It has been one of the most spectacular and astounding stories of success in the modern history of sport. It’s the kind of thing that shouldn’t happen, but it has. In their inaugural season in the NHL, the Las Vegas Golden Knights have won their way through to the Stanley Cup finals. It’s just such a remarkable story, and at the start of the season, they themselves deemed themselves as nothing more than a bunch of misfits playing together after the expansion draft.
But they have rallied together and the community, notably after last year’s massacre in the city, has looked towards the team for inspiration and a show of that ‘Vegas Strong’ mentality. The team gave the city something to rally behind, to come together and now they are actually going into the Stanley Cup finals, where they stand on the brink of creating even more history as the 8/11 odds-on favourites* (betting odds taken at 00:12 a.m. on May 26th, 2018).
There in the Stanley Cup finals, which is a best of seven series, the Las Vegas Golden Knights will be taking on the Washington Capitals. There is a nice story from the Caps side of things as well, as one of the game’s all-time greats Alexander Ovechkin is making his first ever Stanley cup final appearance. He was the big catalyst in the fightback that the Caps produced in their battle with the Tampa Bay Lightning in their Conference series.
Stanley Cup 2018 outright winner odds*
Las Vegas Golden Knights 8/11, Washington Capitals 11/10* (betting odds taken at 00:12 a.m. on May 26th, 2018)
Stanley cup 2018 fixtures
Game one: May 28 in Las Vegas
Game two: May 30 in Las Vegas
Game three: June 2 in Washington
Game four: June 4 in Washington
Game five: June 7 in Las Vegas*
Game six: June 10 in Washington*
Game seven: June 13 in Las Vegas*
* (if needed)
Stanley cup 2018
Las Vegas Golden Knights get home ice for the series, which means that they open in the first two matches on home soil at the T Mobile Arena. It means that if this series does go to the deciding seventh game, then the Golden Knights will have home ice as well at that stage. This will be the first time since the 2007 Stanley Cup finals (which featured the Western Conference champions Anaheim Ducks and Eastern Conference champions Ottawa Senators) that the Stanley Cup will be featuring two sides who have never previously won the title.
This is actually the third season now in a row that the finalists from the Western Conference are making their first-ever appearance in the Stanley Cup finals. The Stanley Cup is the end of season conclusion to the regular NHL campaign and its postseason. At the end of the regular season, eight teams from each conference move through to the play-offs. Each of the play-off ties, just like the Stanley Cup final, are played over the best of seven matches.
Then the two remaining teams at the end of the play-offs from each Conference, battle it out in the conference championship, one for the Eastern and one for the Western. The respective winners of the Eastern Conference finals and the Western Conference finals then meet up to go head-to-head in the big battle for the Stanley Cup finals.
Las Vegas Golden Knights
It’s been some story. The newly assembled Golden Knights were nothing more than 500/1 odds chancers at the start of what is their inaugural season in the NHL. Just making the postseason was going to be a massive challenge for them. Their team was assembled through the NHL expansion draft, which is where other existing teams expose players who can be claimed by the new expansion team. Pulling all that together, getting all those players gelled in the dressing room and getting them to play as a cohesive unit on the ice in such a short amount of time is no easy task.
There are expansion teams who have been created in the last 20 years who have yet to make it past the first round ever of the play-offs. The Golden Knights become the first expansion team since the St Louis Blues in the 1967/68 season to reach the Stanley Cup finals in their inaugural season. They became the first team to make it through to the playoffs since the Edmonton Oilers and the Hartford Whalers achieved it in the 1979/80 season.
The Golden Knights did well in the expansion draft getting notable names such as goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury who has been phenomenal for them this season, James Neal and Jonathan Marchessault. With a couple of acquisitions that they made at trade deadline, the Golden Knights pushed on to finish the regular season with 109 points winning their division (51-24-7). So it was a huge moment for them in reaching the postseason at the first attempt but quietly, with such good momentum behind them they suddenly looked a massive dark horse threat.
They produced an astonishing sweep against the Los Angeles Kings in the first play-off round and then battled their way past the San Jose Sharks in six games. That put them up against the Winnipeg Jets in the Western Conference finals, and after losing their first game, the Golden Knights turned the series on its head with four straight wins to progress through to the Stanley Cup finals.
One of the key men for the Vegas Golden Knights is goaltender Marc-Andre Fleury, as he has probably been the star of the post-season of all teams. The other big thing that the Golden Knights have going for them is their top line which is centred by William Karlsson which has just clicked so well and looks so well balanced. Their defence deserves tremendous credit as well because more often than not you will see them hustling to get forward and pressure their opposition.
Washington Capitals
This is the first appearance back in the Stanley Cup finals for the Washington Capitals since they lost to the Detroit Red Wings in 1988 without getting a win in the series. The Capitals did win their division this season collecting 105 Points from their campaign in a 45-26-7 record. They didn’t make too many big splashes at the trade deadline as they were banking mostly on delivering the title with a strong core that they already have. During the previous off-season they have made a number of major re-signings.
But with a couple of additions in defence, they clearly have made some smart decisions this season. They have their talismanic forward Alexander Ovechkin who finished the regular season as top goalscorer in the NHL, with a 49 goal tally. During the play-offs they have shown tremendous grit, they have bent several times but just haven’t been broken and that’s a credit to their spirit and fight. A lot of that was shown in the first play-off round when they found themselves 2-0 down in their series against the Columbus Blue Jackets.
Those defeats were on home ice as well and the Caps were staring at a massive hole. Despite having a massive time on the back foot in most of the series, here was a slice of luck for them at the end of the third game which changed the whole momentum of the series. A lucky rebound gave them the win in overtime to get themselves back into the series and they didn’t turn back from that moment winning the next three games straight to move through to the next round.
They then faced a tough battle against Pittsburgh Penguins in the next round, the team who had knocked them out of two previous post- seasons. Is there wasn’t a be a repeat this time around though as the Capital’s got the job done in six games and that put them through to the Eastern Conference championship against the Tampa Bay Lightning. Again in a series they found themselves down and trailing 3-2 in the series, they faced an elimination game. But the Capital’s, with Ovechkin leading the way put on an aggressive show of force to level the series, before closing out the seventh and deciding game.
Unlike the Golden Knights, the Capitals have faced some adversity in the postseason. They never looked like surviving against the Columbus Bue Jackets but they did and showed great resolve in fighting back to hold off the Lightning. A lot of the momentum that they gained came from Ovechkin and they will need their talisman at his very best. Ovechkin is a 13/10 anytime scorer option at William Hill* (betting odds taken at 00:24 a.m. on May 26th, 2018) for the opening game of the series. Their other key players will be T. J. Oshie, Evgeny Kuznetsov (who led the team in assists during the regular season), Andre Burakovsky and goalie Philipp Grubauer. Grubauer was part of the reason that the capital is managed to stay in their first round playoff series against the Blue Jackets.
Stanley Cup 2018 First Game Odds*
Vegas Golden Knights 8/11, Washington Capitals 11/10* (betting odds taken at 00:24 a.m. on May 26th, 2018)
Stanley Cup Finals 2018 Prediction
The Golden Knights can boast a fantastic top line in William Karlsson, Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith. Time and time again this season they have looked formidable and the Vegas Golden Knights are going to be relying on them a lot for the bulk of their output. It’s pretty even in the top lines of the two teams because the Capitals have Ovechkin, Kuznetsov and Tom Wilson.
But it is beyond that where the differences may start creeping in. The Capitals do have more scoring depth through their lines than the Golden Knights do, and during the play-offs, their secondary scoring has contributed more to the team than the second scoring of the Vegas Golden Knights have done for them.
The aggressive nature of the Vegas Golden Knights defence has been a joy to watch, they really press and hassle well and show tremendous energy to work the puck out of their own zone. However the defence of the Capitals does look a little bit better drilled and they are not likely to give up as many chances as the back line of Vegas is likely to do. The one area where Vegas though will grab an advantage is in goaltending as Marc Andre Fleury is in stellar form at the moment but already in this season’s play-offs we have seen Capitals’ starter Braden Holtby yanked in favour of backup Philipp Grubauer.
The two look very even in the penalty kill department but without a shadow of a doubt, the Capitals have a clear advantage when on the powerplay. They are powerfully consistent with a man advantage and this is one area in particular where they can really hurt Las Vegas. This has the makings of being a fiercely competitive and tight series, especially with Vegas starting off on home ice.
As for a winner, we are backing the experience and grit of the Capitals to rain on what has been an amazing Las Vegas parade this season. You look at the Capitals and they have Ovechkin just about as hungry as he has ever been, and when they see him in full flight and throwing himself around, his teammates are going get a tremendous boost. They may only be fine margins in this, but the Capitals in six games looks decent value in Stanley cup 2018 betting at William Hill.
