The Vegas Golden Knights and Dallas Stars will begin their Western Conference round-robin tournament Monday at Rogers Place in Edmonton with puck drop set for 6:30 p.m. ET. We analyze the Stars-Golden Knights NHL betting odds and lines, with picks and best bets.
Stars vs. Golden Knights: Projected starting goalies
Ben Bishop vs. Robin Lehner
Bishop went 21-16-4 over 43 starts and one relief appearance in the regular season. He posted a .920 save percentage and 2.50 goals against average in 2019-20 and will make his 50th career postseason start Monday.
Lehner gets the nod over Marc-Andre Fleury after being acquired from the Chicago Blackhawks at the trade deadline. He went 19-10-5 with a .920 SV% and 2.89 GAA across 36 games for both teams.
Place a legal NHL bet on this game or others in CO, IN, NJ and WV at BetMGM. Bet now!
Stars 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 Monday at 5:30 a.m. ET.
Prediction
Golden Knights 3, Stars 1
Moneyline (ML)
Take the higher-seeded GOLDEN KNIGHTS (-129) as they jostle with the Stars (+110), Colorado Avalanche and St. Louis Blues for Round 1 positioning in this round robin for the top-four teams.
The two teams split their season series 1-1 with Dallas winning 4-2 and Vegas winning 3-2 in overtime a few weeks later. The Knights had the superior offense in the regular season and shouldn’t be hindered too much by the absence of LW Max Pacioretty for their first game.
Lehner led all goaltenders in last year’s postseason with a .936 SV% over eight games with the New York Islanders and is well-equipped to battle with his former Ottawa Senators teammate in Bishop.
New to sports betting? A $10 bet on the Golden Knights would return a profit of $7.75 with a regulation or overtime victory.
Puck Line/Against the Spread (ATS)
Go to the alternate line for the half-goal hook and a greater profit margin with GOLDEN KNIGHTS -1.5 (+220) and you’ll more than double your investment with a victory by a margin of two or more goals.
Vegas entered the midseason break with an 8-2 record over their final 10 games, while Dallas was just 3-5-2 over the same span. The Knights also had a league-best Corsi For Percentage (rate of total shot attempts) at 5-on-5 of 54.76%. The Stars were just 18th in the NHL at 49.48%.
Over/Under (O/U)
Back the UNDER 5.5 (-143) in a strong goaltending matchup and with the Golden Knights missing one of their top forwards. This one could even include an empty-netter for the winning side and fall shy of the projection with fewer than five total goals being scored.
Get some action on this NHL matchup in CO, IN, NJ and WV. Place a legal sports bet at BetMGM now. For more sports betting tips, visit SportsbookWire.
Follow @EstenMcLaren on Twitter. Follow SportsbookWire on Twitter and like us on Facebook.
Gannett may earn revenue from audience referrals to betting services. Newsrooms are independent of this relationship and there is no influence on news coverage.
[lawrence-newsletter]
[lawrence-auto-related count=3 category=1369]