Written by Graeme & Scott on Sunday, May 30th, 2021
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The brave and glorious Toronto Maple Leafs battled valiantly against the 18th ranked team in the NHL, but unfortunately came up short. The two will now face off in a big Game 7 in Toronto.
The Boston Bruins got a big 5-2 win over the New York Islanders as they took Game in their series.
Now we have two Game 1s today. Kicking off at 5pm EST we’ve got the Hurricanes hosting the Tampa Bay Lightning.
Following that, we’ve got the Avalanche vs Golden Knights.
Should be a fun hockey day.
Here are our series predictions for both of those:
Hurricanes vs Lightning Series Betting Tips:
Scott: This is going to be a fun series to watch. They played each other 8 times during the regular season and both teams won 4 games.
The Canes has a tough round one matchup with the Predators that took 6 games and 4 of them needed overtime. The Lightning also has a tough first round matchup against the Panthers which also took 6 games.
The Canes have home ice here so that will give them an advantage but the Lightning have all of their key players back and it looked like they didn’t miss any time.
Vasilevskiy vs Nedeljkovic is a good matchup. Vasilevskiy has the advantage of being in the playoffs before and have a longer career where this is Nedeljkovic first full season in the league.
Offensively the Lightning are the better team. With Point, a healthy Stamkos and Kucherov, this team can be unstoppable at times. The Canes have a good defensive crew but the Lightnings fire power may prove to be too much to handle.
With the Lightning icing virtually the same team that just won the Cup last season, their experience will give them a boost. For that reason I’m going with the Lightning to win this series.
Lightning win in 6
Graeme: Tampa had a very tough opponent in Florida. They were boosted with the return of Stamkos and Kucherov and that really helped them.
The Hurricanes can be a very tough team. I thought that Nedeljkovic would be a massive help for them but honestly against the Preds he didn’t stand out like I would have thought.
Even when at their best in matchups, the Hurricanes weren’t always able to win against Tampa. I don’t think it will be a sweep or anything but over 7 games, I like Tampa to take this one.
Lightning in 6
Combined pick is Tampa to win the series
Canada: 1.75 Odds at BetOnline..
USA: -133 Odds at BetOnline..
Everyone Else: 1.75 Odds at BetOnline..
(Odds correct as of 2021/05/30 10:27:12 AM EST but are subject to change.)
Avalanche vs Golden Knights Series Betting Tips:
Scott: The top two teams in not only the West Divison but the entire league. Both had 82 points but the Avs won the tiebreaker to win the Presidents Trophy.
They played each other 8 times with both winning 4 games.
The Knights and Avs match up really well in almost all areas. The Knights are lead offensively by Stone, Pacioretty and Marchessault. The Avalanche is MacKinnon, Landeskog and Rantanen. The Avs have the advantage there. On defense the Avs also have the advantage with Makar, Girard and Toews vs the Knights Theodore, Martinez and Pietrangelo. The Knights have the clear advantage in goal with Fleury and Lehner vs the Avs Grubauer and Dubnyk.
In my opinion the Avs are a favorite to win it all this year. They are a complete team on both ends of the ice and although the Knights are an amazing team, I think MacKinnon and company will be too much to handle.
Going to be a great series either way but I’m going with the Avalanche
Avalanche in 6
Graeme: I said it prior to the playoffs beginning – if the Avalanche were able to recapture their pre-covid break form, they would be unstoppable.
They were able to do that with 4 dominating performances against the Blues. 5 vs 5, the stats were well in favour of the Avs. Just some dominant performances and victories as they sweeped them 4-0.
The regular season was fairly tight results wise. 5 vs 5 again the Avs were the better team between the two.
Vegas struggled with the Wild. Even when by the advanced metrics they dominated, it didn’t translate as much on the ice.
This is such a tough one. On one hand I can see how the Avs are such big favourites and I rate them as the best team in the NHL – but on the other hand I just don’t want to count out Vegas. Many have made that mistake in the past.
On top of that the value is great for the Knights.
If the odds on Knights +1.5 were better, I’d go with them but they are only 1.70ish. Avs are like coinflip odds on the handicap.
I think when it comes down to it – I think for the Knights to stand a chance they need Fleury to stand on his head. And that’s a lot to ask for against this offense. The Vegas 2nd line is the only other potential deciding factor.
Avs win the series
And based on the odds etc, best combined pick is Avs -1.5 for the series
Canada: 2.00 Odds at Bet365 (Americans: We recommend http://www.bovada.lv.
USA: -110 Odds at BetOnline..
Everyone Else: 2.00 Odds at Bet365 (Americans: We recommend http://www.bovada.lv.
(Odds correct as of 2021/05/30 10:27:12 AM EST but are subject to change.)
I just can’t see how you can’t go with Bolts and Avs to win these series. Anything can happen, but for all the reasons that S & G mentioned these two teams are dominant. That shouldn’t take anything away from the Canes or Knights because they are great teams but over seven games if Bolts and Avs stay healthy they will triumph.
Loved seeing my Bs make a statement win last night. It won’t be an easy series but it’s nice to have a game in hand.
GLTA SDB
I tried my best to take the Knights in that one too. Like I sat there this morning with the perspective of trying to justify the Knights to win the series because I think they are a HELL of a price. Just couldn’t bring myself to do it. Hockey is hockey and anything can happen of course but I couldn’t justify betting against the Avs.
When I consider the Avs and Bolts in the regular season, they both scare me because of inconsistency. But in the playoffs, I’ve seen good teams become great, excellent teams become lifeless, it’s a game of character and full of surprises. I have no idea how to pick the sides of these two series. lol
The thing is with the Avs – for most of the season they were playing awesome they just really struggled to get the puck in the back in the net early on. it seemed. But that period in March and early April prior to the COVID deal – goddamn that was a TEAM. They looked a league above everyone else. We saw that team against the Blues and if they can keep that going they’re unstoppable.
Considering “TIE in regulation”: it’s a high odds betting option, so worth investigating:
…..both series will feature teams with very similar stats in terms of goals for and against. Considering also that we’re in the playoffs when all teams play tighter defensively, and we’re in Round 2 when the teams are the more well balanced, the possibility of TIE in regulation should seem attractive as a likely possibility. The main points going against the TIE idea, are that 1) the “goals for and against” of all four teams is lobsided, in favor of “goals for”, and 2) not surprisingly, all four teams had very few OT results in the regular season, especially the Avs and Knights (a total of only 6 overtime games, and just 11 for the Canes and Lightning).
So far, Round 1 has produced 16 OT games, which is well above the playoff norm since 2018 (I don’t have the records before that for OT games in playoff rounds). Now we get into matchups that are even more closely balanced, in fact extremely tight in stats. Laying out “TIE in regulation” bets is trolling for emeralds, with odds up around X 4.00 or higher, so if only one game in four goes to OT and you bet them all, you still break even. In Round 1, it would have been easier to not bet the TIE option on some matchups with teams very unlikely to gravitate to tie after 60 minutes, and increase profit even more. What does Round 2 hold in store? I’m not sure how I’ll play this, but will be watching the games very carefully. Today’s two matchups would not be regular season “TIE in regulation” candidates, because they’re likely too volatile, it’s too likely a tie situation will not last long during a game, but in the playoffs, play can tighten up and goals are harder to get, and change isn’t so rapidfire. The stats are very similar for these matchups, I’ll risk it today and we’ll see what happens.
So no tips for today’s games? Just series ?
Yes that’s the way we always do it for the playoffs. Do series betting tips prior to Game 1, then do individual game betting tips from Game 2 onwards.
How about that for an ass whooping! Avs battered VGK all over the place! Send out the scrapers to gather the pieces that are left on the ice!
Is this the week rest Avs had, fans at home factor or what happened?