{"id":340598,"date":"2025-04-20T10:53:47","date_gmt":"2025-04-20T14:53:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/?p=340598"},"modified":"2025-04-20T10:53:47","modified_gmt":"2025-04-20T14:53:47","slug":"wild-vs-golden-knights-game-1-predictions-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cms.northstargaming.ca\/admin\/nsgcms\/wild-vs-golden-knights-game-1-predictions-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild vs. Golden Knights Game 1 best bets: Look for Jack Eichel to lead Vegas to victory"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The final game on Sunday&#8217;s Stanley Cup playoff schedule is between the Minnesota Wild and Vegas Golden Knights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The pregame narrative:<\/strong> The Golden Knights come into this series with all the momentum. I&#8217;m taking the home side to cover the puck line at plus money. My other pick is on Jack Eichel to produce as a passer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Check out my Wild vs. Golden Knights Game 1 predictions below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Wild vs. Golden Knights predictions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.northstarbets.ca\/sportsbook\/sports-hub\/ice_hockey\/nhl?utm_source=insights&amp;utm_medium=text_link&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=&amp;utm_campaign=sportsbook_nhl\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>Full NHL betting markets<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.northstarbets.ca\/sportsbook\/news\/article\/nhl-injury-report?utm_source=insights&amp;utm_medium=text_link&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=&amp;utm_campaign=injury_reports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>NHL injury report<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.northstarbets.ca\/sportsbook\/news\/stats\/nhl\/top-skaters?utm_source=insights&amp;utm_medium=text_link&amp;utm_term=&amp;utm_content=&amp;utm_campaign=stats_pages\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\"><strong>NHL stats &amp; standings<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Best Bet: Golden Knights -1.5 (+133)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"cacheembed:112689\">Embed: #112689<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Wild started the season hot, winning 20 of their first 30 games (and four of the losses were in overtime).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s when the injury bug hit the locker room. First, it was Kirill Kaprizov, who was near the top of the NHL in scoring when he got hurt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Other important pieces, Joel Eriksson Ek and Jonas Brodin, also dealt with injuries. All three guys missed more than 30 games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The final day of the regular season was the first time Minnesota had a fully healthy roster since Nov. 20.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That led to some poor defensive statistics that I&#8217;m not sure can be fixed in such a short time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>7th-most shots against (29.6\/game)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>3rd-worst penalty kill (72.4%)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The Wild ranked closer to the middle of the pack for goals against, thanks to Filip Gustavsson, who had an excellent season (2.56 GAA, .914 SV%).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But he can only do so much when his team allows a high volume of chances at even strength and on the penalty kill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Vegas comes into this series without injury issues, except for maybe Alex Pietrangelo, who&#8217;s still trying to find his stride after missing a couple of months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Knights finished second in the Western Conference and rank near the top of the NHL in several categories:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>5th in goals\/game (3.34)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>4th in shots\/game (30.3)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>2nd in PP percentage (28.3%)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>3rd in goals against\/game (2.61)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>They have the perfect style to capitalize on Minnesota&#8217;s weaknesses. I expect Vegas to dominate this game to take an early hold on this series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Key stat:<\/strong> The Knights had a 29-9-3 record at home this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Quick pick<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Eichel to record 1+ assists (-118):<\/strong> Eichel struggled down the stretch as he dealt with a minor upper-body injury that forced him to miss a few games.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That led to just one point in five appearances in April, but I&#8217;m not worried in the slightest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eichel was an assist machine this year. He finished sixth in the NHL with 66 assists and went on a tear in March.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During that month, he had 15 helpers and went 10-4 against this line. Considering the Wild are a below-average defensive team, Eichel has an early chance to make his mark on this series.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Eichel had five points (two assists) in two games against Minnesota this season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Wild vs. Golden Knights predictions made at 9:15 a.m. ET 04\/20\/2025.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The final game on Sunday&#8217;s Stanley Cup playoff schedule is between the Minnesota Wild and Vegas Golden Knights. The pregame narrative: The Golden Knights come into this series with all the momentum. I&#8217;m taking the home side to cover the puck line at plus money. My other pick is on Jack Eichel to produce as [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":340614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"sidebar_plugin_meta_block_field":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[8,644],"class_list":["post-340598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nhl","tag-nhl-betting","tag-nhl-predictions"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.0 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Wild vs. Golden Knights Game 1 predictions and best bets | NSB<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Check out our Wild vs. Golden Knights predictions for Game 1. 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