Game 4 of the Stanley Cup Final is set for Saturday night as the Florida Panthers host the Vegas Golden Knights.
And with Game 4 comes plenty of angles to sift through on PrizePicks.
But first, a quick refresher if you aren’t familiar with PrizePicks: you can combine up to five different player squares to pay out up to 10x your entry.
You can do a Flex Play or a Power Play. A Flex Play gives you lesser odds, but you can win money even if you don’t nail every pick. A Power Play is an all-or-nothing endeavor.
Here’s how I would approach Saturday's Game 4 (8 p.m. ET, TNT).
What is PrizePicks? A daily fantasy operator — meaning they’re available in more states (30) than sports betting is! — PrizePicks offers a unique opportunity for action on player picks in which you combine two or more entries together.
Jonathan Marchessault + Aleksander Barkov More Than 0.5 Goals
We just need one of these two to bury the puck for this entry to go green.
First, let’s look at Vegas forward Jonathan Marchessault, who's scored in all three games of this series thus far.
Following a quiet opening series against the Jets, Marchessault has exploded offensively, scoring 13 goals over the past 13 games.
This postseason, he leads the Knights in expected goals per 60 minutes (xGF/60) at five-on-five.
The Ivan Barbashev-Jack Eichel-Marchessault line has been — by far — the most dominating line for Vegas during the playoffs, with all due respect to the fourth line (William Carrier-Nicolas Roy-Keegan Kolesar) that has played extremely well in its own right.
That aforementioned first line has generated a xGoals% of 56.2% this postseason, producing an excellent 3.27 xGF/60.
The biggest concern in backing Marchessault to score is Florida goaltender Sergei Bobrovsky, who's put together a tremendous string of performances in these Stanley Cup Playoffs.
However, he’s finally come back down to earth in this series, allowing 10 goals on 73 shots for a fade-worthy .863 SV% through the first three games.
Meanwhile, Aleksander Barkov is also a tremendous threat to score, despite not having done so in each of the past five games.
Barkov scored 23 times in 68 games this season, and he's too good of a player to continue to be held off the scoresheet in this series.
Sergei Bobrovsky Less Than 27.5 Saves
Another entry to attack in Game 4 is this fade of Bobrovsky. Through the first three games, he's surrendered 10 goals on 73 shots for a .863 SV%.
While Bobrovsky bounced back with a stronger performance in Game 3, there's only so much he can do with a weak blue line in front of him that bleeds high-danger scoring chances.
Additionally, both his surface-level stats and underlying metrics — which had been incredible throughout the playoff push — were unsustainable.
That expected regression hit during the first two games of the Cup Final.
Can he bounce back once again in Game 4? Absolutely, there's no question about that being a possibility.
However, it's also a possibility that we're once again seeing the guy who got benched for Alex Lyon in the regular season, especially after two poor showings to start this series.
Bobrovsky has fallen short of this number in each of the past two games.
Matthew Tkachuk More Than 3 Shots on Goal
Going back to Vegas down 3-1 in this series would be an incredibly tough spot for the Panthers, so they're going to throw everything at the Knights in this game.
How can they put the most pressure on them? By playing through Matthew Tkachuk, who's been their most valuable skater for this entire postseason.
Tkachuk is going to get a ton of ice time in this game, and Florida will lean on its superstar to generate scoring chances.
Three shots is not too much to ask from Tkachuk, especially considering he's recorded at least three shots in three of the past four games.
The only time he didn't reach three shots was in Game 1 of this series, a game in which he had 14 penalty minutes.
This final entry is more "feel" than anything else; Tkachuk is their guy, and with so much on the line in this game, he'll be leaned on heavily.
