NHL Finals Game 1 Winner - Saturday
- Handicapper
- Jim Feist
- League
- NHL
- Competition
- Florida Panthers vs Vegas Golden Knights
- Time
- 06/03/2023 08:20 PM
- Bet Type
- Moneyline
- Pick
-
Vegas Golden Knights -130
(BetMGM)
- Outcome
- Win
- Analysis
- Game 1 of the NHL Stanley Cup Finals here tonight from T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas. One thing is for sure this year, which ever team wins, it will be the first for that team in franchise history. Both teams have been here before, Florida back in the 1990's and Vegas in their first season in the NHL back in 2018. Florida wouldn't have even made the playoffs if Pittsburgh would have taken care of business in the final days of the regular season. But, Florida made it and also beat the best team in the regular season, the Boston Bruins. And that was after being down 1-3 in that series. They then went on to beat a very good Toronto team and then the 2nd best team in the East, Carolina, sweeping the Canes. Vegas was good all year, being the best team in the West. They got by Winnipeg easy enough, but were dogs to Edmonton. The Oilers with McDavid and Draisaidl looked to be a tall mountain to climb. But Vegas used their great defense to get past and then stifled Dallas to get here to the finals. Vegas is a great balanced team, with all four lines able to score. They also have the best defense and block more shots than any other team in the league. They picked up Jack Eichel last hear and he was a huge payoff this year. The return of captain Mark Stone from surgery at the start of the playoffs seemed to be that extra nudge the team needed. But what is most amazing is that they did this with five different goalies. The loss of Lehner to season surgery then the emergence of rookie Logan Thompson seemed to be what they needed. But Thompson wend down with an injury and they traded Columbus to get Jonathan Quick who they got from LA. Quick provided some much needed regular season wins. However, it was Laurent Brossoit who emerged as the goalie for the playoffs. Then Brossoit went down in the Edmonton series and in came Adin Hill. Hill performed great the rest of that series and the Dallas series. Quick never has gotten into a playoff game for the Knights. But really, it's this great Vegas defense that makes all these goalies look better then maybe they are. And for me that's the difference here today. The Vegas defense and the depth of scoring on this team. I look for Vegas to win here tonight in game one.
