{"id":692717,"date":"2026-05-25T03:29:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-25T03:29:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/692717\/"},"modified":"2026-05-25T03:29:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-25T03:29:10","slug":"lineup-notes-stone-makar-wedgewood-pro-hockey-rumors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/692717\/","title":{"rendered":"Lineup Notes: Stone, Makar, Wedgewood \u2013 Pro Hockey Rumors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Vegas Golden Knights captain Mark Stone<\/a> returns to action in Game 3 tonight on home ice, reported by ESPN\u2019s Emily Kaplan<\/a>. He had been dealing with a lower-body injury, missing five straight games.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unable to come away with a win before heading out to Vegas, it only makes things more difficult for Colorado, as they\u2019ll desperately try to get back on track tonight. Without their captain, the Golden Knights have gotten massive performances from Brett Howden<\/a>, the 28-year-old netting nine goals this postseason, needing three more to match his entire output in the regular season. Pavel Dorofeyev<\/a>, no longer such an underrated sniper, has also stood out with 10 goals, and finally, one can\u2019t skip over Mitch Marner<\/a> and Jack Eichel<\/a> who are playing at an elite level.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The efforts have helped Vegas go 4-1 without Stone, tied 2-2 with Anaheim after his first absence which caused concern, but quickly sending them home afterward. Now, up 2-0 over the Presidents\u2019 Trophy winners, a top forward is back in the mix, having posted seven points in nine playoff games thus far. Brandon Saad<\/a> is likely to be the odd man out; the 33-year-old two-time Stanley Cup Champion added two helpers in five games while Stone was injured as a key veteran presence.\u00a0<\/p>\n

More lineup news from tonight\u2019s Game 3:<\/p>\n

Stone\u2019s opponents will also likely have a big boost tonight, as \u201call signs point to\u201d Cale Makar<\/a> returning, according to Kaplan<\/a>. Missing the first two games of the series with an upper-body injury, Avalanche head coach Jared Bednar<\/a> was cryptic on his status earlier today<\/a>, but if there was ever a time he was needed, even if not back to full health, it\u2019s tonight with their backs close to the wall. Skating 24:59 in his playoff action to this point, Makar\u2019s usage may indicate his overall health for what lies ahead in Colorado\u2019s hopes to turn the tide and advance to the Stanley Cup Final.\u00a0
\nWhile there was some speculation that the Avalanche could make a goalie change after losing the first two games, that\u2019s not the case.\u00a0 Instead, Evan Rawal of The Denver Gazette<\/a> was among those to note that Scott Wedgewood<\/a> will indeed get the nod once again.\u00a0 The 33-year-old posted the best GAA (2.02) and SV% (.921) league-wide during the regular season but has lost three of his last four starts, allowing eight goals on 70 shots in that span.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Vegas Golden Knights captain Mark Stone returns to action in Game 3 tonight on home ice, reported by…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":692718,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[556],"tags":[64,63,337964,59632,7522,200697,575,183876,85,7529],"class_list":["post-692717","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nhl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-brandon-saad","tag-cale-makar","tag-colorado-avalanche","tag-mark-stone","tag-nhl","tag-scott-wedgewood","tag-sports","tag-vegas-golden-knights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692717","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=692717"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/692717\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/692718"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=692717"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=692717"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=692717"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}