What changes do Golden Knights need to make for Game 3?

As the Pacific Division Final continues, the top seed is looking for answers as the series shifts venues for the first time.

The Vegas Golden Knights are in Orange County for a crucial third game of their second-round series against the Anaheim Ducks. The Golden Knights might’ve managed to win Game 1 in overtime, but they dropped the second game of the best-of-seven set, and arguably looked like the inferior team at five-on-five. It seems that the Pacific Division champions need to make some adjustments if they want get back ahead of the Ducks in the series.

On Friday’s edition of Daily Faceoff LIVE, Ken Boehlke of SinBin.vegas joined Tyler Yaremchuk and Steve Peters to discuss what the Golden Knights need to change in order to have better results in Game 3 on Friday night.

Ken Boehlke: I think they need to bring in two different people. I think first off, I think Riley Smith needs to get back in the lineup. There’s a bunch of different options that they could take out, and I think the one that’ll surprise people—I don’t think it’s going to happen, but it kind of does make sense—is Tomas Hertl. He’s done nothing. He just has not been impactful at all. At five-on-five, he’s arguably a negative to your team…he’s playing with no confidence at all. When he gets the puck, it looks awful.

I think he stays in, but I think Smith probably would come in for Keegan Kolesar. The physicality just isn’t there against Anaheim. You just can’t catch them the same way that they were able to catch Utah. So I think that’s probably the one that would come out.

And then the other side is, I think Dylan Coghlan, who hasn’t ever played a playoff game, he’s been around the Golden Knights organization for a while…he has had a really good season in the AHL. I think Caden Korzak’s got to go out, and Coghlan goes in. Coghlan offers a little bit more puck movement and a really heavy shot, and I think they can use that—another option at their blue line—to do that.

You can watch the full segment and entire episode here…