This is an 8* on VEGAS

While Vegas missed out on the Presidents Trophy and home ice advantage throughout the playoffs, we don’t anticipate them having much difficulty defeating Minnesota in Game 1 of this best of seven series. They still have the home ice edge in this series, which is huge as they are 21-5-2 in Sin City this season. Having given up the second fewest number of goals while scoring the third most, the Golden Knights finished the regular season with the top goal differential in the NHL. Minnesota did give them some trouble this year as eight meetings resulted in 24 goals per side. But now that it’s playoff time we expect Vegas’ superiority to take hold. Riding goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury seems like a good idea as his regular season save percentage was .928. The Wild didn’t finish the regular season well as they gave up 11 goals in a pair of losses at St. Louis. Vegas won their last game 6-0 over San Jose and is 15-3 their last 18 overall. Almost a no brainer to take them on home ice. Play on VEGAS

AAA