The Vegas Golden Knights have to do it without William Karlsson. He was ruled out for Game 6 of the Stanley Cup Final after leaving midway through the second period of Game 5 with a left arm and wrist problem, and John Tortorella now has to sort through a lineup change for a team that cannot afford one.
That matters now because the Golden Knights trail the Carolina Hurricanes 3-2 entering Sunday’s Game 6 at T-Mobile Arena. Win, and the series stays alive. Lose, and the season ends before Wednesday’s possible Game 7 at Lenovo Center in Raleigh, North Carolina. With the stakes that high, the missing center is not a footnote; he is part of the problem the Golden Knights have to solve before the puck drops.
Tortorella said he will have to mix up his lines, and the obvious question is whether Mitch Marner moves to center again. Marner did that for much of the season when Karlsson was out with a lower-body injury, so the option is there. Reilly Smith and Brandon Saad are also in the mix, which makes the decision less about theory than about who can fit into the middle on short notice without breaking the rest of the group.
There is still a calm tone around the Golden Knights. Brayden McNabb called it simple: win the game and go to Carolina for Game 7. Ivan Barbashev said the group is preparing mentally for a seventh and deciding game, and that confidence makes sense for a team that has been here before. The same roster still includes 12 players from the June 13, 2023 championship team, including McNabb, Shea Theodore, Reilly Smith and Karlsson from the 2017-18 expansion group.
But confidence does not erase the friction. The Golden Knights are talking about a next-step mindset while facing elimination and losing one of the players who helps hold the lineup together. Tortorella’s adjustment will be measured not by how neatly it looks on paper, but by whether the Golden Knights can stay organized enough to survive Sunday and force the trip to Raleigh.
One more problem hangs over the series. Carter Hart became the first goalie in Stanley Cup Final history to allow at least four goals in each of the first five games, a number that shows how much pressure has already been on Vegas to find answers at both ends. If the Golden Knights get one, the series goes on. If they do not, Karlsson’s absence will be part of the last thing they could not overcome.
