NHL Best Bets
The Stanley Cup will be in the building tonight in Edmonton. The Florida Panthers have set themselves up to have three chances to hoist the Cup, but if you ask them, they’ll look at tonight’s game as if it’s one opportunity. Their organization and its fans have been waiting a very long time to be in this position and it will be interesting to see how the Oilers adjust to avoid being swept.
The feeling after Game 3 was that the Oilers didn’t have any answers on breaking through this solid Panthers team.
Will the cup be awarded tonight?
Let’s get into it.
Florida Panthers at Edmonton Oilers (-118, 5.5)
The Panthers have put on a dominant performance here in the Stanley Cup Final and and this point it feels like they will completely shut down the Oilers tonight. The Oilers were able to score three goals in Game 3, but with how strong Sergei Bobrovsky has been throughout the postseason, I just don’t see that happening again tonight.
The Panthers have been the best defensive team in all of the playoffs, only allowing 2.15 goals against per game, but what’s been most impressive about them has been their penalty kill. Thanks to guys like Aleksander Barkov and Gustav Forsling, the Cats have been able to limit the Oilers’ man-advantage completely. Edmonton is 0/10 through three games after scoring on 4/5 attempts in the last two games of the Western Conference Final against the Dallas Stars.
Both teams were able to fill the net in Game 3, but I anticipate Game 4 to be played a little bit tight defensively considering that it is an elimination game. This feels like it will be another Bobrovsky show. He has stopped 82 of the 86 shots that he has faced in the series and you can sense the frustration of Connor McDavid and Leon Draisaitl who haven’t been able to find a way to put the puck behind him.
Stuart Skinner hasn’t been the Oilers’ problem in this series. His numbers aren’t very pretty, but he does not deserve any blame. That said, I’m curious to see if Kris Knoblauch decides to put Calvin Pickard in net just to try and change the mojo a bit. No matter who is in goal for the Oilers, they will have a tough task at hand, but I anticipate the Panthers to be more defensively minded tonight as opposed to taking offensive risks.
Bet: Under 5.5 -120 (play to -135)
June Record: 7-9 (-3.90 units)
2023-24 record: 199–185 (-19.82 units)
