Edmonton Oilers Vs Vegas Golden Knights- Game 1
The day has finally come for the Edmonton Oilers to start the second round of playoffs. It has been less than a week since the Oilers defeated the Kings, but it feels like forever ago. The waiting is no more though as the Vegas Golden Knights are hosting the Edmonton Oilers for game one of the second round.
. 0-0. 148. CBC. Wednesday, May 3. 0-0. 942. 7:30 PM MST
The Edmonton Oilers and Vegas Golden Knights split their last two games of this season. These games were when both teams needed the points, so I think they are good litmus tests as to what we may see in this series.
On March 25th the Golden Knights defeated the Edmonton Oilers by a score of 4-3 in overtime. Three days later the Oilers beat the Knights 7-4. The exciting part of this split is each team won their game on the road while losing the home game.
Perhaps this is a trend that will continue. This would be good news for the Edmonton Oilers as the Knights have the extra home game in the series. I highly doubt that it will work out that way, but if it does it would benefit the Edmonton Oilers.
Edmonton Oilers Projected Lines
LEON DRAISAITL-CONNOR MCDAVID-EVANDER KANE
RYAN NUGENT-HOPKINS-NICK BJUGSTAD-ZACH HYMAN
WARREN FOEGELE-RYAN MCLEOD-DEREK RYAN
KLIM KOSTIN-KAILER YAMAMOTO
DARNELL NURSE-CODY CECI
MATTIAS EKHOLM-EVAN BOUCHARD
BRETT KULAK-PHILIP BROBERG
VINCENT DESHARNAIS
Vegas Golden Knights Projected Lines
Brayden McNabb is NOT at practice today.
— SinBin.vegas (@SinBinVegas) May 1, 2023
Lines remain as they were to end the last series.
Barbashev-Eichel-Marchessault⁰Smith-Karlsson-Amadio⁰Howden-Stephenson-Stone⁰Carrier-Roy-Kolesar
Martinez-Pietrangelo
Hutton-Theodore⁰Hague-Whitecloud
I am unsure if the Oilers will run with Draisaitl and McDavid on the same line or not. I personally would split them up as it would spread out the attack. The Golden Knights don’t have as good as shutdown centers as the Kings. So there isn’t as much of a worry about them getting shut down.
Prediction
I mentioned in a previous article that this series is going to have a similar playout as the Flames series. So I do think that the Edmonton Oilers may lose this game. I expect a fairly ugly game from both teams as they have both been off for a while. I am guessing the score will be something like 6-3 or something high scoring in that area.