Written by Graeme & Scott on Friday, May 15th, 2015
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We’ll have the Tampa Bay Lightning vs New York Rangers preview for you a little bit later today.
However at such a key point in the playoffs, we wanted to take a minute and sit and chat with the online sportsbook Sports Interaction.
This is a feature we’ve offered regularly throughout the NHL season; we sit down with an online sportsbook and get their opinion on things. It’s a valuable insight, and while we’re sure we will be talking to Sports Interaction again, we want to thank them for doing this with us this season.
Reminder: You can get $125 free from Sports Interaction, and Canadians can get a $20 free bet on top of that. All the Details.
Let’s talk!
BetNHL.ca: And then there were four. We are now down to the conference finals, with the Rangers vs Lightning and the Ducks vs Blackhawks. How’s things looking on the betting front?
Sports Interaction: A lot of people are expecting both series to go to Game 7. We’re seeing that from the betting end – it’s mostly 50/50 in terms of the action. The Blackhawks opened at -129 that got a lot of action, but we think that will be close to -110 come this weekend. The Rangers opened at a heavy -164 and we’re expecting to see a lot of action on the Tampa Bay Lightning with the heavy underdog price.
BetNHL.ca: The Rangers literally just finished beating the Capitals, and with no rest have to move on and immediately play Tampa. Do you think momentum will be a factor in their favour?
Sports Interaction: We don’t think so. It’s a new opponent, a whole new series, and that can be refershing enough. Plus, Tampa are a whole different team than the Capitals, and will require a different gameplan.
Really it could be a negative for the Rangers – they haven’t had as much time to heal and relax as the Lightning have. This is going to be fantastic though – a really fast series, and full of emotion with all of the former teammates in there. Rangers are -145 in Game 1, but we do expect the Lightning to get more action closer to game time.
BetNHL.ca: With 4 teams left – where’s the action on the Stanley Cup winners?
Sports Interaction: When the Capitals were up 3-1, the odds on the Rangers were +1900. That’s a record high for them in the 2014/2015 season. And now with their comeback – they’re favourites along with the Blackhawks at +220. It’s really close now though as the Lightning are the biggest underdogs at +275. At this point though we don’t see as many future bets. Most bets on the Stanley Cup have been placed either in the regular season, or very early in the playoffs.
