NHL new boys the Seattle Kraken start the club’s inaugural season on Tuesday on the road against the Vegas Golden Knights. Can they shock the 2018 Stanley Cup finalists?
Bookmaker Bovada heavily favors the home side here with the odds at -235 for a Vegas victory. A Seattle win is available with the odds at +195 and the goals line is set at 5.5 with the under being the likeliest outcome with the odds at -135.
※ Current Odds Date & Time: October 11th, 9:30 A.M. (EST)
It’s a very tough opening matchup for Seattle, but they had a decent preseason that should up the team’s confidence. Kraken went 4-2-0 in exhibition games scoring 16 times and giving up 14 goals.
The Kraken squad lacks star power, but general manager Ron Francis managed to build a solid roster through the expansion draft and they should be able to contend for a playoff spot. At least their chances of success are rated much higher compared to Vegas’ inaugural season in 2017-18 when many believed that they would end up at the bottom of the league. The Golden Knights, of course, snuck into the Stanley Cup final instead, so they are a great source of inspiration for the Kraken.
Seattle boss Dave Hakstol will hope that goaltenders Philipp Grubauer and Chris Driedger can keep up their last year’s form and that there’s still some life left in veterans such as Mark Giordano and Jordan Eberle.
It will be very intriguing to see if Eberle can get back to his best after struggling for consistency as a New York Islander. He’s among the team’s most talented forwards and a bigger role might do wonders for his confidence.
Starting off with a win would be huge for Seattle, but it will take a big performance as Vegas is among the league’s best home teams. They had a 21-5-2 regular-season record at home last season and also relied heavily on their home form in the playoffs during their run to the Stanley Cup semifinals.
The Knights are set to contend for the Cup again despite parting ways with Marc-Andre Fleury. They still have a very strong option between the pipes in Robin Lehner and head coach Peter DeBoer has a very strong defensive unit at his disposal. Getting goals shouldn’t be a problem either after the team had the third-best scoring record last season and kept its top-six intact. By adding Evgenii Dadonov to the mix, there’s even some extra quality in attack.
