Look at the back end and it makes sense. John Marino and Maveric Lamoureux are both on injured reserve, and Nate Schmidt is now listed out with an upper-body injury and no timeline for a return, per the Deseret News. That is 3 regular defensemen gone for this one, and Utah allowed 4, 5 and 6 goals in its 3 losses in the window. Kailer Yamamoto is also on IR with an upper-body injury, and Gregor Biber came up from AHL Tucson to cover.
The new wrinkle up front is Dylan Guenther, who went on the report as day-to-day on Tuesday. If he can't go, Utah loses one of its few reliable finishers on a night it needs its top 6 to win the 5-on-5 minutes outright, because Cooley's line can't carry the whole thing against this Vegas forward group. Hertl has the late goals, Marner is producing on the penalty kill, and Eichel is doing what Eichel does.
Puck drop is 6:30 PM PT. Vegas's blue line has allowed 1 goal in 2 of its 3 straight wins, but it isn't whole either: Noah Hanifin is week-to-week and Parker Wotherspoon has been ruled out week-to-week with an upper-body injury, which leaves the Golden Knights short on the left side. So both teams are patching defense. The difference is that Utah's 3rd pair is mostly call-ups and depth players, and Vegas has had 4 lines scoring this month. Guenther's status at warmups is the one thing still worth watching.
