Capitals vs Golden Knights Stanley Cup Finals Game 1: A New Champion Will be Crowned

• The Washington Capitals and Vegas Golden Knights each have a chance at lifting their first Stanley Cup
• Knights’ success equals big loss for books 
• Puck drop for Game 1 is 8pm EST on Monday, May 28th

The Stanley Cup Playoffs will, in a matter of a couple weeks, crown a first-time champion. The first puck will drop in the 2018 Stanley Cup Finals Monday, May 28th at 8pm EST at T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada.

How Vegas and Washington Got Here

The incredible expansion Vegas Golden Knights will have been resting for just over a week after dispatching the Winnipeg Jets in the Western Conference Finals. The Golden Knights overcame dropping Game 1 in Winnipeg by winning the next four straight to take the series in five games.

The Capitals jumped out to a two-game lead over the Tampa Bay Lightning in the Eastern Conference Finals with two road wins, only to drop the next three in the series. Washington would rebound to win and shut out the Lightning in Games 6 and 7 by 3-0 and 4-0 scores. Alexander Ovechkin’s goal at 1:02 of the first in Game 7 ended up being all the Caps needed to advance.

Sportsbooks’ Potential Seven-Figure Loss

As the higher ranked team after the regular season, the Vegas Golden Knights enter the series with home-ice advantage and favored to lift the cup. But they weren’t always that way. In fact even before the team had a name, bettors were lining up to bet the Knights as huge underdogs and that money continued to pour in all season.

The Knights opened the season as high as 500-1 to win the Cup, and should they cash, Las Vegas sportsbooks stand to lose in the neighbourhood of $5 million which would be their biggest “futures bet” loss ever.

Recent Results Favor Golden Knights

With this being Vegas’ first season, there is very little history to draw on between the two teams. In their two head-to-head matchups in the regular season, Vegas won 3-0 at home and 4-3 in Washington. Throughout those two wins each of Alex Tuch, Jonathan Marchessault and Reilly Smith all totalled three points for the Knights.

Marc-Andre Fleury was in net for Vegas on both occasions, while Philipp Grubauer was in net for the Caps in the most recent matchup. Braden Holtby did play in the game back in December.

Head-To-Head Results

Team Stats

*Regular season and playoffs

Capitals vs Golden Knights Game 1/Series Betting

By no reasonable measures does it make sense to bet on an expansion team to win the Stanley Cup. But then again, it wasn’t reasonable to bet them to make the playoffs, win their division, or win their conference – yet all they’ve done is continue to cash tickets for bettors all season long.

The Knights are 12-3 in the playoffs, 6-1 at home and will have a week of rest to prepare for Washington. If you look at the first game played in Vegas in each series this playoffs at T-Mobile Arena:

• Vegas won 1-0 at home to LA in Game 1,
• Vegas won 7-0 at home to San Jose in Game 1,
• And Vegas won 4-2 at home to Winnipeg in Game 3 – and scored in the opening 35 seconds against the Jets.

T-Mobile will be raucous and the Knights will claim a Game 1 victory.

The Capitals are no slouches themselves, though, having by far the best player on the ice in Alexander Ovechkin, and are the more skilled team overall.

In Ovechkin and Evgeny Kuznetsov, the Caps have the top two players in playoff points. And of the top 19 players in the playoffs, five are Capitals while only two are Knights. The Caps have been building for this moment for years and this will finally be their year in a long, hard-fought series.

One more interesting bet for this series is to place a bet on the Conn Smythe winner for Playoff MVP. Marc-Andre Fleury has had an incredible season, and coming into the finals through 15 playoff games, he is 12-3 with a 1.68 GAA, .947 SV% and four shutouts.

If the Golden Knights win the Cup, Fleury would be a top candidate to with the Conn Smythe. However, even in defeat, I believe he could still have an outside shot of taking the honor.

It’s very rare for a player on the losing team to win playoff MVP, with the last such occasion happening in 2003, when Jean-Sebastian Giguere (another goaltender) won it as part of the losing Mighty Ducks.

The odds of +105 present better value than Vegas winning the series -140 and gives you an opportunity of cashing no matter which team wins.

Stanley Cup Finals Opening Odds

Betting Trends

Capitals vs Golden Knights Game 1 Injury Report

Follow along with our Stanley Cup Futures Odds Tracker to see how the series price changes throughout the series.