Colorado Avalanche goalie Pavel Francouz (39) makes the save against the Dallas Stars during first period NHL qualifying round game action in Edmonton, on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020.
Colorado Avalanche goalie Pavel Francouz (39) makes the save against the Dallas Stars during first period NHL qualifying round game action in Edmonton, on Wednesday, Aug. 5, 2020. Jason Franson/The Canadian Press via AP

Bet NHL Saturday! Greg Frank thinks the favored Colorado Avalanche has too much firepower for the Las Vegas Golden Knights

Golden Knights (+107) @ Avalanche (6), 3 pm, EDT.

A win yesterday lifts the re-start record to 3-2.

Golden Knights (+107) @ Avalanche (6)

Pick: Avalanche -118

The top seed in each round robin in up for grabs today and we’re looking at the Western Conference matchup for a play. Colorado has been very impressive in victories against St. Louis and Dallas while Vegas has found some timely scoring in the third period to beat both teams setting up today’s battle. We’ve emphasized defense and goaltending in our hockey handicaps this week and that’s not going to change as the playoffs progress. Colorado has defended very well in front of both Philipp Grubauer and Pavel Francouz in the round robin allowing just one goal in two games. The Avalanche’s 1.75 expected goals against in those two games suggests that this is not a fluke and they’ve had territorial advantages in each of their round robin games thus far.

As for the Golden Knights, Robin Lehner and Marc-Andre Fleury have only stopped 37 out of 44 shots in the round robin. As we discussed, they had to come from behind in both of their victories defeating Dallas 5-3 and St. Louis 6-4. Now they’re playing a Colorado team with more firepower up front, averaging 40 shots per game in the round robin and scoring at a 30% clip on the power play? We wouldn’t expect a similar comeback for the Knights today. You always need some luck when you visit Vegas and today the hockey team from Vegas needs a lot of luck against the favorite to come out of the West.

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