Vegas Golden Knights vs. Winnipeg Jets Playoff Series Best Bets
The Vegas Golden Knights enter the Stanley Cup Playoffs as the top seed in the Western Conference, where they’ll face off with the Winnipeg Jets in Round 1. Despite some injury concerns, Vegas put together an elite second half of the regular season and established itself as a real Stanley Cup contender. On the other hand, the Jets looked like a formidable squad in the first half of the year but tailed off down the stretch and snuck in as the final wild-card team in the West. Vegas Golden Knights (-172) vs. Winnipeg Jets (+142)
Vegas Golden Knights
Isn’t it magical how important players with big cap hits can suddenly return for the postseason and be healthy for Game 1? Welcome back, Mark Stone. The Selke-caliber winger is a two-way beast for the Golden Knights, and he immediately gives them an added boost. Defensively, Vegas is a strong unit, and they have a top head coach in the NHL, Bruce Cassidy, behind the bench. He’s done an excellent job of turning the team around after they missed the playoffs last season.
Vegas has the depth scoring and talent up front to really make noise in the playoffs. This series will mark the postseason debut of Jack Eichel, and our money’s on him making an impact right away for the Golden Knights.
The Knights do a lot of the little things right, and they’re a team built to win in the playoffs, which should be highlighted in this series against the Jets.
Winnipeg Jets
The case for Winnipeg to win this series starts and ends with their goaltender. Connor Hellebuyck is unlikely to win the Vezina trophy, but he certainly made his case down the stretch, where he nearly single-handedly pulled Winnipeg into the postseason. He’s the type of goaltender that can win games by himself when the rest of the team doesn’t show up, and he proved capable of that more than he probably should have in the final month of the regular season. Hellebuyck gives the Jets a fighting chance in this series, and he’s a big reason why the Golden Knights are only listed above -200 to win the series.
Winnipeg has talent up front, but they haven’t shown us they can reach that next gear when they take the ice for playoff hockey. For the first half of the year, many thought the Jets had turned a corner under head coach Rick Bowness, but the oddsmakers never gave them their full respect, and that should have been a sign for the Jets that more challenging times were indeed on the horizon.
Verdict
We like Hellebuyck and the Jets to steal Game 1 on the road tonight, but for the Golden Knights to get out to a 2-1 series lead. If Vegas can get competent goaltending in this series, and there’s no reason to believe they can’t, it’s hard to see Winnipeg finding a way to the postseason’s second round.
Hellebuyck is the primary factor why we think the Jets can win a pair of games in this series, but the Golden Knights will be just too much, and there’s a lot of value in them winning this matchup in six games.
Best Bet: Series Correct Score After 3 Games, 2-1 VGK (+128), Golden Knights to Win Series 4-2 (+440)
All Odds Courtesy of the FanDuel Sportsbook
