Ice Hockey | Monday, May 8, 2023 9:50 AM

Edmonton Oilers vs Vegas Golden Knights Best Bet: Hot Start at Rogers Place

IMAGO / Larry MacDougal

US Sports Expert

Edmonton Oilers vs Vegas Golden Knights Best Bet: Monday, May 8th

After a resounding victory in Game 2, the Oilers return home for Games 3 and 4 tied at a win apiece with the Vegas Golden Knights. Our resident pucks expert Ej Garr belted out another plus-money winner on Friday, and he is out to take down the line setters again to start the week on Monday.

In this article:

Edmonton Oilers vs Vegas Golden Knights Preview

May 9, 01:35 (UK time)

The Oilers put the pedal to the metal early in Game 2 after losing Game 1 to the Vegas Golden Knights, and now we have a level series heading back to Edmonton for Games 3 and 4. The first five minutes of Game 2 were essentially spent in the Vegas defensive zone, and the Oilers’ Power-Play came in handy.

The Oilers’ man-advantage situations are scary because they set the regular season record and now their playoff percentage while up a man can just be considered deadly.

With a record-breaking 32.4% regular season number, the Oilers are converting a ridiculous 56% in the post-season while scoring on 14 of their 25 opportunities with the man advantage. Edmonton scored 3 such goals on Saturday night as the Knights gave them 6 chances, and the Oilers killed off all 3 of the Vegas man-advantage situations.

Edmonton scored two goals from their first two situations up a man on Saturday as Leo Draisdaitl scored two of the four goals for the Oilers in the opening period of Game 2, one of which was the tone-setter that opened the scoring just two minutes into the game. Connor McDavid added a Power-Play tally to represent the only goal of the second period and the Oilers cruised to a 5 – 1 win.

The line setters are pointing to an easy victory for the home team in Game 3, as the Oilers arrive to the game as 1.57 favourites expected to use home advantage to take control of the series. If Vegas figured out one thing from Game 2 it was to not let the Oilers come out guns-a-blazing again because the pressure was unrelenting and the Knights simply had no responses to offer.

There may have only been 9 Power-Plays in Game 2, but the penalty box was full of players all night long. All of the extra-curricular activity led to roughing penalties and at one point in the second period 3 fights were happening at once on the ice. Evander Kane ran his mouth all night long and even when he was in the box he was not done talking trash which certainly fired up both benches.

I said 28 PENALTIES! HA! I mean, talk about an emotional affair, Game 2 was filled with emotion and neither team could maintain their cool. If Game 3 is going to be another display of indiscipline, the goals are going to pour into the nets.

So, with all of that said, you know me and my plus-money attitude! Both Teams to Score a Goal in the opening frame are listed with odds of 2.38 if you are a 1x2Bet user. I think that Vegas is going to use the same approach that Edmonton used to win Game 2, and that is to apply pressure and put as much rubber on the frame as they can find.