Winnipeg Jets at Vegas Golden Knights Odds: Winnipeg Didn’t Make the Postseason Last Year
Knights Constantly Chasing First-Year Success; Won Pacific for Third Time in Six Seasons
The Winnipeg Jets (46-33-3, 95 points) and Vegas Golden Knights (51-22-9, 111 points) series price opens with the Knights as a -160 favorite. Of all the NHL matchup predictions we’ll have, we have a strong opinion of which team will move on to the second round. The NHL injury report features various Golden Knights as it has all season long, again. The difference between this year and last has been the organizational depth that has allowed them to overcome massive injuries to Mark Stone (Back), Robin Lehner (Hip), and Logan Thompson (Lower Body) to name a few. With eight Knights out questionable, Vegas will once again have to prove that the sum is greater than the parts.
Jets Back In But it Wasn’t Easy
Winnipeg didn’t make the postseason last year, but after winning five of their last seven games, Rick Bowness’ team snuck in by two points. It was all roses down the stretch for the Jets who backed in after a 12-16-1 finish to the regular season. On February 20th, Winnipeg was securely in a playoff spot with a 35-21-1 record.
Something strange is lurking when looking at the series price. The Knights are the top seed in the West but yet are only a -160 series favorite.
NHL bettors know that this line means that books think Winnipeg has a real chance of handing the Knights, who may have Mark Stone back in the lineup, another surprising first-round loss. We don’t know how long revenge reaches but remember that the Jets were beaten by the Golden Knights in the 2018 conference finals (4-1).
Knights Used Five Goaltenders to Win Pacific Division
When it was finally announced that goaltender Robin Lehner would be out for the entire season after undergoing off-season hip surgery, it was assumed that Bruce Cassidy would lean on all-star Logan Thompson for much of the season.
Thompson was sensational with a 21-13-3 record, but various injuries forced the Knights to rely on Adin Hill (25-16-7), Laurent Brossoit (10-7-0), and Jiri Patera who contributed two wins (2-0). In addition, GM Kelly McCrimmon added long-time Los Angeles Kings Jonathan Quick (9-5-2) a veteran netminder in the room.
When you step back and look at what the Golden Knights have not only achieved this season but in all six of their years as a franchise, it’s nothing short of remarkable. There is some talk that Mark Stone will rejoin the team before the franchise, leading some to accuse VGK of hiding Stone on the IR in an effort to circumvent the cap.
Jack Eichel (27-39-66) has never been the 100-point superstar that some envisioned he would be but he and Jonathan Marchessault (28-29-57 points) have formed a decent top line with Ivan Barbashev (16-29-45 points). Back to the series price. This stuck out as a head-scratcher considering the 1 vs. 8 match-ups. We know the Bruins (-350) against the Panthers isn’t a great comparison because of the year the B’s had, but the second-place Oilers are -260 over the Kraken, and the Stars are just 10 cents less of a favorite against the Wild in a match-up of teams that are evenly matched.
In the East, Toronto is a -170 favorite over the Tampa Bay Lightning in a 2 vs. 3 Atlantic Division match-up. The Leafs had 13 more points than the Lightning but yet are a bigger favorite than the Knights who had 16 more points than the Jets who were awful down the stretch.
To make this number stranger, the Knights swept the season series 3-0 by a combined score of 13-8, breaking the Jets’ five-game streak in the series.
Jets Win in Massive Upset
There is always one series whose number you can’t ignore and Winnipeg and Vegas is this year’s strange series price. If the VGK’s were in the -190 to -200 range, that would be acceptable.
This number smells like a trap in the middle of the desert and we’re not going to fall for it. There are numbers you can’t explain despite common sense giving all sorts of reasons to take Vegas. We suspect there will be plenty of Knights money, but we’re going with Winning in seven games (+600).
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