Islanders vs. Golden Knights prediction: Odds, picks, and best bet

The Islanders started their seven-game road trip with a pair of wins, but they can ill afford to rest on their laurels.

They now head into a three-in-four stretch against Vegas, Utah and Colorado, before heading to Dallas on Tuesday night.

That’s a brutal stretch of schedule that includes three of the four favorites to win the Western Conference in a span of six days.

The good news for the Isles is that they are playing some decent hockey, and goaltender Ilya Sorokin seems to have turned a corner after a sluggish start to the campaign.

The Islanders should also be confident that they’re catching the Golden Knights at a good time. After a flying start to the campaign, Vegas is just 2-4-2 in its last six contests and has allowed 13 goals in its last three outings.

Islanders vs. Golden Knights odds, prediction

This isn’t a flukey stretch, either. The Golden Knights have struggled to drive play all season, despite having one of the most talented rosters in the NHL.

Jack Eichel of the Vegas Golden Knights. NHLI via Getty Images

The Isles have defensive issues to sort out, but they’ve been able to outscore those problems recently, going 4-1-1 in their last six and scoring 3.17 goals per game in that span. Those aren’t world-beating numbers, but for the Islanders, who have had their fair share of offensive issues in recent seasons, they are a big deal.

Over the course of an 82-game season, the Golden Knights should prove to be a couple of steps above the Islanders, but right now the gap between these two clubs is not that wide, especially with the Isles owning a decent edge in the goaltending department.

The Play: Islanders (+164, FanDuel)

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Michael Leboff is a long-suffering Islanders fan, but a long-profiting sports bettor with 10 years of experience in the gambling industry. He loves using game theory to help punters win bracket pools, find long shots, and learn how to beat the market in mainstream and niche sports.