Golden Knights vs. Panthers Prediction on June 3, 2023

Match info

On Saturday, June 3 (8 p.m. local time), the Florida Panthers will travel to Las Vegas, Nevada, where they’ll face the Golden Knights in Game 1 of the 2023 Stanley Cup Final, which will be played in a best-of-7 series of the NHL men’s ice hockey. The match will take place at T-Mobile Arena.

Meeting statistics

The Florida Panthers have significantly elevated the idea of being the underdogs on the online no-deposit bonuses sportsbooks. Handed how far the Panthers have come over the previous seven weeks, perhaps every squad member should be given a trophy before the championship game, in which they’ll play the best club in the Western Conference, Las Vegas Golden Knights.

The Panthers finished one point ahead of the Pittsburgh Penguins for the second wild card from the Eastern Conference, barely making it into the playoffs. How far back that seems to be...

The current form of the Panthers

In all honesty, nobody anymore believes the Panthers are underdogs. Not after they defeated the NHL’s top seeds, the Boston Bruins, Carolina Hurricanes (No. 2), and Toronto Maple Leafs (No. 4), to advance to this stage. Not to mention, the Panthers won the Presidents’ Trophy as the NHL team with the best regular-season record just one year ago. They certainly don’t lack talent. Not at all. They do appear to be lacking in nerves, though. For the first time ever, Florida is hoping to win the Stanley Cup. The Colorado Avalanche swept the Panthers in their only other Final encounter, which occurred in 1996.

Following an NHL career-high 109 points (40 goals, 69 assists) in 79 regular-season games, Matthew Tkachuk leads Florida with 21 points (nine goals, 12 assists) in 16 playoff games. Tkachuk, a nominee for the Hart Trophy as the NHL’s Most Valuable Player, scored four goals during the four-game sweep of the Hurricanes in the Eastern Conference Final, two of which came in overtime, including the game-winning goal with 4.9 seconds left in the third period of Game 4. As a potential postseason MVP, he’s a contender for the Conn Smythe Trophy. Panthers have one more Conn Smythe Trophy contender for the MVP of the playoffs – their goalie Sergei Bobrovsky, who’s 11-2 with a 2.21 GAA and .935 save percentage in 14 games (13 starts).

The Panthers have the sixth-best power play in the playoffs, scoring on 12.9% of their chances (12-for-43) over the course of 16 games. Their penalty kill hasn’t been great; they've let up 15 goals on 52 occasions (71.2%), but 11 of those goals came against the Bruins in the first round. Additionally, since 2021, the Panthers have won nine straight overtime playoff games and are 6-0 overall.

The current form of the Golden Knights

For the first time since their debut season in 2017–2018, when they fell to the Washington Capitals in a best-of-seven series 4-1, the Golden Knights are back in the Stanley Cup Final. They will be competing against the Panthers, who are making their first appearance in the Final since the Colorado Avalanche swept them 4-0 in 1996. It will be their first playoff encounter and neither team has ever claimed the Stanley Cup.

Six players from the Golden Knights’ first expansion roster are still with the team: Brayden McNabb and Shea Theodore on defense, and Jonathan Marchessault, William Carrier, William Karlsson and Reilly Smith. All of them have significantly aided this season’s run to the Final. Eight years after being selected by the Buffalo Sabres with the No. 2 pick in the 2015 NHL Draft behind Edmonton Oilers captain Connor McDavid, Jack Eichel is participating in his first Final. In his second season with the Golden Knights, Eichel has settled in and is the team’s leading scorer with 18 points (six goals, 12 assists) in 17 postseason games. He directs the Golden Knights’ evenly distributed offense, which has six players who have scored at least 14 points in the postseason.

With an 18.5-percent efficiency on the power play (10-for-54), the Golden Knights score the majority of their goals when they are even strengths with their rivals. They don’t commit many penalties because they rank 14th out of the 16 playoff teams in penalty kill at 63%.

Match analytics

If the Golden Knights continue to dominate 5-on-5, they will triumph in Game 1 and the series as well; 49 of the 62 goals scored in 17 postseason games—the highest of any team—came on 5-on-5 situations. On the other hand, if Bobrovsky maintains his stellar play and is successful in stealing one or two games, the Panthers will triumph. For Game 1, we predict that the Golden Knights will win & a total of under 5.5 goals at odds of 3.50 on PowerPlay.

Results of the forecast

Successful forecast. Golden Knights vs. Panthers 5:2