Well, well, well. What an amazing first round of NHL Playoffs we were treated to in Round One. Before we get into Round Two, let’s give a little recap of the Round One action.
We start with the two biggest mismatches in the East. The Caps didn’t stand a chance against a Ranger’s squad that went about six deep before you found comparable skill to Washington. Just be happy you got one snowball in at the dance Caps fans. Past that series, you had the Canes giving the Islanders the Ben Dover special, where the addition of Guentzy really seems to have given Carolina a feasible offence. We already knew this team could dominate in the defensive end; now we have to watch out for American Sniper accuracy on the front end.
Then, we move to the quadrant with the next biggest mismatches; Oilers vs Kings and Vancouver vs Preds. Three years in a row, same result each time. At this point, the Oilers are going to be strategizing throughout the regular season purely to play LA in round one. For the Kings … at least you have PLD for 7 more years at 8.5 sheets a year. Ouchhhhhhhh. For the Preds; nice try. You weren’t built for the Playoffs, and you may have given us the most boring first round in recent memory, but thanks. Now the Canucks can get absolutely shredded by Oiltown.
Back to the East, we had a story of two series in FLA/TBL and TOR/BOS. Florida looks absolutely filthy. I know I said that this Tampa team isn’t the Tampa team of 2019, but it’s still a good squad, and they had the help of Sergachev through half the series. Bob is playing out of his goddamn mind, the defence looks solid with Forsling, Montour, and Ekblad as stalwarts, and then, there are the rats up front, led by the Rat King Tkachuk. While Florida was controlling the Bolts like a government weather control system, Boston was biting the skin of their fingers hoping to avoid another 3-1 comeback. The fact that Boston allowed Toronto back in this series with a Matthews-less lineup … not encouraging in the slightest. B’s fans will just have to hope Swayman grows four extra appendages in net; and even that might not be enough.
The last quadrant was the most entertaining; even with the 4-1 series loss by Winnipeg. Colorado just plays such an entertaining brand of hockey, different from DAL/VGK. The offence is so fast and so open, you may as well call it 7-11. Georgiev just has to be an AHL-level goalie to get this team to the Cup. Past that, we had the last game of Round One wrap up last night, with Dallas narrowly edging out the Knights. DING DONG the witch is dead. About time Vegas, no more LTIR black magic you can cook up after getting eliminated. There’s always more injuries you can fake next year.
With all that laid out, we move to Round Two. Four Futures for the second round this year, and a couple are our highest unit plays yet. Let’s get to it.
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Picks:
Florida Panthers to Win Series vs Boston Bruins (-210) 5u
Florida Panthers Series Handicap -1.5 (Florida to win in 6 games or less) (-105) 2.5u
What more do you have to watch before you’re convinced this Florida team is for real? They really do have it all. The disappointment of last season after making it so far in the postseason race …. it’s fueling this team to get back to the mountain top.
And man oh man … this matchup is prime for them to keep the dream going.
Let’s start with the positives for Boston: defence and goaltending. That’s it, and in reality, the defence has been spotty outside of McAvoy, Carlo and Lindholm. But those guys were horses in Round One against the Leafs, and Swayman flipped the switch to get them through game seven. Now …. they get a matchup with a Leafs-level offence, and a much better defence/goaltending combination in Florida. I mean c’mon, Boston scored four goals total in the last three games of the Leafs’ series. Pasta got the game winner in game seven, but where else has he been? Marchand is good for the odd dive after getting bumped in front of the net, but where’s the production lately? The worst offensive group Boston has had in years, and it isn’t particularly close.
Then, we move on to the disgustingly good Panthers. This group is something else. Even without the grit-dawg Bennett to round out the top six in Round One, Florida torched Tampa in almost every game, making a very good goalie (Vasilevskiy) look like Ilya Samsonov (sorry for the stray shot Leafs). But really, Tampa is built very similarly to the Bruins, and they have a better offence. The good d-core (McAvoy, Lindholm, and Carlo vs Hedman, Sergachev, and Cernak), the great goaltending – it all matches up. So now, you have the Panthers, fresh off an absolute waxing of TBay, facing a worse team that’s worn down after seven games against a mediocre Leafs team? Seems automatic to me.
Picks:
Edmonton Oilers to Win Series vs Vancouver Canucks (-270) 5u
Edmonton Oilers Series Handicap -1.5 (Edmonton to win in 6 games or less) (-155) 2.5u
Same story, different series here. Edmonton is the far superior team, and Vancouver has another year before they’re built strong enough for the Playoffs. Let’s take a big picture view of things here.
Edmonton now has three years under their belt where they’ve been in Cup-or-bust-mode. Two strong playoff runs, with a Conference Final appearance, and continuous building of the team year-over-year. Bouchard has developed into one of the better offensive defenseman in the league over this time, they’ve added one of the best defensive defenseman in Ekholm, and they still have Nurse and company rounding out the backend. We all know how stacked this offence is with McJesus, Drai, Nuge, etc, but they added to the top six with Henrique this year, and even the goaltending seems to be in-form with Skinner and his 33-save shutout in game six. It’s all been building to this point, and this team has the playoff experience to beat almost any team in the field.
And Vancouver …. well, I would argue that they aren’t even a top eight team in this field (regardless of the fact that they’re in the final eight teams right now). I think if Vancouver played the Jets, Vegas, or even LA, they would have lost. And that’s just in the West. I have a serious lack of faith in this team, and it’s all supported by the facts.
A good offensive team in the regular season, they couldn’t get anything going against Nashville. Nashville is decent defensively, but the chance generation for VAN was abysmal. Petey doesn’t look like a playoff-calibre player, and that’s tough when he’s their most dangerous offensive presence. Past that, Hughes is having a tough time with the playoff physicality, and that only gets worse as we get further into the dance. Whether it be Demko, Silovs, DeSmith … or some other rando in the cage – it doesn’t look good for this team. I hope they had fun winning two-goal games in the first series, because Edmonton is about to hang a 5 spot on them in game one. I don’t think they’ll react well to that.
Pick:
Colorado Avalanche to Win Series vs Dallas Stars (+105) 2u
A rare case of me not having anything bad to say about the team I’m betting against; the Stars are for real. The grit they had to pull out that series against VGK after going down 2-0 at home is more than impressive. Robertson has been snipin, Benn is bringing us back to 2017 with the way he’s playing, and Wyatt Johnson has been their best player in his early 20’s. That’s before I even mention Heiskanen racking up the minutes with solid defensive play, and Harley making a solid playoff debut. Oettinger got better by the game, and the Stars ended up getting the much deserved series win against the cheats.
All of that being said …. Colorado is different. That beatdown they put on the Jets in the first series …. enough to make Perry from the Peg cry into his cheerios for a month straight. That was a straight beatdown. Prime Mike Tyson against a twitch streamer. And to be honest with you … I didn’t see that coming at all. Winnipeg crushed them all regular season, was the better defensive team, and had a Vezina winner in net to backstop a solid squad. And it didn’t matter one bit. Colorado worked them up and down the ice, attacking with explosiveness and preventing prime scoring chances with team speed. Dallas may have a better offence than Winnipeg (I’d say only slightly), but the defence and goaltending is very similar to the Jets. So if you’re ready for a slightly closer series with the same end result – watch the Avs here.
Well that’s it people. I will be posting another betting article soon with more NHL Playoff game bets. If you want to make sure you don’t miss these articles, follow me on X at @plusmoneypost as I will be sharing them there.
Summary of Picks
Florida Panthers to Win Series vs Boston Bruins (-210) 5u
Florida Panthers Series Handicap -1.5 (Florida to win in 6 games or less) (-105) 2.5u
Edmonton Oilers to Win Series vs Vancouver Canucks (-270) 5u
Edmonton Oilers Series Handicap -1.5 (Edmonton to win in 6 games or less) (-155) 2.5u
Colorado Avalanche to Win Series vs Dallas Stars (+105) 2u