The Chicago Blackhawks and Vegas Golden Knights begin their Western Conference 1-8 first-round matchup Tuesday at Rogers Place in Edmonton. Puck drop is set for 10:30 p.m. ET. Below, we look at the Blackhawks-Golden Knights betting odds and lines and make our NHL picks and best bets.
Blackhawks vs. Golden Knights: Projected starting goalies
Corey Crawford vs. Robin Lehner
Crawford, a two-time Stanley Cup winner, was largely unimpressive in the qualification round series upset of the Edmonton Oilers. He posted a .891 save percentage and 3.75 goals against average in four games. He went 1-1 against Vegas in the regular season with eight total goals allowed on 79 shots.
Lehner’s expected to have the edge over veteran Marc-Andre Fleury against one of his former teams. The 29-year-old posted a .920 SV% and 2.89 GAA across 36 total games for Chicago and Vegas in the regular season. He stopped 56 of the 62 shots he faced over two round-robin starts.
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Blackhawks vs. Golden Knights: Odds, picks and betting tips
Odds courtesy of BetMGM; access them at USA TODAY Sports for a full list. Odds last updated at 7:45 a.m. ET.
Prediction
Golden Knights 5, Blackhawks 2
Moneyline (ML)
The miracle run for the Blackhawks (+170) begins to end Tuesday against the GOLDEN KNIGHTS (-200). Vegas already had little trouble scoring goals in the round robin with a total of 15 through three games. They’ll now get back their scoring leader from the regular season in LW Max Pacioretty (32 goals, 34 assists in 71 games) for the beginning of Round 1.
Vegas took two of three against Chicago in the regular season, including a 5-1 victory in the most recent meeting in mid-December. The Golden Knights finished the regular season as the NHL’s best team by Corsi For Percentage – rate of total shot attempts, including blocked and missed shots – at 5-on-5 at 54.76%. The Blackhawks were just 22nd at 48.45%.
Puck Line/Against the Spread (ATS)
Go to the alternate lines for the half-goal hook and back the GOLDEN KNIGHTS -1.5 (+135) to win by at least 2 goals. Even while beating the Oilers three games to one in the qualification round, the ‘Hawks lost Game 2 by a 6-3 score.
Vegas won both of its first two games of the round robin by two goals.
Over/Under (O/U)
The projected goal total of 6.5 is the highest on Tuesday’s four-game Stanley Cup Playoffs slate. It’s still a conservative number for the talent both teams have up front and the style of hockey they each played in the qualification round.
Take the OVER 6.5 (-106). Vegas topped that projection in all three of its round-robin games. Chicago went 3-1 in favor of the Over against the Oilers.
Esten’s NHL betting record: 24-21
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