Defenseman Shea Theodore returns to Golden Knights lineup

Golden Knights coach Gerard Gallant showed a bit of tough love to defenseman Shea Theodore with a one-game penance for his costly turnover in Nashville.

Then he gave the 22-year-old a figurative pat on the back and sent him right back out there for Tuesday’s 3-2 shootout loss to Carolina at T-Mobile Arena.

“You don’t like watching games, any player I know,” Gallant said after the Knights’ morning skate at City National Arena. “He sat down for one game, and hopefully he goes back in tonight and plays real well.”

On Friday, Theodore lost the puck below his own goal line when he tried to make a move around Predators forward Viktor Arvidsson. The giveaway led to Nick Bonino’s go-ahead goal with 5:04 remaining, though the Knights bailed out Theodore with a shootout victory.

Gallant scratched Theodore in favor of Brad Hunt for the Knights’ 5-3 win Saturday at Dallas.

“Like I said, we’re really happy with the way he’s progressed,” Gallant said of Theodore. “We just wanted to give him the night off and eliminate some of those mistakes.”

Theodore has one goal and four assists in 15 games after being recalled from the American Hockey League on Oct. 30.

He made a key defensive play with five minutes remaining in the third period to block Joakim Nordstrom’s backhand try and help keep the score tied at 2.

Hardly knew ya

In a rare twist Tuesday, it was one-time Golden Knights haunting their former team, not the other way around.

Trevor van Riemsdyk and Marcus Kruger had Carolina’s goals in regulation after neither scored in their team’s first 29 games.

The Knights selected van Riemsdyk in the expansion draft from Chicago and traded him the next day for a second-round pick that was used to select 18-year-old center Jake Leschyshyn.

Kruger was obtained from Chicago for future considerations in early July, then flipped to the Hurricanes for a 2018 fifth-round pick.

Chicken soup

A handful of players were not at Tuesday morning’s optional skate, but Gallant said there was only one illness to report.

“I got it, but the players are all good. That’s the good thing,” Gallant said with a laugh and a sniffle. “They’re all 100 percent. They’re finally starting to take advantage of the optional practices.”

Youth clinics

The Knights announced they will conduct three additional youth hockey clinics this month at City National Arena.

Director of hockey operations Misha Donskov will run a free, one-hour clinic at 6:15 p.m. Dec. 18 for players of all skill levels age 8 to 10. Full gear is required.

The Learn to Skate camp for children age 3 and older runs from noon to 3:30 p.m. Dec. 28 and 29. Cost is $79 and includes skate rental. A power skating camp for hockey players age 6 to 16 goes from 7:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. Dec. 28 and 29. Cost is $99.

Contact David Schoen at dschoen@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5203. Follow @DavidSchoenLVRJ on Twitter.