Vegas' four goals featured a semi-intentional back-board pass, a fanned wrist shot, a semi-accidental crease-crash rebound, and the winner from behind the goal line that was pinned under Jake Oettinger's pad as he spun into the net. The Western Conference final opener also went to overtime, but just after you put on a pot of coffee, the Golden Knights scored 95 seconds in. Essentially, a series assumed to be even was just that for seven periods, and since it was priced pretty fairly beforehand, taking whatever plus-price we can get on the Hurricanes should yield some value by the time an elimination game is played. Truthfully, had Carolina got the difference-making goal before Matthew Tkachuk fired one top corner, we probably would be looking at the Panthers at an inflated payout for the rest of the series. The Canes went 0-for-21 on those even-strength chances thanks to an epic performance from Sergei Bobrovsky, so they're theoretically due for some positive regression in that department. We saw almost seven periods of dead-even hockey where, as usual, the Hurricanes had the edge in expected goals at even-strength, but the Panthers had more high-danger chances (26-21). Already on record as thinking that we're headed for a long series, potentially concluding with a the seventh game in Raleigh, nothing from Game 1 gave us reason to change that mindset.
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