite Frederik Andersen. Puck drop is 8 p.m. ET on ABC.
