Vegas Golden Knights (44-24-8) at Chicago Blackhawks (35-32-9)
NHL Hockey: Saturday, August 15, 2020 at 8:00 pm (Rogers Place)
The Line: Chicago Blackhawks +150 / Vegas Golden Knights -182 --- Over/Under: 6.5 Click Here for the Latest Odds
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The Chicago Blackhawks and Vegas Golden Knights meet Saturday in game three of the NHL West First Round at the Rogers Place.
The Vegas Golden Knights look for another victory to take a commanding 3-0 series lead. The Vegas Golden Knights are averaging 4.6 goals per game and are scoring on 21.4 percent of their power play opportunities. Alex Tuch leads Vegas with three goals, Reilly Smith has four assists and Shea Theodore has 17 shots on goal. Defensively, the Vegas Golden Knights are allowing 2.8 goals per game and are killing 78.6 percent of their opponents power plays. Robin Lehner has given up 10 goals on 107 shots faced and Marc-Andre Fleury has allowed four goals on 17 shots.
The Chicago Blackhawks need a win here to have a real shot of winning this series, as they’re currently down 0-2. The Chicago Blackhawks are averaging 3.33 goals per game and are scoring on 22.7 percent of their power play opportunities. Jonathan Toews leads Chicago with four goals, Patrick Kane has six assists and Dominik Kubalik has 16 shots on goal. Defensively, the Chicago Blackhawks are allowing 3.83 goals per game and are killing 75 percent of their opponents power plays. Corey Crawford has given up 23 goals on 210 shots faced.
The Golden Knights are 13-3 in their last 16 games following a win, 4-1 in their last 5 Saturday games and 20-7 in their last 27 overall. The Blackhawks are 7-0 in their last 7 Saturday games, 7-3 in their last 10 vs. Pacific and 11-26 in their last 37 games playing on 1 days rest. The over is 4-1 in Golden Knights last 5 overall. The over is 5-2 in Blackhawks last 7 overall. The Golden Knights are 4-0 in the last 4 meetings in Chicago and 10-1 in the last 11 meetings.
The Chicago Blackhawks have been kind to us in underdog moments like this throughout the season, and this is pretty much a must-win game if they want any real shot of winning this series. There's a case to be made for the big plus money. However, the Vegas Golden Knights have been the hottest team in the bubble, as they're currently 5-0 and have gotten whatever they want offensively in all of those games. You can question if there's going to be a cool down period at some point, but right now betting against Vegas isn't in the cards for me. I'll lay the juice as well to avoid getting burned from the PL.
Randy’s Pick Vegas Golden Knights -182
AUTHOR: Randy Chambers
Follow Randy Chambers on Twitter @WizardOf0dds