Big Al's Daily Angle: MLB, NHL and NFL Preview

by Big Al Staff

Monday, Sep 21, 2020
The Monday card features the debut of professional football in Las Vegas with the first-ever game to be played in the Raiders' new Allegiant Stadium. Located a block west of the Mandalay Bay and Delano hotels on Dean Martin Boulevard, the site ensures plenty of spectacular views of the Vegas strip for televised audiences.

New Orleans is the visiting team for this inaugural game with the Saints coming off a 34-23 victory at home against Tampa Bay last week. The Saints will be without Michael Thomas for this game with him likely out a few weeks with a high ankle injury. The star wide receiver caught 149 passes last season for 1725 yards with nine touchdowns.

Las Vegas won their opening game of the season last week when they defeated Carolina on the road by a 34-30 score. The Raiders may be without their star wide receiver as well with rookie Henry Ruggs III who is questionable with the knee injury he incurred moments before the end of the first half last week.

Despite these teams coming off victories last week, they were both outgained in yardage by their opponents. The Saints used three takeaways to overcome them being outgained by 39 yards to the Buccaneers. The Panthers gained 388 yards against the Raiders' defense which was 16 more yards than Las Vegas’ 372 yards of offense in that game.

BookMaker has New Orleans as a 5.5-point favorite with the total set at 48.5. Kickoff is set for 8:15 PM ET on ESPN.

Game 2 of the Stanley Cup Finals in the NHL resumes on Monday. Dallas upset Tampa Bay in the opening game of this best-of-seven series on Saturday with their 4-1 victory. After an even first period, the Stars scored two unanswered goals in the second period to give them a 3-1 leading going into the final 20 minutes of regulation time. The Lightning dominated the final period with a 22 to 2 edge in shots but they could not get another goal past Dallas’ hot goaltender, Anton Khudobin. The Stars scored a late empty netter to cement the final score.

Tampa Bay looks to even this series at a game apiece with BookMaker pricing them as a -153 favorite with a total of 5. The Lightning could be receiving good news for this game with the return of Steven Stamkos to the ice. Their star forward has not played since the restart with a lower-body injury. The puck drops at 8:05 PM ET on the NBC Sports Network. 

Major League Baseball begins its final week of the regular season with eleven games on the schedule. The Texas Rangers travel to Los Angeles to face the Angels with a 4:10 PM ET start for the only afternoon game on the card. The San Francisco Giants host the Colorado Rockies at 9:45 PM ET to close out the schedule

All photographic images used for editorial content have been licensed from the Associated Press.

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