Game 1 Oilers vs. Golden Knights picks and odds: Bet on Edmonton to win, McDavid to score in series opener

The Edmonton Oilers face a divisional rival in Round 2, visiting the Vegas Golden Knights at T-Mobile Arena.

The pregame narrative: Edmonton’s offence is firing on all cylinders and Vegas will have to score to keep up. Unsurprisingly, Connor McDavid is one of the key drivers of offence for the Oilers and is a nice pick to score a goal. Lastly, we’re expecting the visitors to steal the first game of this series.

Check out our Oilers vs. Golden Knights picks for Game 1 of their second-round playoff series on May 3.

NHL odds as of 1:59 p.m. on 05/02/2023.

Oilers vs. Golden Knights picks

Best Bet: Over 6.5 goals (-115)

Stopping or containing Edmonton’s offence is a nice idea on paper.

But through 82 regular season games and a six-game series with the Los Angeles Kings, we’ve yet to see any team do it consistently.

Despite limiting the Oilers to just 2.25 goals per game in the regular season, Los Angeles had no answer for its playoff opponent. Edmonton finished the series averaging 4.17 goals per game.

Vegas wasn’t able to keep the Oilers quiet in the regular season, allowing 4.5 goals per contest to its Pacific Division rival. The most discouraging part of it all is that the Golden Knights surrendered seven in the final regular season meeting between the two.

Edmonton shouldn’t be the one doing all the scoring, either. Vegas is averaging 3.80 goals per contest, the fourth-highest total in the playoffs.

Key stat: The over on this total cashed in all four meetings between these two in the regular season.

Quick picks

McDavid to score 1+ goal (-112): It was a slow start to the playoffs for McDavid but he turned things around quickly. After tallying just one point through the first two games of Edmonton’s first-round series, the captain tallied three goals and nine points over the final four contests.

His shot volume is encouraging, too, as his 27 pucks on net are tied for seventh in the playoffs. He’s also tied for fifth in scoring chances with 31, according to Natural Stat Trick.

McDavid’s going to get his chances and we’re expecting him to convert.

Oilers moneyline (-117): Two of the four head-to-head battles between these two required overtime and three were decided by just one goal in a season series Edmonton won 3-1.

Winning on the road isn’t uncharted territory for the Oilers, either, as they had the fifth-best away record in the NHL this season (27-11-3) and won two of three games in Los Angeles during the first round.

They were victorious in both contests against the Golden Knights in Vegas this year.