- McNabb left the 1st period after a partial hit on Sam Malinski
- The top-pair defenseman never came back out for the second
- Read below for what’s left of Vegas’ blue line and where Game 2 stood
The Golden Knights got the worst kind of first-period news in Game 2.
Brayden McNabb left Friday’s Western Conference Final tilt at Ball Arena after laying a partial hit on Avalanche defenseman Sam Malinski just inside the Vegas blue line. He missed the final 6:20 of the opening period and never came back out for the second.
Vegas had penciled him in on the top pair with Shea Theodore again, the same look they’ve leaned on since the first round:
McNabb went for 25:42 of ice time in Game 1, second-most among Vegas skaters, and he leads the team’s defensemen in hits this postseason with 23. The 35-year-old has a goal, two assists and a plus-6 mark through 12 games on this run.
Losing him in the first dropped the Knights to five healthy defensemen. Dylan Coghlan and Kaeden Korczak, already slotted on the bottom pair, had to soak up more shifts against MacKinnon, Necas and a Colorado attack that finally found its footing. Noah Hanifin and Rasmus Andersson have to chew up the slack too.
Even before McNabb’s exit, Tortorella was down a captain. Mark Stone missed Game 2 with a lower-body issue, and Vegas came in trying to shove Colorado into a 2-0 series hole on the road. The Avs punched back when Ross Colton beat Carter Hart with three minutes left in the first:
That 1-0 lead held into the third period.
Game 3 goes Sunday at T-Mobile Arena, 8 p.m. ET on ESPN. Whether McNabb is back in the lineup or sidelined again will reshape how Tortorella splits his back end the rest of this round.
