Knights and Flames Should be a Low-Scoring Game

Flames vs. Golden Knights, 9:00 ET

Well, last night didn't go exactly as planned. Oddly enough one of the sentences I wrote was that I wouldn't put the Stars in a parlay or something because they've been playing poorly. I didn't go as far as picking the Blackhawks to win the game, but hopefully I steered some folks away from taking Dallas. Either way, the official play was a loss as the teams combined for seven goals instead of the under six that I was predicting. I have another one for tonight.

Normally the Calgary Flames would be a team that I'd fade in this situation. They are playing their third game in four nights and they are playing in a back-to-back. The one promising thing for them in this is that even with travel, they only had to fly about 45 minutes and are in the same time zone for these two games. They also had a pretty easy game yesterday as they thrashed the Coyotes 6 to 3. The Flames are decent this season, but they've lost three of their past five games. I'm not sure they are just getting the best of certain situations, or if they are actually on the verge of a winning streak. Either way, this isn't the ideal spot for them. Jacob Markstrom might be in the net tonight - before placing your bet, verify who is in the goal - and he has been pretty strong this season with a 2.93 goals against per game average. He did face the Golden Knights once this season and won the game while allowing just two goals.

The Golden Knights had an odd scheduling part when they had to fly to Chicago for one game now back to Las Vegas for two games. They did have some rest yesterday but it seems like the NHL did them no favors with this setup. This isn't the first time that they've had to travel then come home and they've won both of those games. They beat the Ducks 4-0 once, but they had more rest than they do in this game. They had another one against the Penguins coming out with a 5-2 victory. After losing seven of eight games, the Golden Knights reeled off five wins before dropping the game to the Blackhawks. I'm not sure who will be in the net tonight for the Golden Knights, but I think it might be Adin Hill. He's had a good year and is 14-5-1 this season with a 2.55 goals against per game average. Vegas has won all five games that Hill has started.

Here's how I'm looking at this one: Vegas has a really good group of goalies and Hill is my hope for being the goalie, but I don't actually care too much who is in the crease. Calgary might win this game, but I don't think it will be high scoring. Being in the 3rd game of four nights, I think the offense gets tired - maybe the defense will be too and that will get me blown out in this, but I'm going back again to the under in the game. Play the under 6.5.

For more sports betting information and plays, follow David on Twitter: @futureprez2024