Two teams with eyes on a division title will meet in Monday night’s NHL headliner.
The Vegas Golden Knights are in a three-team tussle with the Edmonton Oilers and Los Angeles Kings in the Pacific Division, while the Minnesota Wild are in their own triple-threat match with the Colorado Avalanche and Dallas Stars.
The stakes for Monday’s tilt between the Golden Knights and Wild should set us up for a terrific encounter.
Golden Knights vs. Wild prediction
(8 p.m. ET. NHL Network)
Both the Wild and Golden Knights have been in terrific form for quite some time now, but there are legitimate questions to be asked about how sustainable this stretch of play is for either side.
Minnesota is 16-2-4 with a +20 goal difference over its last 22 contests, but a lot of its success can be attributed to out-of-this-world goaltending from both Filip Gustavsson and Marc-Andre Fleury over the past six weeks.
Combined, Gustavsson and Fleury have posted a .935 save percentage and +21.2 Goals Saved Above Expected (GSAx) since Feb. 14.
Goaltending is a massive part of any NHL team and you can’t just ignore a run of form like this, but at some point, you’d expect that Gustavsson and Fleury will come back down to earth a little bit.
That doesn’t mean they’ll struggle all of a sudden, but even a slight downtick from the netminders and Minnesota’s margin for error — which was already thin given the club’s lack of scoring depth without Kirill Kaprizov — nearly evaporates.
Like the Wild, Vegas deserves plenty of credit for going on a run down the stretch.
The Golden Knights have been beset by injuries, but have plugged their way to an 18-4-3 record over their last 25 contests.
The Knights are also 7-2-1- in their last 10 games and are coming off a 4-1 win over the Wild at home.
Goaltender Laurent Brossoit was the story of that game and is quietly becoming a big piece of the puzzle for the Golden Knights, who have two goaltenders (Adin Hill, Logan Thompson) on the shelf and traded for Jonathan Quick at the Trade Deadline.
Brossoit was the forgotten man for most of the season because of injuries, but he’s impressed in his seven games this season.
Brossoit has skated to a .921 save percentage and +3.64 GSAx in his limited time.
Whether it’s Brossoit or Quick in goal, Vegas has done a solid job of providing its goaltenders with offensive support of late.
The Knights are scoring 3.41 goals per 60 minutes at 5-on-5 over their last 10 and are creating 13.5 high-danger scoring chances per 60 at even strength.
The problem is that Vegas is giving up more chances the other way, which is not what you expect out of a Bruce Cassidy team.
Injuries up and down the lineup are probably the root of that issue, but that’s an issue that will still be there for the Knights in Minnesota on Monday.
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Betting the over in games featuring the Minnesota Wild has not been a fun way to spend an evening this season.
Still, there’s some regression coming for Minnesota’s goaltenders, and the Knights are playing some high-event hockey, so it makes sense to zag here.
Golden Knights vs. Wild pick
Over 6 total goals (+100, BetMGM)