The Vegas Golden Knights took a 2-1 series lead with their 5-1 win over the Edmonton Oilers on the road Monday, but the win cost them their starting netminder, Laurent Brossoit. Adin Hill took over and held on for the blowout win, but now Vegas has serious question marks heading into Game 4 of this series.
With the lead and possibly without their starting Goalie, all the pressure is on Connor McDavid and the Oilers to answer and avoid going down 3-1 in the second round of the NHL playoffs. Let's get into the odds for Game 4 in Edmonton on Wednesday night.
Golden Knights vs. Oilers odds, puck line and total
Golden Knights vs. Oilers prediction and pick
The Edmonton Oilers have the star power in this series to the point where Vegas's leading scorer this season, Jack Eichel didn't even have half as many points as McDavid. However, in the Golden Knight's wins this series they have done the little things much better. They outshot Edmonton in both, but also have had 30 more blocked shots than Edmonton in this series.
In Vegas's wins, they have done a decent job staying out of the penalty box which is very important considering that the Oilers are converting at a 51.9% rate with the man advantage. Vegas is only scoring on 18.5% of their chances. That discrepancy should be a big concern for Edmonton because this postseason their powerplay is overperforming from the regular season by about 20% while Vegas is under performing by about 1%.
With potentially a backup goaltender in net, I expect Vegas to play a simplified style and continue to block shots. We have seen one high-scoring game and two blowout, but I think this will be the first low-scoring close game of the series as Edmonton's powerplay regression starts to show up and the Golden Knights load up to help Hill if he does start in net.
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change
