Golden Knights vs. Oilers prediction: Bet on Leon Draisaitl, Edmonton in Game 3

The Edmonton Oilers are 55-24-11 this season, including 5-3 in the playoffs. The Vegas Golden Knights are 56-24-9 this season, including 5-2 in the playoffs.

Edmonton and Vegas have split their last five head-to-head meetings, including the first two games of their current Western Conference second-round series.

The road team’s record in those five meetings: 4-1.

Makes one wonder why the Oilers are a huge favorite to take a 2-1 series lead Monday, when this best-of-7 battle resumes north of the border. Wonder, that is, until remembering that some dude named Leon Draisaitl wears an Edmonton sweater.

All Draisaitl has done is score 13 goals in the Oilers’ eight playoff games — six more than any other player.

Draisaitl has tallied more goals in the first two games of this series (six) than all but three players have scored in the entire postseason.

So you better believe we’re backing Draisaitl in Game 3 Monday night. And we’re doing so with a two-team same-game parlay wager.

Odds updated as of 3 p.m. ET on May 8.

Few teams in the NHL have been able to contain Draisaitl this season — not to mention fellow center Connor McDavid, who will win the league’s MVP this year after his remarkable 64-goal/89-assist/153-point regular season.

But in particular, Draisaitl has been an absolute nightmare for the Vegas Golden Knights.

The 27-year-old German has lit the lamp in all six games against Vegas this season — a total of 11 goals in all. He’s also assisted on three of his teammates’ goals, giving him 14 points vs. the Golden Knights.

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Going back to the regular-season finale against San Jose on April 8, Draisaitl has put the puck in the net 14 times in his last nine games. The only time he failed to tally at least one goal was a 3-2 overtime loss at the Los Angeles Kings in Game 3 of an opening-round series.

Draisaitl also is riding a five-game goal-scoring streak at home.

All of this explains why Draisaitl is an odds-on favorite to slip another one past Vegas goaltender Laurent Brossoit on Monday night.

It’s a stunning price to see, considering that even the league’s best players are on the ice for a little more than one-third of a 60-minute game. That’s why most goal-scoring player props come with fat plus-money odds.

But as Draisaitl has proven in the last half-decade, he’s as elite a goal-scorer as there is in the NHL. Over the past five seasons, he’s tallied 276 goals in 401 games (playoffs included).

So how can you not bet on Draisaitl to come through again in Game 3 — even while realizing there’s no value on his goal-scoring prop?

Answer: You can’t.

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But because that value is lacking, we’re recommending a same-game parlay that ties Draisaitl to the outcome of Monday’s game — specifically, an Oilers victory.

Oddsmakers have juiced Edmonton’s Game 3 moneyline odds through the roof. Even though the Oilers waxed the Golden Knights 5-1 in Game 2 in Vegas, laying nearly 2-to-1 on an outright Edmonton win in Game 3 is too risky.

But if you throw the two elements — Draisaitl scoring a goal at any point in the game and the Oilers winning by any margin — into a same-game parlay, you’re suddenly looking at a nice plus-money payout.

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There’s still some risk, of course — the biggest being on the Edmonton moneyline side of the equation.

After all, Vegas hasn’t lost consecutive games in these playoffs. And it somehow survived a four-goal Draisaitl onslaught in Game 1, hanging on for a 6-4 victory.

The Oilers also squandered a two-goal Draisaitl showing in Game 1 of their opening-round series against the Kings, falling 4-3 in overtime. What’s more, Edmonton is just 8-5 in the playoffs over the past two years when Draisaitl lights the lamp.

Still, Edmonton not only crushed the Golden Knights on the scoreboard in Game 2, it crushed them physically and mentally.

Also, Vegas has had zero answer for the Oilers’ lethal power play — Edmonton is 5-for-9 with a man advantage. Conversely, the Knights are just 2-for-7 on the power play.

If Vegas can’t stay out of the penalty box in Game 3, this one probably will be as one sided as Saturday’s result. Either way, we see Edmonton taking a 2-1 series lead — with Draisaitl’s magical hockey stick once again being a big factor.

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The Inquirer is not an online gambling operator, or a gambling site. We provide this information about sports betting for entertainment purposes only.