The Vegas Golden Knights look to earn their sixth straight victory over the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday. Vegas defeated San Jose on Monday, 2-1.
Here you can find the best picks, news, and stats for this West Division battle at the T-Mobile Arena. Vegas is the favorite at -227. This according to PointsBet Sportsbook, which puts the odds for San Jose at +195 as the underdog.
San Jose could be without Rudolfs Balcers who is listed as questionable. Left-wing William Carrier and center Chandler Stephenson are both listed as questionable for Vegas.
Dubnyk Sharp But Offense Stymied
Davan Dubnyk stopped 34 of 36 shots in the loss to Vegas on Monday. Timo Meier scored the only goal for the Sharks. The loss snapped their three-game winning streak.
San Jose is 20th in goals scored per game at 2.77. The power-play is 21st in the NHL at 19.2%. The Sharks are led in scoring by Evander Kane with 23 points. Logan Couture is the team leader in goals with 13 and has 22 total points, second on the team. Timo Meier is third on the club with 18 total points and leads the team with eight power-play points.
San Jose is 30th in goals allowed per game at 3.46. The penalty killing has been solid at 78.9%. Dubnyk has played well of late, allowing four total goals in his last three games. He is 3-6-2 with a 2.95 GAA and a .908 save percentage.
Fleury Continues to Shine
Marc-Andre Fleury stopped 23 of 24 shots to lead Vegas to the victory. Both Mark Stone and Max Pacioretty had a goal and an assist for the Golden Knights. Vegas has now won three games in a row.
Vegas is ninth in goals per game at 3.27. The power-play has not been very good at 17.5%. Stone now leads the team in scoring with 33 points. He is the team leader in assists with 23. Pacioretty is the team leader in goals with 14 and is second on the club in points with 27.
Vegas is first in the NHL in goals allowed per game at 2.15, thanks to allowing just 27.5 shots per game, fourth overall. The Golden Knights are killing off 85.5% of penalties, sixth overall. Fleury has been spectacular, going 15-5-0 with a 1.77 GAA and a .936 save percentage. He has allowed one goal in each of his last two starts.
Trends:
San Jose:
- 1-4 in their last five games on a Wednesday.
- 1-4 in their last five games against teams with a winning record.
Vegas:
- 7-1 in their last eight games following a victory.
- 4-1 in their last five games on a Wednesday.
The problem for San Jose is that they can play an excellent game, but until they are able to get a few goals past Fleury, they are not going to win this contest. The Vegas goaltender is just lights out right now, and has gotten past his mini slump. Plus, he has been very good at home. Vegas does not need to blow you out. They just need to score more goals than what Fleury allows, which is a money.
Pick: Take Vegas at -227.
The Total:
I look for a low-scoring game very much like what we saw on Monday. In fact, even if Martin Jones is in the net for San Jose, I still did not look for a high-scoring affair. These teams have gone under in seven of the last eight meetings and have gone under in the last five in Vegas. I like the under here as well.
Pick: Go Under 6.0 at -110.