Vegas Golden Knights vs. Chicago Blackhawks – 8/18/20 NHL Pick, Odds, and Prediction

The Vegas Golden Knights and Chicago Blackhawks meet Tuesday in game five of the NHL West First Round at the Rogers Place.        

The Vegas Golden Knights have another chance to close things out and advance to the next playoff series. The Vegas Golden Knights are averaging 3.71 goals per game and are scoring on 15 percent of their power play opportunities. Shea Theodore leads Vegas with four goals, Reilly Smith has four assists and Jonathan Marchessault has 25 shots on goal. Defensively, the Vegas Golden Knights are allowing 2.57 goals per game and are killing 85.7 percent of their opponents power plays. Robin Lehner has given up 12 goals on 131 shots faced and Marc-Andre Fleury has allowed five goals on 44 shots.  

The Chicago Blackhawks need another victory here to save their season and force a game six on Thursday. The Chicago Blackhawks are averaging three goals per game and are scoring on 17.2 percent of their power play opportunities. Jonathan Toews leads Chicago with four goals, Patrick Kane has seven assists and Alex DeBrincat has 23 shots on goal. Defensively, the Chicago Blackhawks are allowing 3.25 goals per game and are killing 80.8 percent of their opponents power plays. Corey Crawford has given up 26 goals on 285 shots faced.

The Blackhawks are 11-27 in their last 38 games playing on 1 days rest, 1-5 in their last 6 Tuesday games and 1-8 in their last 9 Conference Quarterfinals games. The Golden Knights are 10-1 in their last 11 games playing on 1 days rest, 13-3 in their last 16 games as a favorite and 20-6 in their last 26 overall. The under is 4-1 in Blackhawks last 5 overall. The under is 7-3-1 in Golden Knights last 11 games as a favorite. The Blackhawks are 1-6 in the last 7 meetings in Vegas and 2-11 in the last 13 meetings.

The Chicago Blackhawks found a way to save their season in a game four victory, and they cashed a nice underdog ticket, something they’ve done a lot of this season. However, it’s important to note that Vegas had 49 shots on goal compared to 25 shots on goal from Chicago, and if those numbers continue, the Golden Knights are going to like their chances of ending this series soon. The Vegas Golden Knights have been the best team in the bubble up to this point by a decent margin and they’re going to roll if they continue to get the looks they’re getting. I’ll lay the PL with Vegas to shave down an expensive ML price.