Vancouver Canucks at Vegas Golden Knights - 9/1/20 NHL Picks and Prediction
Photo by Gerry Thomas-USA TODAY Sports
Vancouver Canucks (44-32-7) at Vegas Golden Knights (49-26-8)
NHL Hockey: Tuesday, September 1, 2020 at 9:45 pm (Rogers Place)
The Line: Vegas Golden Knights -238 / Vancouver Canucks +190 --- Over/Under: 6.5 Click Here for the Latest Odds
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The Vancouver Canucks and Vegas Golden Knights meet Tuesday in game five of the NHL West Second Round at the Rogers Place.
The Vancouver Canucks need a win here to save their season and force a game six on Thursday. The Vancouver Canucks are averaging three goals per game and are scoring on 24.1 percent of their power play opportunities. Bo Horvat leads Vancouver with nine goals, Quinn Hughes has 12 assists and Alexander Edler has 36 shots on goal. Defensively, the Vancouver Canucks are allowing 2.93 goals per game and are killing 78.2 percent of their opponents power plays. Jacob Markstrom has given up 40 goals on 491 shots faced and Thatcher Demko has allowed zero goals on five shots.
The Vegas Golden Knights look to reach their second conference final in only their third season in franchise history. The Vegas Golden Knights are averaging 3.75 goals per game and are scoring on 23.5 percent of their power play opportunities. Alex Tuch leads Vegas with seven goals, Shea Theodore has 10 assists and Nate Schmidt has 42 shots on goal. Defensively, the Vegas Golden Knights are allowing 2.42 goals per game and are killing 84.2 percent of their opponents power plays. Robin Lehner has given up 19 goals on 240 shots faced and Marc-Andre Fleury has allowed eight goals on 75 shots.
The Canucks are 4-0 in their last 4 Tuesday games and 7-2 in their last 9 games playing on 1 days rest. The Golden Knights are 6-1 in their last 7 games playing on 1 days rest, 19-7 in their last 26 games as a favorite and 21-5 in their last 26 overall. The over is 22-10-1 in Canucks last 33 overall. The Canucks are 2-5 in the last 7 meetings in Vegas and 3-11 in the last 14 meetings. The favorite is 7-2 in the last 9 meetings.
The Vancouver Canucks are putting up a fight and actually had a lead heading into the third period of game four, but they're having issues playing a full 60 minutes and keeping this Vegas team under wraps. The Vegas Golden Knights have not only been the team to beat in these playoffs and are the current favorites to win the cup, but they continue to have these periods where they put up a crooked number almost effortlessly. We saw it in the third period of game four. Also, each of the last six wins for Vegas over Vancouver have been decided by two or more goals. I have to side with Vegas and the PL, as they make another conference final appearance.
Randy’s Pick Vegas Golden Knights -1.5
AUTHOR: Randy Chambers
Mitch's Take...
