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Posted at 12:30 PM EST. 

10:35 PM EST. Regulation only. We have Vegas in the Series but it’s not going to stop us from getting behind them more. We’re not sure this market understands or realizes how good the Knights truly are. Last season, Vegas was a novelty and a great story that the hockey world got completely caught up in and this year the novelty has worn off somewhat but this team is so much better than last year’s legit squad. The Knights were an analytic beast the entire season and rank top-3 in so many key categories. In fact, the Golden Knights ranked first in Scoring Chances For % (SCF%) during the regular season.

For awhile now, a controversial discussion has been circulating amongst the hockey analytics community regarding shot quality and how it can be effectively measured. As any hockey fan knows, there are low quality shots, high quality shots, and many different “categories” in between. However, it is hard to measure these over time and effectively measure which teams or players are getting the best shots or the highest amount of shots in “quality” areas but SCF% does that and in that regard, the Knights led the league in Scoring Chances for Percentage. Rarely, all year long did Vegas have less scoring chances in a game than the team they were playing. Mark Stone is a great player that missed most of the year but he’s healthy and he’s a factor. Max Pacioretty is a great two-way player that the Knights did not have last year.

The Sharks are good too, as they have pedigree and they were also ranked high in many key puck possession categories. One also has to consider that between Brent Burns, Erik Karlsson and Marc-Edouard Vlasic, at least one of those three guys will be on the ice 100% of the time. However, Martin Jones is a bloody mess right now and has been the entire season and most of last season too. In this league, at this time of year, goaltending decides games more than anything else and if Vegas plays to what the form says they should, they’ll bury some pucks behind the worst playoff goalie of them all. At the end of this round, folks will be talking about Vegas again but the time to jump on would be now.

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