The Vegas Golden Knights are flying under the radar a bit.
The Knights are among the betting favorites to win the Stanley Cup, but they’re not getting the hype that trendier teams like Colorado, Tampa Bay, Toronto or Carolina are receiving as the playoffs get underway.
It’s hard to quietly win a division and win 50 games, but that’s what Vegas just accomplished.
The Golden Knights are a -170 favorite over the Minnesota Wild in Game 1 on Sunday night and they’re sitting at -205 to win the series.
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Wild vs. Golden Knights betting preview
It’s pretty hard to figure out how to handicap the Wild for this series. Minnesota was so banged up for the entire second half that the mission was simply to stay afloat in the playoff race.
Luckily, the Wild had built up so much equity in the standings from their hot start that they were able to get into the dance despite missing Kirill Kaprizov, Joel Eriksson Ek, Jared Spurgeon and Jonas Brodin for large chunks of time.
Prior to the injury crisis, Minnesota was among the best teams in the NHL. But afterwards, the Wild trended down and nearly collapsed right out of the playoff picture.
What we can feel comfortable about is that the Wild will be a stoic, defensive team that asks Kaprizov, Matt Boldy, Marco Rossi and Joel Eriksson Ek to do the heavy lifting offensively.
Wild vs. Golden Knights pick
Both of these teams put up strong defensive numbers this season and down the stretch, but the main difference is that the Knights are much more adept at creating offense than the Wild.
Perhaps that changes a tad because Minnesota is now healthy, but it won’t alter how the Wild want to play this game and series.
Minnesota will do everything in its power to keep the lid on this game, and Vegas will be more than happy to play into that script.
The under 5.5 is the play for Game 1 on Sunday night.
The Play: Under 5.5 (-105)
Why Trust New York Post Betting
Michael Leboff is a long-suffering Islanders fan, but a long-profiting sports bettor with 10 years of experience in the gambling industry. He loves using game theory to help punters win bracket pools, find long shots, and learn how to beat the market in mainstream and niche sports.
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