Vegas Faces Uphill Battle in NHL Playoffs Against Minnesota

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00:00and that is I want to start with First Vegas because that's the team honestly for me

00:04that I'm the most surprised about as we have started here over this first week.

00:10They are now down 2-1 to Minnesota after losing last night 5-2.

00:14They've given up 10 goals in their last two games.

00:16I really thought that this was one of these series that there was not going to be

00:20much resistance from the underdog.

00:23The Wild had not looked good for months, but if you look at these last two games,

00:27particularly last night, suddenly Minnesota has that like October, November,

00:33early December Minnesota look to them.

00:35Kaprizov looks like a heart trophy candidate.

00:37Gustafson's playing great, and now they're up 2-1 in this series,

00:41and now Vegas I think is going to have to work.

00:43We sat here talking about how easy path for Vegas, take care of Minnesota,

00:48wait around, see if LA's going to knock off Edmonton.

00:51Now they've got a lot of work to do, and that will include a game four

00:55tomorrow afternoon, Saturday afternoon in St. Paul at the XL,

01:01where Vegas is going to be road favorites in this game, understandably so.

01:04But you look at those series odds, look at the series odds for Vegas and Minnesota now.

01:08Minus 110 both ways, all right?

01:10Pick them series at this point with the Wild up 2-1.

01:13Now I still think Vegas is going to win,

01:16but I need to see a little bit better on the defensive side.

01:19They're giving up way too many goals.

01:21I got to find a way to slow Kaprizov down here in that game four coming up on Saturday.

01:27So that's the biggest thing that stuck out to me from last night.

01:29The other thing, of course, is that Tampa, I'm just going to call it like it is here,

01:34Tampa's finished.

01:36They lose both games at home to Florida.

01:392-0 last night.

01:40They got completely smashed in the first game.

01:422-0 last night.

01:44Down 2-0.

01:45They're going to Sunrise against the defending Stanley Cup champs.

01:48And I'm one of the guys who sat around for weeks.

01:52Not again with Florida this year.

01:54Teams can't do this.

01:55You tell me they're going to go to finals three years in a row.

01:57They're not that great of a team.

01:59They got to be tired.

01:59Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

02:02That is why sometimes you can take all of this stuff and you just throw it away.

02:06It doesn't matter.

02:07Because what happens when the lights turned on on Tuesday?

02:10They beat Tampa's ass.

02:12And now here we go.

02:12They're up 2-0.

02:13A tighter game.

02:14Now do I think Tampa's going to completely go down the tubes here?

02:18And get swept in this series?

02:20No.

02:20I do not think that.

02:22I think that they're going to have some kind of pushback, we would hope.

02:25But game three for that series, which is also on Saturday, an early start too.

02:29You know how I feel about these early 1 o'clock in the afternoon starts.

02:35And you will get it with Florida being a minus-135 favorite.

02:39Tampa's got to show a little bit of push here down in Sunrise now at the Panthers.

02:44Also last night, you had the Leafs take a commanding 3-0 lead against the Senators.

02:48So the Senators, to be fair, have fought very hard in this series.

02:53The problem is that Toronto has hit them with some overtime goals the last couple games.

02:58Early in the overtimes as well.

03:00And now it's a 3-0 series.

03:01Series is finished.

03:02And honestly, I think that the Leafs will finish it off on Saturday.

03:07I think it's going to be a 4-0 go.

03:08So Toronto, Ottawa is a small favorite on Saturday afternoon at the minus-115 right now.

03:14But I think that the Leafs are going to find a way to get themselves some extended rest.

03:20While, and they hope that Tampa will force Florida to a few more games so that that series can get some distance to it.

03:26That's for sure.

03:27And the other game for last night was the Blues completely smashing Winnipeg 7-2.

03:33Now, I thought the Blues played well in Winnipeg, especially in game number one.

03:39They gave up the late goal with Connor.

03:41They end up losing.

03:42Again, they were tied in the third in game two.

03:44Connor scores early in the third.

03:45They end up losing that game 2-1.

03:47But they came out, and they've scored a ton of goals in this series.

03:49And I think that that's the thing that you look at and go, you know, maybe are we getting the same stuff from Hellebuck here in the first round?

03:57He's given up some goals in this series now.

03:5911 goals in the three games.

04:01Bucinevich with the hat trick on Thursday night.

04:04Can St. Louis get this next game?

04:07And they don't play again until Sunday, by the way.

04:09Game four is Sunday for the Jets and the Blues early, like I said.

04:13That's a 1 o'clock east, 12 o'clock noon local in St. Louis.

04:18Game number four is we're going to have that.

04:21And you saw Winnipeg still minus 430 for the series up 2-1 as they will look to try to get a game in St. Louis.

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